The Renaissance and the Middle Ages, allowing the artisans and empires were mostly feudal societies

traders in the cities to gain power. A during this period. Kings and
Scientific Revolution: new type of owner took over. Land, commoners had their place throughout
1453 through 1659 mills, and manufacturing facilities were most of the world, and society was
no longer owned by the church or a stable and resistant to change. The
O​ne way to date the beginning of the vassal, but by entrepreneurs, the early transition from the feudal world to the
Renaissance is from May 29, 1453, the capitalists. When Martin Luther nailed modern one began in western Europe,
day the Turks captured the city of his 95 Theses to the church door in some would say as early as the
Constantinople and many Wittenberg in 1517, starting the beginning of the 15th century, and was
Greek-speaking scholars escaped to the Protestant Reformation, individual spread by exploration, conquest, and
West. The scholars brought with them thought and capitalist enterprise the printing press around the world. The
classical manuscripts in Greek along received even more encouragement. Renaissance, which began in Italy,
with the ability to translate the ancient There was much change going on in reached northern Europe in the 16th
writings into Latin, the common the 15th and early 16th centuries for century. There it joined with the new
language of learning in Europe at the other reasons as well. Movable type values of the Reformation. With the
time. However, the roots of the was reinvented in Europe around 1440 Renaissance came economic
Renaissance go back farther. The end and the Gutenberg 42-line Bible was transformation: Markets were opened on
of the Middle Ages in western Europe printed just a year after the fall of a world scale and trade boomed in the
was marked by a number of crises. The Constantinople. The Moors were driven cities. By 1603 the English philosopher
famine of 1315–17, the Hundred Years from Spain the year that Columbus and scientist Francis Bacon had
War between 1337 and 1453, the reached America, 1492. The European characterized the new century as an
bubonic plague that killed the majority of thrust eventually passed around the tip age distinguished by “the opening of the
people during that same period, and the of Africa. In 1498 Vasco da Gama world by navigation and commerce, and
resulting financial collapse slowed down reached India by sailing around the the further discovery of knowledge.”
development considerably. During those Cape of Good Hope, linking Asia and Bacon was among the first to view
years the population of England Europe by water. By that time, science as a powerful tool to conquer
dropped from 3,700,000 to 2,200,000, Columbus had reached the Americas, nature. In his fable ​New Atlantis ​he
for example. completing the linkage of most of the wrote that science’s aim is “the
globe. The period of exploration by enlarging of the bounds of human
The Renaissance ships from Portugal, Spain, Holland, and empire; to the effecting of all things
After the depletion of the population of England revealed the civilizations of possible.” But if it is barely possible to
Europe in the 14th century from the Africa and the Americas as well, adding date the beginning of the Renaissance,
Black Death, cities and towns to the known civilizations of Europe and it is almost impossible to say when the
rebounded with vigor. A population that Asia. These discoveries, however, Renaissance ended. This is especially
is suddenly much smaller must find new resulted for many reasons in the true for science. Gradually, scientists of
ways to function. Mechanical devices destruction of the newly found states the Renaissance began to perform
and more trade made up to some extent and the downfall of their peoples. The experiments more frequently. The era
for missing people. The new 15th century was primarily a time of the of the Scientific Revolution that starts
atmosphere encouraged the absorption of classical learning and the in the later Renaissance also has no
development of the arts, science, and adoption of Arabic mathematics. It was specific ending. We conclude this
technology. People searched to improve much more a period of change in arts chapter just before the founding of
the utilitarian aspects of technology. and letters than in science. When one England’s Royal Society, which
States recognized the importance of thinks of the Renaissance, one thinks of inaugurates a new and better organized
technology for defense and trade and Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, era in science dominated by Newton
encouraged technological development. not Regiomontanus, Paracelsus, and and Leibniz, an era in which the
Kings engaged engineers to improve Tartaglia. Alchemy and astrology were Scientific Revolution is completed.
