Done by: Leen Saadeh
In the mid-1400s, the middle age has endured since the fall of the Roman empire. A new age was beginning. The new age and changes that started in Italy and then spread throughout Europe were called the Renaissance. The word renaissance is French for rebirth. During that age, the countries of Europe experienced a time of financial growth. It was an age with artistic, social, scientific, and political changes that turned into new directions.
Furthermore, the classical works of Greek and Rome encouraged a new way of looking to life. An act of humanism was that thinkers analyzed how they should educate people in their duties towards their society.
To begin with, a lot of developments were made through the renaissance. Some of the most important improvements are the human body, exploring the universe, and the printing press.
The most important of all developments was the printing press; the method of movable type was adopted in Europe in the 1450s. it started with the German Johannes Gutenberg, when he began printing entire books with the movable type method. By about 1500s, there were more than 1000 printing workshops in Europe, mostly in Germany and Italy.
Furthermore, there were two types of printers; first, the German printers which used thick, gothic type. The second type is Italian printers, which had smaller types such as italic and roman. With the Italian printers, more words can fit on one page. Therefore, less pages were needed and books became smaller and cheaper.
Most of the first printed books were religious books or classical works. But, the edition of Geoffrey chausers raucous “the Canterbury tales” which was published in England. It encouraged the growth of literacy.
In addition, a skilled craftsman was Gutenberg. He produced the first complete book. This was the Gutenberg bible. His bible contained 1200 pages in two columns. Furthermore the human body, In the 16th century, artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo led an anatomic revolution. This revolution changed a lot of things. Doctors and artists began dissecting human bodies. An anatomical model was designed for medical students; this model shows the inner organs of the human body. Furthermore, the perfect body statue was used for the knowledge of bone structure, muscles, sinews, and veins.
Not a lot of anatomists dissected human bodies because dissection was restricted because the church though it was disrespectful for god. But when the restrictions were lifted, anatomy was a very important part of a doctor’s training.
An Italian anatomist called Hieronymus Fabricius designed a robot like model which was used for bone setting teaching and he made important discoveries about blood vessels. In addition, da Vinci dissected 30 bodies of men and women in order of forming a picture that shows completely how the human body fits together.
In second place comes exploring the heavens. In the second century, the shape of the universe was discovered by an astronomer called Ptolemy. His theory was that the earth is a body at the center of the universe and the planets and the sun revolved around it.
During the renaissance, a polish astronomer called Nicolaus Copernicus added a new theory that is the sun is at the center of the universe, around which other planets and earth revolve. His theory led to an astronomic revolution.
A hollow model of the solar system with earth at