Renaissance Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Science=== {{main|History of science in the Renaissance|Renaissance technology}} {{see also|Medical Renaissance}} [[File:Nikolaus Kopernikus.jpg|thumb|Anonymous portrait of [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] ({{circa|1580}})]] [[File:Pacioli.jpg|thumb|''[[Portrait of Luca Pacioli]]'', father of accounting, painted by [[Jacopo de' Barbari]],{{efn|It is thought that [[Leonardo da Vinci]] may have painted the [[rhombicuboctahedron]].<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/3619717 |title=The Portrait of Fra Luca Pacioli |journal=[[The Mathematical Gazette]] |volume=77 |issue=479 |page=143 |year=1993 |last1=MacKinnon |first1=Nick|jstor=3619717 |s2cid=195006163 }}</ref>}} 1495 ([[Museo di Capodimonte]])]] Applied innovation extended to commerce. At the end of the 15th century, [[Luca Pacioli]] published the first work on [[bookkeeping]], making him the founder of [[accounting]].<ref name=jkdiwan>{{cite book |last=Diwan |first=Jaswith|title=Accounting Concepts & Theories|publisher=Morre|location=London|id=id# 94452|pages=1β2}}</ref> The rediscovery of ancient texts and the invention of the [[printing press]] in about 1440 democratized learning and allowed a faster propagation of more widely distributed ideas. In the first period of the [[Italian Renaissance]], humanists favored the study of [[humanities]] over [[natural philosophy]] or [[applied mathematics]], and their reverence for classical sources further enshrined the [[Aristotle|Aristotelian]] and [[Ptolemy|Ptolemaic]] views of the universe. Writing around 1450, [[Nicholas of Cusa|Nicholas Cusanus]] anticipated the [[Copernican heliocentrism|heliocentric]] worldview of [[Nicolaus Copernicus|Copernicus]], but in a philosophical fashion. Science and art were intermingled in the early Renaissance, with polymath artists such as [[Leonardo da Vinci]] making observational drawings of anatomy and nature. Leonardo set up controlled experiments in water flow, medical dissection, and systematic study of movement and aerodynamics, and he devised principles of research method that led [[Fritjof Capra]] to classify him as the "father of modern science".{{efn|Exhaustive 2007 study by Fritjof Capra shows that Leonardo was a much greater scientist than previously thought, and not just an inventor. Leonardo was innovative in science theory and in conducting actual science practice. In Capra's detailed assessment of many surviving manuscripts, Leonardo's science in tune with holistic non-mechanistic and non-reductive approaches to science, which are becoming popular today.<ref>Capra, Fritjof, ''The Science of Leonardo; Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance'', New York, Doubleday, 2007. </ref>}} Other examples of Da Vinci's contribution during this period include machines designed to saw marbles and lift monoliths, and new discoveries in acoustics, botany, geology, anatomy, and mechanics.<ref>"Columbus and Vesalius β The Age of Discoverers". ''JAMA''. 2015;313(3):312. {{doi|10.1001/jama.2014.11534}}</ref> A suitable environment had developed to question classical scientific doctrine. The [[Age of Discovery|discovery]] in 1492 of the [[New World]] by [[Christopher Columbus]] challenged the classical worldview. The works of [[Ptolemy]] (in geography) and [[Galen]] (in medicine) were found to not always match everyday observations. As the Reformation and [[Counter-Reformation]] clashed, the [[Northern Renaissance]] showed a decisive shift in focus from Aristotelean natural philosophy to chemistry and the biological sciences (botany, anatomy, and medicine).<ref>[[Allen Debus]], ''Man and Nature in the Renaissance'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978).</ref> The willingness to question previously held truths and search for new answers resulted in a period of major scientific advancements. Some view this as a "[[scientific revolution]]", heralding the beginning of the modern age,<ref>Butterfield, Herbert, ''The Origins of Modern Science, 1300β1800'', p. viii</ref> others as an acceleration of a continuous process stretching from the ancient world to the present day.<ref>Shapin, Steven. ''The Scientific Revolution'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, p. 1.</ref> Significant scientific advances were made during this time by [[Galileo Galilei]], [[Tycho Brahe]], and [[Johannes Kepler]].<ref>"Scientific Revolution" in ''[[Encarta]]''. 2007. [https://web.archive.org/web/20031205204251/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_701509067/Scientific_Revolution.html]</ref> Copernicus, in ''[[De revolutionibus orbium coelestium]]'' (''On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres''), posited that the Earth moved around the Sun. ''[[De humani corporis fabrica]]'' (''On the Workings of the Human Body'') by [[Andreas Vesalius]], gave a new confidence to the role of [[dissection]], observation, and the [[Mechanical philosophy|mechanistic]] view of anatomy.<ref name="short-science">Brotton, J., "Science and Philosophy", ''The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction'' [[Oxford University Press]], 2006 {{ISBN|0192801635}}.</ref> Another important development was in the ''process'' for discovery, the [[scientific method]],<ref name="short-science" /> focusing on [[Empiricism|empirical evidence]] and the importance of [[mathematics]], while discarding much of Aristotelian science. Early and influential proponents of these ideas included Copernicus, Galileo, and [[Francis Bacon]].<ref> Van Doren, Charles (1991) ''A History of Knowledge'' Ballantine, New York, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Tzmou_a0CCMC&pg=PA211 pp. 211β212], {{ISBN|0345373162}}</ref><ref>Burke, Peter (2000) ''A Social History of Knowledge: From Gutenberg to Diderot'' Polity Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, [https://books.google.com/books?id=fbGuxIsGjwsC&pg=PA40 p. 40], {{ISBN|0745624847}}</ref> The new scientific method led to great contributions in the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, and anatomy.{{efn|[[Joseph Ben-David]] wrote: {{blockquote|Rapid accumulation of knowledge, which has characterized the development of science since the 17th century, had never occurred before that time. The new kind of scientific activity emerged only in a few countries of Western Europe, and it was restricted to that small area for about two hundred years. (Since the 19th century, scientific knowledge has been assimilated by the rest of the world).}}}}<ref>{{Cite book | last = Hunt | first = Shelby D. | title = Controversy in marketing theory: for reason, realism, truth, and objectivity | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=07lchJbdWGgC| publisher = M.E. Sharpe | year = 2003 | page = 18 | isbn = 978-0765609328}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page