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CHAPTER XV - SCIENCE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Marie Boas Hall
Affiliation:
Imperial College, London
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Summary

The earlier half of the sixteenth century saw the publication of important and even revolutionary new works in various fields—notably the De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium of Copernicus and the De Humani Corporis Fabrica of Vesalius, both published coincidentally in 1543—and the introduction of new ideas and methods in other fields besides astronomy and anatomy. The work of Paracelsus and Fernel in medicine, of Belon and Rondelet in zoology, of Carden and Tartaglia in mathematics, of Nuñez, Oronce Finé and Gemma Frisius in navigation and cartography, was all complete by mid-century. The major work of Kepler, Galileo and Harvey was not begun until 1610 or later. The men of the later sixteenth century were consolidators and continuers rather than innovators. With the exception of Tycho Brahe and William Gilbert there are few great names or startling ideas; yet it was in this period that the men who were to make the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century grew to manhood and it was by the scientists and scientific literature of this age that they were trained and prepared for innovation. Fabricius of Aquapendente, a respectably second-class scientist himself, has more often been remembered as the teacher of Harvey than for his own accomplishments. Yet, though the scientists of the later sixteenth century were in general of no very original turn of mind, they had an important role to play: they provided a necessary and salutary link between the respect for authority which prompted the innovations of the earlier sixteenth century and the consciousness of novelty that prompted the innovations of the seventeenth century.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1968

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References

Poynter, F. N. L., ed. Selected Writings of William Clowes (1544–1604), (London, 1948).
Raeder, Hans, Stromgren, Elis and Stromgren, Brent as Description of his Instruments and Scientific Work, (Copenhagen, 1946).

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  • SCIENCE
  • Edited by R. B. Wernham
  • Book: The New Cambridge Modern History
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521045438.020
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  • SCIENCE
  • Edited by R. B. Wernham
  • Book: The New Cambridge Modern History
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521045438.020
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • SCIENCE
  • Edited by R. B. Wernham
  • Book: The New Cambridge Modern History
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521045438.020
Available formats
×