their fortifications and weapons. more important than chemistry and
Technology became fully accepted, and astronomy during this time. Physics had The Scientific Revolution
many artists (the best example is to reject Aristotle’s work before it could Publication of Copernicus’s heliocentric
Leonardo da Vinci) became architects develop the modern approach to theory and Vesalius’s anatomy in 1543
and technologists. Mathematics, now physical motion. Africa during the is a good beginning point for the
viewed as the basis of the arts beginning part of this period included a Scientific Revolution. Throughout the
(perspective) and technology, was number of independent kingdoms, West, modern science began to take
introduced into universities. This era in notably Ghana and Mali in the western shape in many ways. Both the Catholic
full flower became the period we call Savanna region and the Yoruba empire Church and the Protestant Church of
the Renaissance. Another factor at this of Oyo, famed for its excellent Martin Luther opposed the views of
time was the start of the Little Ice Age. metalworking. First the Arabs came from Copernicus, but the Catholic Church
Europe and Asia began to cool intensely the east and the north, trading in goods persisted in its opposition and reaped
about 1450 –– although there was a and in slaves and also converting one most of the blame for unscientific
lesser degree of cooling starting ruler after another to Islam. Then the attitudes. When the Inquisition burned
perhaps as early as 1150 and Portuguese and other Europeans came Giordano Bruno in 1600 for his mystical
continuing until the end of the 19th from the west and took over vast heresies, it also appeared to condemn
century. The cooler climate was harmful regions of the continent, sometimes, as his Copernican views. By 1616,
in the far north, but seemed to invigorate in South Africa, as colonizers, but Copernicus’s ​De revolutionibus w​ as on
trade and commerce in lower latitudes. mostly as dominant rulers. Although the Catholic Church’s Index of
Financial stability and an economic Africa had strong metalworking and prohibited books, and Galileo was
revival returned to western Europe mining traditions, the African technology warned not to promote Copernican
around 1470, first south of the Alps and did not influence that of Europe; rather, ideas. Galileo’s ​Dialogues on Two Chief
in Spain, later in the north. The crisis of it was the other way around. In the World Systems ​was viewed
the 14th and 15th centuries had also larger sense of ​feudal ​it could be said as possibly concealing some of Bruno’s
destroyed the feudal system of the that China, Japan, the Arab world, the heresies and as breaking the ban on
African kingdoms, and the American promoting Copernican views. The
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Catholic Church succeeded in forcing dome of St. Peter’s and other buildings, Ramelli produced in 1588 his ​Various
Galileo to abjure his Copernican beliefs as well as being in charge for a time of and Ingenious Machines, ​a machine
in 1633.More than 100 years passed the fortification of Florence (Italy). From book that remained popular for a long
before the church allowed, in 1734, the these people and others like them the time. It contains descriptions of
construction of a mausoleum for term ​Renaissance man ​came to mean automatons, such as hydraulic “singing
Galileo. Much later the church lifted its one skilled in many fields. birds,” but also useful designs for
ban on the publication of works that practical machines. Ramelli was one
defended the Copernican system. Technology of the first to describe a feedback
The explorers of both the New World In technology, hints of a new world system. He designed a feed hopper for
and the East discovered a wealth of rising also were evident in the 15th mills that was propelled by the axis
previously unknown plants and animals. century. A few pre-industrial factories driving the grinding stone; consequently,
Although the short-term effect was a operated. The earliest known assembly the throughput of the hopper was
sudden change in the diets of the lines and industries based on proportional to the speed of the grinding
peoples of Europe and Asia, the interchangeable parts appeared stone. If there was not enough grain
longterm importance was that these (although some smelting and casting between the grinding stones, the mill
discoveries led to the classification operations, even the first manufacture of accelerated, but also the throughput
schemes of John Ray and Carolus uniform bricks, go back to late Neolithic through the feed hopper was increased,
Linnaeus. Throughout the period, times). Patent laws to protect inventions feeding more grain to the grinding
mathematicians introduced various and the stock market, eventually a major stones and slowing them down.
symbols and conventions, including the means for financing technology, began. In the 16th century, similar hints of
plus, minus, and times signs, letters for And, of course, printed books became the future included the first machines
constants and variables, and raised the means to spread technological for turning a fiber into cloth (knitting
numerals for exponents. Together this developments with unprecedented in this case) and the development of
symbolism greatly simplified the swiftness. Less obviously, the better machine tools. It was only during
communication of mathematical ideas. development of perspective was a step the Scientific Revolution of the 16th
As the new expressions gained toward better drawings of machines and and 17th centuries that science started
acceptance, they made mathematics an machine parts. Several of the devices playing a role in technical development.
almost universal language. Not only that would make mechanical calculators By the 17th century, a number of
were mathematical symbols beginning and machines with close tolerances of inventors were experimenting with
to make a difference, but the tools of all kinds possible were invented during steam, and the potential of steam as a
mathematics expanded rapidly during this period. Measurement was greatly source of power was recognized.
