The Dawn of the Modern Age

THE NORTHERN RENAISSANCE & THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

INFORMATION AGE 1.0 – UNDERLYING FACTORS

• A growing merchant class had to exist. Merchants had to be literate and good with numbers. Merchants would invest in their children’s education.

• Gutenberg’s printing press was just as revolutionary to Renaissance Europe as the Internet is to today’s world.

• Books could now be produced much more quickly and cheaply than at any point in our past.

• Books could now be read by more people as they were now translated into local languages instead of just Latin. This democratized the learning process.

What are some other revolutionary inventions you can think of?

Who needs a Mac when you’ve got a Gutenberg!

THE REFORMATION CHALLENGES OLD BELIEFS

• Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German priest who disagreed with some of the teachings of the Catholic Church.

• He disagreed that one could be forgiven of sin by paying money, known as an indulgence, to the Church.

• In 1517, he nailed his 95 Theses (arguments) to the door of his local church.

• He was excommunicated in 1521 for his beliefs. He also helped translate the Bible into German, which helped spread Protestantism across Northern Europe.

Why do you think translating the Bible into local languages was such a revolutionary act?

Bring me more wine! And another wife while your at it!

NEW TECHNOLOGIES = NEW WAYS OF THINKING

• The printing press and the spread of universities meant that new ideas (and some very old ones) began to be discussed amongst the educated.

• Northern Europe picked up where the Italians left off. Humanist philosophies began to transform the arts, literature and social structures of the time period.

• More importantly, some people began to question accepted truths, such as the ‘fact’ that the sun orbits the earth. By carefully observing the world around them some scholars began to unravel the mysteries of the natural world.

But before I drop some science on y’all – Let’s check out some ol’Dutch Masters!

Hieronymus Bosch(1450-1516)

Pieter Brueghel (1525-1569)

Rembrant (1606-1659)

THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION BEGINS

• Until the mid 1500s, European scholars based most of their thinking on classical works of the Ancient Greeks and Romans and the Bible.

• Yet by directly observing and recording what they saw in nature, they began to really advance European thought for the first time in over a thousand years.

• Leonardo’s method of observing the world around him would be refined over time and eventually become known as the scientific method.

What are some of the steps in the scientific method?

The Scientific MethodHow would this form of research have helped thinkers like Leonardo make so many of the discoveries they made?

STARGAZING PAYS OFF

• In 1543, Nicholas Copernicus lay on his deathbed with a newly printed copy of his masterwork On the Relations of the Celestial Spheres .

• Strangely, he had long ago proven to himself, using mathematical formulas, that the earth actually orbited the sun.

• This heliocentric model of the solar system would eventually come to replace Ptolemy’s 2500 year-old model of the earth-centered solar system.

• Copernicus kept this groundbreaking information to himself until he was seventy years old.

Why do you think Copernicus waited so long to share his knowledge?

MOVEMBER WINNERS OF THE LATE RENAISSANCE

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)

THE ITALIANS WEREN’T FINISHED YET

• Galileo followed up on the discoveries of Copernicus, Brahe and Kepler. He proved through direct observation that the earth and planets did in fact circle the sun in elliptical orbits.

• Galileo achieved this by designing a telescope that was thirty times more powerful than most other scientists were using during the time period.

• Unfortunately, the Catholic Church did not agree and the pope ordered that Galileo would have to answer for his crimes in front of the Inquisition.

• In the end Galileo was given a choice to recant or be burned at the stake.

What do you think Galileo did? What would you do in a similar situation?

Remember the Inquisition? Not a whole lot of fun.

Just do the math gentlemen!

• What factors needed to be in place before Europe began to move out of the Dark Ages?

• How did the Reformation help to speed up the Renaissance in Northern Europe?

• Who were Bosch, Brueghel and Rembrant?

• How did their work differ from one another?

• During the Dark Ages where did Europeans get most of their knowledge from?

• What new sources of information became more available in Europe during the Renaissance?

• How was this information communicated?

• Who were Copernicus and Galileo? What did they help to prove?

CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING