History of Science and Technology from the Middle Ages to the Scientific Revolution

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers key figures, inventions, and concepts from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Scientific Revolution based on the lecture transcript.

Medieval Period

A stretch of time from $500$ to $1500$ AD, covering the span between the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the Ottoman Empire.

Gothic style

An architectural style characterized by vertical proportions, pointed arches, external buttressing, and asymmetry.

Vertical windmills

Inventions used for raising water for irrigation or sawing wood, with the most important function being to grind grain for food.

Monastic bells

Religious rites used to call communities together for services, which were regulated by the first mechanical clocks.

Three-field crop rotation

An agricultural system where land is divided for wheat, barley, and a fallow period where animals graze.

Counterweight trebuchet

A military technology designed to throw heavy stones against palace walls to destroy them and kill enemies.

Horse collar

An innovation that allowed horses more pulling power when used with heavy ploughs.

Horseshoes

Allowed horses to adapt to rocky terrain and mountains while carrying heavier loads.

Artesian well

A borehole created with a thin rod and iron cutting edge where natural pressure forces water up without pumping, named after Artois, France.

Wheelbarrow

A tool used in construction, mining, and farming to carry materials, appearing in North-Western Europe between $1170$ and $1520$.

Blast furnace

A technology for producing cast iron that first appeared in Middle Europe around $1150$..

Hourglass

A medieval clock innovation first documented in Siena, Italy, used in factories and by metal tradesmen to measure heat application time.

Mechanical clock

A weight-driven European innovation used primarily in clock towers to signal the correct time to ring bells.

Spectacles

An invention composed of convex lenses designed to help far-sighted people read.

Chess

A game that originated in India in the $6^{th}$ century AD before spreading through Persia and the Muslim world to Europe.

Mirrors

Items first made in $1180$ by Alexander Neckham that served as an indication of status and artistic works.

Oil paint

A stable mixture invented by Jan van Eyck around $1410$ used to add detail to tempera paintings.

Tide mill

A water mill driven by tidal rise and fall, with the earliest excavated example at Nendrum Monastery dating to $787$ AD.

Black Death

A plague arriving in Europe in October $1347$ that caused $50$ million deaths and was characterized by fever and buboes.

Quarantine

A $40$-day isolation technique introduced by the Republic of Ragusa to prevent the spread of diseases like the plague.

Renaissance

A term meaning rebirth, representing a revival in learning, arts, and cultural pursuits after the Middle Ages.

Michelangelo

A versatile Renaissance artist known for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the sculpture of David.

Printing press

The most important technological innovation of the Renaissance, introduced from China in the $1300s$ and adapted for movable type in Europe.

Johann Gutenberg

The person credited with using movable type in Europe in the $1400s$ to begin printing the Bible in every language.

Parachute

A design titled “The Flying Man” created by Veranzio in $1595$.

Mariner’s astrolabe

A tool used during the Renaissance for navigational purposes during global exploration.

Newspaper

An offspring of the printing press first published by Johann Carolus of Strasburg in the German language.

Johann Carolus

The first person to publish a newspaper using a printing press, titled the German language Relation.

Alchemy

The study of the transmutation of materials, often aiming to create gold from other substances.

Paracelsus

A Renaissance alchemist and physician whose followers added salt to the traditional elements of sulphur and mercury.

Nicolaus Copernicus

The astronomer who founded the heliocentric theory and lived from $1473$ to $1543$.

Heliocentric

The theory that the Earth revolves around the sun, as detailed in the book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.

Andreas Vesalius

A $16^{th}$ century figure who described the anatomy of the brain and other organs in his book De fabrica.

De fabrica

The anatomical book published in $1543$ by Andreas Vesalius, also known as 'On the Fabric of the Human Body'.

Quinine

A Renaissance drug used alone or with other medications to treat malaria.

Opium

A substance known for millennia to relieve pain and used in the Renaissance for surgical analgesia.

William Harvey

A scientist who provided a refined and complete description of the circulatory system.

Vitruvian Man

A work by Leonardo da Vinci illustrating the blend of art and anatomical study during the Renaissance.

Scientific Revolution

The emergence of modern science characterized by transformations in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, and chemistry.

William Gilbert

The author of 'On the Magnet' ($1600$) who laid the foundation for the theory of magnetism and electricity.

Tycho Brahe

A Danish nobleman known for accurate astronomical observations and the discovery of a new star in $1572$.

Tycho’s Star

A celestial object discovered in November $1572$, also referred to as 'The Star of $1572$'.

Tychonic Theory

A geo-heliocentric system in which the sun and moon orbit the Earth while other planets orbit the sun.

Sir Francis Bacon

The author of Novum Organum who established a new system of logic based on reduction and the scientific method.

Galileo Galilei

An Italian astronomer who invented the telescope (spyglass) and discovered mountains on the Moon and four moons of Jupiter.

Rene Descartes

A philosopher who published 'Discourse on the Method' in $1637$, helping to establish the scientific method.

Antoine Van Leeuwenhoek

Constructed powerful single-lens microscopes and published observations around $1660$ that opened the world of biology.

Isaac Newton

The scientist who formulated the law of universal gravitation and the three axiomatic laws of motion.

Newton’s Second Law of Motion

The law stating that the acceleration of an object depends on its mass and the amount of force applied.

Empiricism

A theory founded by John Locke proposing that all true knowledge is based on experience and sensory impressions.