the period. The new branches of the improved, not only of lengths with the The 17th-century French philosopher
subject were symbolic algebra, analytic Vernier scale and the micrometer, but Descartes, for example, considered
geometry, probability, and logarithms. also of other qualities such as heat the laws of nature to be the foundation
Mathematics is an intellectual tool of (various thermometers, including the of machines. In a letter to Christiaan
science, but the hardware of science pyrometer), humidity (the hygrometer), Huygens, Descartes wrote that “you
also began to assume modern form and air pressure (the barometer). have to explain the laws of Nature and
during the period. The development of Important auxiliary methods of how She acts under normal
spectacles (eyeglasses) toward the end transmitting motion or force included circumstances before you can teach
of the Middle Ages offered opportunities crank handles, drive belts, and foot how She can be applied to effects to
to experiment with lenses. In turn, treadles, all of which were to be of great which She is not accustomed.”Huygens
this led to the invention of the telescope importance in factories until the advent soon did exactly that: Knowing that the
and the simple microscope around the of small electric motors late in the 19th period of a pendulum primarily depends
beginning of the 17th century. century. Better machine tools also on its length, he used the pendulum,
Galileo’s observations of the stability began to appear during the 16th modified to keep better time, to control
of the beat of a pendulum led to century, especially vastly improved the speed of clocks.
Huygens’s invention of the pendulum lathes. During the Renaissance the
clock. Galileo himself made one of the design of machines developed into an Major advances
first thermometers. Galileo also art. Several treatises appeared during
introduced experimentation that period, the so-called “machine ASTRONOMY​ ​The first great
into science, laying the foundation books” or ​theatrum machinorum. astronomical
of science as we know it today. His Although still deeply rooted in the observatories began before the
detailed study of motion and his method technical tradition of Antiquity and the invention of the telescope, culminating
of expressing natural events Middle Ages, these books explored a in the observatory and work of Tycho
mathematically opened the way to wide variety of technical solutions, some Brahe. Galileo’s introduction of the
Newton’s discovery of universal of them realizable, some just dreams. astronomical telescope in 1609 changed
gravitation. In the continuation of a trend Many of these proposed machines are astronomy forever. Although Tycho
that predates the Renaissance, artists, what we would call gadgets, although Brahe rejected the work of Copernicus
especially painters, made significant sometimes of very large size. in favor of his own idiosyncratic system,
contributions to science. The Automatons were very popular, his assistant and successor Kepler
development of perspective in drawing and da Vinci, for example, designed went beyond Copernicus to work out
and the dissection of human bodies and built a number of them. The the detailed movements of the planets.
were valuable to both art and science. German engineer Konrad Kyeser was Kepler also found empirical laws that
The artist Albrecht Dürer, for example, the author of the first important machine govern these movements, laws that
wrote papers on both geometry and book, ​Belifortis. ​It describes a number of paved the way for Newton in the 17th
anatomy. The most notable example of devices, mostly military, such as century.
the artist scientist during this period was catapults, guns, mobile bridges, and
Leonardo da Vinci, a remarkable assault cars. In Italy, similar books were BIOLOGY​ ​There were also notable gains
inventor and engineer as well as an written by Brunellesco, Tacola, Robert in botany. Scientists such as Otto
artist skilled in human anatomy. Even Valturio, Leon Battista Alberti, and, best Brunfels and Leonhard Fuchs published
the great artist Michelangelo functioned known of all, Leonardo da Vinci. In works, influenced by Latin translations
as an engineer in his design for the France, the military engineer Agostino
2
of Aristotle and Theophrastus in which ​ GRICULTURE ​Farmers
FOOD ​& A first to heat coal and produce coke, a
various plants were described or introduced several new techniques that more satisfactory fuel for many
pictured. In the compendiums of Konrad made agriculture much more effective. purposes. For one thing, coke burns
Gesner, all known (and a few never to The plow replaced the much simpler with a higher temperature than coal.
be known: Gesner still believed in ard and took on the form it has today. However, basic methods for preparing
mythical creatures) animals and plants The most important improvement was steel, cast iron, and wrought iron
were described. By the end of the 16th that the new plows turned the earth remained unchanged until coke was
century, Gerard’s ​Herbal ​stuck to real over instead of merely cutting a groove substituted for charcoal at the beginning
plants, but often ascribed almost in the soil. Turning over soil increases of the 18th century. Until that
magical properties to them. the fertility of the land by plowing in time, metallurgy relied on charcoal,
organic matter. The second contributing to the severe deforestation
CHEMISTRY​ ​Alchemists were probably improvement in farming was the use of in Europe during the years leading to
making some progress in chemistry, horses instead of oxen for working the the Industrial Revolution. Commercial
but their interpretations of what they fields. New breeds of horse, stronger technology related to mining and
were doing and their tendency to keep and more resistant to disease, were smelting became important. This led to
results secret offered little to science. introduced by the Berbers and spread some of the early literature of
One chemical mixture that had through Europe. The padded shoulder technology, such as the works of
originated in China had a great influence collar and horseshoes made the horse Agricola and Biringuccio. With some
on Europe and the rest of the world much more efficient than the oxen. other useful synergies, the Industrial
during this period –– gunpowder. The most important innovation in Revolution was getting started. Galileo,
Proven dates for improvements in medieval agriculture was the among many innovations, performed the
gunpowder are hard to come by. Most introduction of crop rotation based on a first studies that could be classed as
recipes were probably kept secret. three year cycle. Traditionally, a materials science.
