These advances do not however justify the Enlightenment view that proper science
began in the seventeenth century. They greatly extended the power of science, but were not
necessary for its existence. This is not to say that the scientific developments of the
seventeenth century do not deserve to be described as a revolution. The error of the
Enlightenment picture lies in its characterisation of this revolution as consisting in the birth
of serious science, rather than as a revolution within science. The advances of the seventeenth
century revolutionised an already existing scientific enterprise, whose birth had
occurred in the Middle Ages. This is properly described as a birth, not simply as a rebirth
of the ancient project of science, because of significant differences between the ancient and
medieval scientific enterprises.