>Re-read Canto II of the Paradiso. Empiricaldata, even a form of experimental
>collection of data, were part of medieval thought.
No doubt. But it was used very differently than in our iron age of measurement. A telling example is medieval land and grain records that used capacity and length measures that were far from precise and uniform and were not intended to be.
When Dante spoke of measurement it was in terms of looking for God and he, Bacon, Newton et. al. were especially interested in finding the spirit in light (the first thing created after heaven and earth).
Like here from the Canto you mention:
"And so the sun’s rays would be reflected back,
Just as the color glances off the mirror 90 That has lead backing to seal it from behind.
"Now you will say that the ray shows up dimmer
On one place than on other areas
Since it’s reflected there from farther back.
"From this objection should you care to try 95 You can be set free by experiment
Which is the source for the rivers of your arts.
"Take up three mirrors, and set two of them
Equally far from you, and farther still
Let the third meet your eyes between the two.
100 "Facing toward them, have a light placed at
Your back, so that it shines in the three mirrors
And comes to you reflected in them all.
"Although the farther image may not look
As large to you, you will observe that there 105 It shines with equal brightness as the others.
"Now, as beneath the strokes of warming sunbeams
The undersurface of the snow lies bare
Both of its former color and its coldness,
"So, with your intellect swept bare, 110 I will inform you with light so alive
That it will shimmer as you look on it.