two-year rotation cycle had been in use:
COMMUNICATION​ ​The first scientific One MATHEMATICS​ ​As Hindu-Arabic
societies, such as the Academia year the land was cultivated and the numerals continued to replace the
Secretorum Naturae (“Academy of the next year it was left alone. In the three clumsy Roman system, various
Secrets of Nature”) and the Accademia year cycle, the first year the land carried textbooks appeared that taught how to
dei Lincei, were formed in Italy during a winter crop, the second year a spring apply the new symbols. Standard
this period. The former society was crop, and the third year it was left algorithms and bookkeeping methods
founded in 1560 but was soon uncultivated. Among the precursors of were introduced. Tables of trigonometric
suppressed by the Inquisition. The the Industrial Revolution was the roller functions were printed and applied to
Accademia dei Lincei (the exact mill, an improved form of water-powered new surveying techniques. Military uses
meaning of ​Lincei i​ s not known; the mill for producing flour from grain. of mathematics included ballistics and
academy’s symbol is a lynx), founded in the improvement of fortifications. There
1603, is the oldest existing scientific MATERIALS​ ​Although iron in various was also gradual development of the
society. forms was important, wood was still symbolism of mathematics. All of these
the basic material of the age. Besides its developments made mathematics easier
COMPUTERS ​The first mechanical use in the production of iron and in and more a part of daily life. On a more
calculators were based on Napier’s heating, wood was also the main theoretical level, mathematicians were
bones, a form of mechanical logarithm construction material for building beginning to expand their understanding
table, but Pascal developed mechanical houses, means of transport, ships, and of what constitutes a number. Irrational
calculators based on gear ratios. even machines. Water wheels, numbers gained steady, if slow,
Pascal’s calculators are similar in windmills, gears, and camshafts were acceptance as numbers, not merely
operation to those to come in the 19th usually made from wood as well, magnitudes. Following the irrationals
and early 20th centuries. These early although iron was used for were the negatives. Even writers who
calculators did not have the benefit of reinforcement and for the reduction of refused to accept negative solutions to
parts made to high tolerances by friction in bearings. Tools such as equations discovered that algebra could
modern machine tools, a problem that shovels and plows continued to use iron be greatly simplified by accepting
would also plague the first mechanical edges on wooden bodies. Barrels made negative coefficients. Soon the best
computers in the 19th century. of wood were used for storage instead mathematicians were using negative
Automatons, which, of course, did of the earthenware storage jars used in numbers regularly, but still expressing
not compute, continued to develop Greece and Rome in Antiquity, probably skepticism about them. Imaginary
more and more elaborate programs. A because the Mediterranean world did numbers began to have some currency
series of steps can be traced from the not enjoy the forests of the north. later in the period. A major achievement
automaton through the music box to Paper making, which had originated of mathematics during this period was
the Jacquard loom and player piano to in China, spread throughout Europe the algebraic solution of the general
the punched cards that were to program during the first part of this period. cubic and quartic equations –– that is,
the first actual computers in the Early paper was made from used fibers polynomial equations whose highest
20th century. such as linen rags, not from wood, the power of the unknown variable is three
source of most of today’s paper. The or four. The publication of a new edition
EARTH SCIENCE ​The main new manufacture of paper preceded the of the works of Diophantus led Fermat
understanding of Earth came from two development of printing and made the and his circle to advance pure number
sources: the exploration of nearly all of invention of printing useful. In Europe, theory.Much of their work was not
the world’s landmasses and the people in what is now the Netherlands published at the time. Similarly,
introduction and understanding of were the first to think of looking for coal probability theory was invented in an
Earth’s magnetic field that began with underground. News of their success exchange of letters between Fermat and
the widespread introduction of the soon reached England, where coal Pascal. Analytic geometry was
magnetic compass for navigation. mining became a major industry in the developed by Fermat, who did not
17th century. Early in that century, also, publish his discovery, and by Descartes,
the Englishman Hugh Platt became the who published his finding in an appendix

3
to a work of philosophy, the ​Discourse some evidence that movable type also Columbus discovered America,
on Method. was invented in Holland around the appeared at the end of the 15th century,
same time, which would suggest that and the larger galleon during the 16th
​ EALTH ​Most of the
MEDICINE ​& H the idea was generally known. Printing century. The improvement of ships
progress in life science during this and paper, however, almost assuredly made possible the great explorations of
period was in medicine, especially did reach the West from China, although the 16th and 17th centuries.
