Wonder & the Spirit of Investigation
Part II: Interpreting New Discoveries || Booklist || Hub 

Outline: Renaissance Factors in the Emergence of Science

  • Humanism (intellectual) -- map
  • Capitalism/Mercantilism (economic) -- map
  • The Reformation (religious) -- map
  • Printing & Books (technological) -- map
  • New Discoveries, 1590
  • Interpreting New Discoveries (Part II)

    VISUALS
      Humanism
    1. Raphael's "School of Athens", 1510 [Vatican]
    2. Michelangelo's David [The Academy, Florence]
    3. Masaccio's Baptism of the Neophytes [Brancacci Chapel, Florence]
    4. Anniable Carracci, "The Butcher's Shop", late 1500s [Web Gallery of Art]
    5. David Teniers, "The Alchemist", c1645 [Adam McLean, The Alchemy Web Site]
    6. map of humanistic spirit shaping Renaissance science

      Mercantilism/Emergent Capitalism

    7. village life: Bruegel Spur to Technology:
    8. metals/mining -- Agicola, De Re Metallica, 1556
    9. distillation: "Distillatio," Jan van der Straet, 1570
    10. surgery: Amboise Pare, 15--
    11. architecture/fortification: Florence cathedral dome, F. Brunellschi
    12. gunnery, William Bourne, The Arte of Shooting in Great Ordnaunce, 1587

      Spur to Trade:

    13. caravel ship, of the type used by Columbus [Cline, History Dept., Univ. of California, Sanata Barbara]
    14. compass
    15. cartography: Mercator & Hondius
    16. Vermeer, The Geographer, 1669
    17. metaphor of discovery: title page to Bacon's Great Instauration (Novum Organum), 1620

      Voyaging & Natural History:

    18. Johann Kentmann's "ark," or curiosity cabinet, 1565 [Rudwick, Meaning of Fossils]
    19. hawk from Pierre Belon's, Natural History of Birds, 1555 [Bibliotecha Universitaria, Bologna]
    20. sea urchins from Ulisse Aldrovandi's Musaeum Metallicum, 1648 [Rudwick, Meaning of Fossils]
    21. rhinoceros -- original drawing by Albrecht Durer (1515), and copies by Burgkmair (1515), Gesner (1551), Pare (1573), Jonston (1650) and Kircher (1675)
    22. map of emergent capitalism in Renaissance science

      The Reformation

    23. Martin Luther -- and the castle church where he did not post his 95 theses in 1517 [Luther Museum]
    24. Albrecht Durer's parody of papal behavior: (a) Jesus washes the feet of his disciples; (b) The Pope makes others kiss his feet.
    25. continuing parody: (a) A crown of thorns is prepared for Christ; (b) The Pope wears three crowns of gold.
    26. map of Reformation and Renaissance science

      Printing & Books

    27. Archimedes palimpsest, example of book of vellum
    28. Medieval medical text
    29. printing press
    30. block print -- from China ["Glory of Chinese Printing," URL: www.cgan.com.hk]
    31. moveable type -- from China ["Glory of Chinese Printing"]
    32. Cai Lun's "rag" paper -- from China ["Glory of Chinese Printing"]
    33. European printshop
    34. Pliny, Natural History, 1493 edition
    35. Euclid's Elements, Renaissance printing
    36. Ptolemy's Geography, 1475 (1482 version)

    37. map of printing, books and "modern" science
    38. Copernicus, De Revolutionibus, 1543 [Vilnius University Library]
    39. Vesalius, De Frabica, 1543
    40. Biringuccio, Pirotechnia, 1540
    41. Conrad Gesner, Historiae Animalium, 1551-58 [Gonville and Caius College Library]
    42. illustrator, engraver and printer of Fuchs,
    43. whale -- Gesner, 1550s [Bibliotecha Panizzi, Reggio Emilia, Italy]
    44. whale, Historiae naturalis de piscibus et cetis, Jonston, 1654 [Bibliotecha Panizzi, Reggio Emilia, Italy]
    45. hawk, Aldrovandi, Ornithologiae, 1599
    46. butterflies, Maria Merian, 1717

    47. New Discoveries, 1590

    Part II: Organizing New Discoveries || Booklist || HSCI 1814 Hub