European Renaissance and the Birth Term Paper

His experiments in anatomy and the study of fluids, for example, absolutely blew away the accomplishments of his predecessors…the sheer range of topics that came under his inquiry is staggering: anatomy, zoology, botany, geology, optics, aerodynamics, and hydrodynamics among others. (Renaissance 2010).

Da Vinci questioned the prevailing faith in the written word of the bible and instead sought knowledge of nature in nature. He simply observed the physical world and began to draw conclusions about it. He dissected bodies in order to study human anatomy despite the long-standing Church policy against such practices. He studied the human organ systems and the skeleton. His research, drawing upon the methodology of men like Bacon, "heralded the birth of a new method of scientific study: the systematic, descriptive method of the natural sciences, which was the predominant method of scientific study well into the 19th century" (Renaissance 2010). Via men like Da Vinci, the Republics and city-states of Italy in some ways made the modern world and its system of scientific thinking (Sobek 2003, 209).

In the twenty-first century when scientific research has produced so many amazing innovations, it is easy to forget that this all did not come about by chance.The scientific method was something developed slowly over time and which was in no way a destined fact and outcome of the historical process. There was a certain element of chance and choice in the matter. Above all else, it entailed the determination of certain men to exert their will that the world ought to be studied and that knowledge should not exist under a shroud of secrecy or darkness. The Humanists wanted to unlock the secrets of nature in order to better the plight of man. We are still benefitting from their endeavors today.

Works Cited

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Grendler, Paul F. "The Universities of the Renaissance and Reformation." Renaissance

Quarterly 57:1 (2004): 1-42.

Jebb, Richard C. "The Classical Renaissance." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin

5:3 (1946): 73-100.

"Renaissance Man." Museum of Science Website. May….....