anatomy. The invention of printing led to indirectly. Thus, Gutenberg’s reinvention
books on surgery and medicine. of movable type was built on a Chinese
Although these books often contained foundation. The most dramatic
many errors, knowledge of these technological ideas of the early
subjects was much more widely Renaissance come from Leonardo’s
available. Anatomy was based primarily notebooks. Penned in mirror-writing and
on the works of Galen, especially at the illustrated with numerous sketches and
beginning of the period, but the practice drawings, the notebooks provide an
of dissecting corpses in front of medical unparalleled record of the thoughts of a
students in Italy led careful observers to man far ahead of his time. Leonardo is
disagree with Galen by the end of the given some credit for the invention of
period. Another factor in gaining a better the helicopter, the parachute, and other
understanding of anatomy was the devices. In many cases it is not clear
study of musculature by painters and whether Leonardo made working
sculptors, notably Leonardo da Vinci. models of his devices. Remarkable as
With the discovery of circulation of the his technical ideas were, they were
blood by Harvey, a general picture of mostly secret and had little actual
the body as a system of tubes, ducts, influence on the progress of science.
and valves grew during the course of Advances in measuring devices and
the period. The mechanical view of the observational tools were another
body became so prevalent that it important technological feat of the
acquired a name –– iatromathematics, period.Vacuum pumps, developed by
​ eans
called iatrophysics today (​iatro- m Guericke and Boyle, also became tools
pertaining to medicine or healing). of the new science. Clocks based on
Also in the field of medicine, Paracelsus, suspended weights and toothed
heavily influenced by alchemy, became escapements had been introduced in
a strong advocate of the use of chemical Europe about a century before, primarily
medicines. Another significant advance as tower clocks that rang the hours.
of the time is more problematical. Opium During the Renaissance there was
became the first painkiller since alcohol constant improvement of their
to enter general use. Like alcohol, and mechanisms. By the end of this period,
like most painkillers of any power since, there were small table clocks and even
opium was to prove a mixed blessing. a sort of watch.

PHYSICS ​As with mathematics, much TRANSPORTATION​ ​Other technological

of the development of physical science innovations of the period furthered
during the Renaissance had a strong understanding of space and time. Maps,
practical side to it. Thus, we find needed by sailors following the routes of
advances and summaries of knowledge the great explorers, were improved.
in such fields as mining, assaying, Globes were introduced even before the
distillation, and ballistics. In the early Americas were known in Europe.
part of the period, discoveries outside of Astronomical navigation was improved
practical fields were isolated instances. around 1480 with increased use of the
A notable development took place astrolabe by sailors to measure the
when Galileo performed a series of positions of stars. More reliable maps
experiments with moving bodies, included the Mercator projection,
making physics into an experimental introducing a projection from a spherical
science and founding the field of surface onto a flat surface in such a way
dynamics. that angles and shapes remain
preserved. Throughout the
TOOLS ​The greatest technological Renaissance, the difficulty of keeping
innovation of the period was printing accurate time severely limited the
from movable type; however, this may accuracy of navigation. This problem
be characterized as a reinvention. was not solved until the introduction
Movable type had been invented in the during the 18th century of clocks that
eleventh century by the Chinese, who could run on time on moving ships.
had earlier invented printing. Chinese Near the beginning of the 15th century,
movable type was not a major influence, lateen (triangular) sails were
however, because ideographic writing is reintroduced, allowing ships to travel
not as conducive to movable type as the against the direction of the wind more
Roman alphabet. Gutenberg probably easily. The basic way that boards were
did not get his idea from Chinese put together to make vessels was
sources, even secondhand. His changed. Ships became progressively
invention stems from about 1440, larger, and were equipped with
although the date is not certain. There is superstructures and three masts. The
caravel, the type of ship with which
4
 STS 121
SABAR G. HASAN, MAED
Davao del Norte State College