[Sca-cooks] Period statistics?

[Stefan li Rous]

'Lainie replied to me with:
> >Padraig o Connell commented:
> >I do get people who wonder what my "agenda" on this project is, it's
> because I
> >was curious.   (and it has led into an A&S project, both for the data, and
> >as a study of statistics as a period science.)
> >-----------
> >
> >Really? I always thought statistics were post period. It would seem
> >like statistics would run counter to the ideas that God would sort
> >things out correctly as in the duel or judicial tournament.
>
> STEFAN!!!!
>
> There's this nifty piece of documentary evidence that is little more than a
> massive statistics project for the purposes of maximizing tax revenues. We
> laymen call it The Domesday Book.

No, that is data. That is not statistics. Is there any evidence that they
tried to analyze the data as a whole or as part of the whole? Or did they
simply use it as a catalog to determine how much money they could get from
a particular area.

> The clerks working for any king, or heck-
> teh clerks working for the Hansa knew everything there was to know about
> pre-calc statistics.

Again, any indication that they used the information that way?

> Or how bout Albertus Magnus and his detailed records
> of natural sciences? His understanding of those statistics helped influence
> the fields of botany and geology.

I don't believe I've heard of him. More details, please?

> And how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? ;-)

That is a theological question and has no basis in reality. :-)

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****