Key Individuals and Factors

Thomas Sydenham

• Well respected doctor in London during the 1660s and 1670s

• Given the nickname: English Hippocrates

• Placed great importance on observing a patient

• His book ‘Observationes Medicae’ was used for two centuries

Science and Technology

• Science began to play a significant role in medicine

• Physicians and doctors started to question old ideas and look to science for new explanations

• New technology was developed that assisted the development of medicine

  • Printing press

  • Microscopes

William Harvey

• Studied medicine at Cambridge and then in Padua

• 1615: became a lecturer in anatomy at the College of Physicians

• Later became a doctor to King James I

Andreas Vesalius

• Most famous anatomist of this period

• A lecturer in surgery at the University of Padua

• Deep interest in the human body

Individuals

• Work of individuals became important during the medical Renaissance

• What they discovered about the human body is important, but also the influence they had