Renaissance Flashcards
What was the Renaissance marked by?
15th century:
A gradual increase in the experimental approach.
- Formation of societies and publications
Works that were accessible from Arabic were to be translated directly from Greek to Latin.
16th century:
Proliferation of natural history museums and botanical gardens (+ Theophrastus’s work)
- Contribution to comparative studies and the development of botany
What were some of the first modern printed translations?
- Works of Aristotle, Theophrastus
- Medical works of Galen and Hippocrates
Leonardo da Vinci
- Painters of the time has begun to study nature more closely; created images on embryology form and comparative anatomy.
- Observations were never published before he died.
Albrecht Durer
Artist and contemporary of da Vinci; laid the foundation of anthropometry
- Investigated the proportions of the human body at different ages and between the two sexes.
Pierre Belon
16th century: comparative studies of skeletons
His work is was important in the development of analogous/homologous species (comparative studies).
- His work was based off Aristotle’s.
- Drew skeleton drawing of a human compared to a human-like bird
Guillaume Rondelet
16th century:
- Produced a monograph on Mediterranean fish based off of Aristotle’s biology
Conrad Gesner
16th century:
“Greatest of encyclopedic naturalists”; produced Historia anamalium which contained descriptions of animals & vegetables.
- Referred to as the ‘starting point of modern science’
Andreas Versalius
16th century:
Studied Galen’s anatomical writings in Paris and produced a treatise, “on the fabric of the human body”, which contained the first accurate work on human anatomy.
- Exceptional figures (e.g. the skeleton posed standing with a cane)
- Had doubts about some of Galen’s work
What are the names of the 3 publications that introduced the beginning of the scientific revolution? Briefly describe them.
- De humani corporis fabrica: Published by Versalius
- Considered important because it was printed and contained detailed accurate illustrations. - Work of Archimedes: Contributions to mechanics + mathematics
- Mechanical principles replaced mystical/unknowable - De revolutionibus oribum coelestium: Hypothesized that the earth + planets travel around the sun and that planets moved in circular orbits
- Book was on the Catholic Church’s index of prohibited books
What is the Galilean Revolution? (And who is Galileo?)
Galileo’s philosophy was mechanical (nature = machine) and he used the nature = clock metaphor. The metaphor stated that things had mechanical and material causes, there was nothing mysterious, magical, or unpredictable. These mechanical views spread.
Galileo introduced the foundations of experimental science; he showed it was impossible for an animal to increase its size while retaining its relative proportion of parts and to maintain its agility at the same time.
Santorio Santorio
Compared weights of the human body at different times and under different conditions. His experiments formed the basis of studies of metabolism and introduced quantitative method.
- Chair of theoretical medicine
- Colleague of Galileo at Padua
William Harvey
Described the circulation of blood based on Galileo’s mathematical approach; he measured the capacity of the heart ventricles and deduced that blood pumped by the heart recirculated.
- Studied at Padua while Galileo was there
- Formed the basis of blood circulation (physiology) studies
Giovanni Alfonso Borelli
Applied mechanics to the working of living organisms and wrote them in his ‘Motions of Animals’. He also studied the mechanics of respiration, muscle contraction, & the heart and circulatory system.
- Friend of Galileo and Malpighi
- Borelli mechanics drawings
What impact did scientific societies have?
Scientific societies encouraged organized observations and experiments. They brought scientists together and were a medium for the preservation and publication of scientific information.
