• Very different- influenced by Protestantism
(specifically Calvinism)
Quiet works expressed personal issues- like faith.
No royal court, chief patrons were merchants
(lots of portraits)
• Rembrandt Van Rijn: quintessential Dutch painter- used light/dark, detail and humanity in his portraits (including his own)
• Intention was to be dignified- not overwhelm.
• This was the golden age of
Holland- and the art reflects their love of commerce and toleration for secular issues.
• Jan Vermeer: Domestic interior scenes

• Very much of its time- reflects the problems/issues of Europe between 1550-1648.
Valued knowledge and education over brute strength of the warrior.
• There had been a big jump in literacy- more people had access to more information than ever before.

• French noble- but he disapproved of noble mindset of war/sport over intellect..
• Humanist- wanted to know himself, believed he had to do that to live well.
• Developed Essay as a writing style-expressing his thoughts/ideas. A Skeptic: expressed doubts that total knowledge can ever be obtained.
• A break with the writers of the past- anticipated the thoughts of the enlightenment

• Spanish- very upset by what was going on in Spain
( Inquisition, forced expulsions/conversions )
• Don Quixote- a satire that ridiculed the noble mindset and showed gap between ideals and reality. Don
Quixote himself sees only the ideal- doesn’t recognize the real world, Sancho sees only reality- doesn’t recognize ideal. Careful to avoid politics- but commented on cruelty and hypocrisy of humanity

• Elizabethan age was a golden age of British literature- esp. for drama
(1 st time since classical age where it has been a major art form)
• Shakespeare’s plays reflected the concerns of his age- the nature of power, the crisis of authority, and the rise of nationalism
• 3 major “types” of plays
– Dramas like: Romeo and
Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth or King Lear
– Comedies like: The
Tempest, A Midsummer
Knight’s Dream, Much
Ado about Nothing, or
The Taming of the Shrew
– Histories like: Julius
Caesar, Anthony and
Cleopatra, Richard III, or
Henry V

• Growing humanistic/secular interest in world made people want to understand the world.
• Took knowledge and theories from classical age to new levels with direct observations. Believed in power of human reason, reinforced changes in world view from Renaissance and
Reformation

• Science had been governed by religionscience=theology.
• Aristotle (really smartbut often wrong) was the main expert- not allowed to dispute ideas which had been accepted by the church – like the earth is the center of the universe

• Medieval universities included “Natural philosophy” (science, math, astrology, physics) as a branch of study. So many rediscovered classical ideas were around- anxious to add on
• Navigational issues led to new needs and discoveries (esp. in astrology)
• Creating a new world view which will profoundly impact the world view of the
17 th /18 th century.

• 1 st “modern” science- 1 st to question and prove beliefs considered “infallible” wrong.
• Develop idea of working from empirical evidence- borrowed start from Muslims (Nasiral-Din)

• 1473-1543
• Polish monk commissioned by pope to revise the Julian
Calendar (based on work of Ptolemy) which said earth was the center of the universe. But Copernicus’s calculations showed the earth was moving.
• Wrote “ On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres ” which described his findings, but didn’t publish until dying, and didn’t LIKE that his work questioned doctrine. Freaked people out- even Luther and Calvin condemned

• 1546-1601 Built a massive observatory and collected tons of data on universe.
Cornerstone of knowledge for yearsdata backed Copernicus.
Irony was that he began collecting data because he didn’t like idea of heliocentric theory
• Used the Copernican model to develop comprehensive more comprehensive theories about the solar system and universe overall

• Geocentric: theory of
Aristotle and Ptolemy
(330 bc, 200 ad) – the earth is the center of the universe. Accepted by church- therefore infallible fact. (which was logical to a pointyou can watch the sun move…and if God made the world, and gave it his son…..)
• Heliocentric: theory of
Copernicus. The Sun and stars don’t moveplanets move. Therefore the sun is the center of the universe. (don’t quite get whole universe thing yet) Freaky for people to think of themselves as one piece of an infinite- aren’t we special?

• Discovered that planets move in ellipses.
Published as a young man, got in plenty of hot water
• First protestant scientist. Proved
Copernicus mathematically, developed 3 laws of planetary motion.
(ellipses not constant speed, closer to sun the faster you go)

• 1564-1642
• Invented telescope for astronomy in 1609.
Confirmed Copernicusand wrote for general audience- not just scientists- made idea widespread (wrote in
Italian)
• Forced to recant- his book
“the Starry Messenger” put on Index of Forbidden books
• Used newly developed scientific method to verify his work.
• Also studied gravity and laws of inertia (object in motion….)

• Have defined elements or atoms yet- so that limits them, but still there are significant discoveries made.
• Gunpowder an important practical improvement (how to store more safely etc…)

• Book “Structure of the
Human Body” (1543) renewed and modernized the study of anatomy. Found errors in
Galen’s (ancient Greek) knowledge and corrected. Didn’t throw out old info- just improved

• 1632-1723
• Father of microscopydeveloped 1 st microscopes. 1 st to see and write about bacteria, and see circulation in the capillaries

• Both philosophical in approach- asking questions, and questioning “assumed” knowledge

• Deductive: starts with an accepted truth and moved forward from there using assumptions/facts.
Used by Greeks and
Scholasticism. But science asked- what if base assumption is wrong?
• Inductive: does not start with assumption of truth- but finds truth after long process of experimentation.
Modern Scientific
Method

• 1561-1626.
• Not actually a scientist-
Lord Chancellor of Eng. , but was interested in
HOW to acquire knowledge. Wanted to start from scratch, abandon all preconceived ideas, look at world through new eyes.
• Inductive reasoning= empirical method.
• Didn’t get math…
• Confident that humans can understand the world, and when we understand we will be able to control it

• 1596-1650
• Question old methodsdoubt everything-
“systematic doubt” (I think therefore I am)
• Separation of mind and matter- Cartesian Dualismthey are 2 different thingsdetach and analyze. More deduction, with math serving as the starting truth.
• Criticized saying he encouraged atheism
• “Discourse on Method”man should depend on logic alone. Start with clear (math facts), subdivide problem into as many parts as necessary until you can solve them

• Universities were still most commonly run by RC church. Condemnation of Galileo etc… gave perception of church as “anti- science”- but it was really Reformation, if someone questions church doctrine they must be squashed before they cause problems.
• And it did seem against common sense- the earth is moving…..?
• Scientists thought of themselves as studying God’s creation, did not question God’s existence.
Science/religion won’t really clash until Darwin

• By 1650 there were “clubs” being founded for groups of scientists to share/discuss ideas.
• England particularly strong in this area. Royal
Society of London founded for improvement of natural knowledge 1660.
• Nationalism kept countries wanting to be on the cutting edge of knowledge

• Improvements to technology
• Spirit of experimentation that helped lead to agricultural and Industrial Revolutions
• Reduces witch hunts and superstition
• Church reaction moves centers of science into protestant territories (helps them grow more advanced and powerful)
• Leads the way for the Enlightenment