Science Technology and Society 7

Renaissance

A time of creativity and change in Europe, characterized by a rebirth of cultural and intellectual pursuits after the Middle Ages.

Middle Ages

A period of European history between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance, marked by a lack of progress and cultural stagnation.

Golden Age

A period of great achievements and advancements in art, literature, and science.

Michaelangelo

A renowned artist of the Renaissance known for his sculptures, paintings, poetry, engineering, and architecture.

Printing Press

An important technological innovation of the Renaissance, introduced from China in the 1300s, which allowed for the mass production of books and led to higher literacy rates.

Johannes Gutenberg

The inventor of the printing press in Europe, known for printing the Bible in multiple languages.

Renaissance Technologies

Innovations and improvements in various fields during the Renaissance, including mining and metallurgy, firearms, nautical compass, parachute, mariner's astrolabe, dry dock, floating dock, and airgun.

Mining and Metallurgy

Blast furnace, finery forge, slitting mill, arquebus and musket

Firearms and the nautical compass

These inventions allowed modern people to communicate, exercise power and finally travel at distance unimaginable in earlier times

Parachute

Veranzio’s 1595 parachute design titled “ Flying man

Mariner’s Astrolabe

The earliest recorded uses the astrolabe for navigational purposes

Newspaper

An offspring of the printing press from which the press derives its name. The 16th century sees a rising demand up to date information which cannot be covered effectively by the circulating hand-written newssheets.

Johann Carolous of Strassburg

The first to publish his German-language Relation by using a printing press (1605)

Airgun

Gun equipped with a powerful spiral spring

Alchemy

The study of the transmutation of materials through obscure processes, often considered an early form of chemistry.

Sulphur, Mercury and Salt

3 Main elements in Alchemy

Paracelsus

Alchemist and Physician during the Renaissance period

Nicolaus Copernicus

A Renaissance astronomer who proposed the heliocentric theory, stating that the Earth revolves around the sun.

Medicine

With the renaissance came an increase in experimental investigation principally in the field of dissection and body examination, thus advancing our knowledge of human anatomy.

Andreas Vesalius

A 16th-century anatomist who made significant contributions to the field of neurology and published the influential anatomical book "De fabric." Criticized theworks of Galen

Opium and Quinine

Drugs that were discovered in the Renaissance period.

William Harvey

Provided refined and complete description of the circulatory system. The most useful tomes in medicine, used both by students and expert physicians, were materiae medicae and pharmacopoeiae.

Otto Brunfels

(1530-1536) published portraits of living plants, a botanical work that employed freshly drawn illustrations from living plants, undermining the practice of copying drawings from existing account