Focusing attention on gravity-fed water-flow systems in medieval cities and monasteries, Water Technology in the Middle Ages: Cities, Monasteries, and Waterworks after the Roman Empire challenges the view that hydraulic engineering died with the Romans and remained moribund until the Renaissance. Roberta Magnusson explores the systems' technologies--how they worked, what uses the water served--and also the social rifts that created struggles over access to this basic necessity.

Mindful of theoretical questions about what hastens technological change and how society and...