Re: Science and Technology in Elizabethan Times

Science and Technology in Elizabethan Times

There are few periods in the history of science which are studied more than the "Scientific Revolution" of the 16th century, a revolution which had its roots in the Renaissance which began in Northern Italy in the 15th century.

One difficulty in studying "science of Elizabethan times" is they had quite a different definition of what "science" meant then we do today. It would have been impossible to find anyone in the late 15th or 16th century who would have called themselves a scientist. The term that people doing what we, today, call science would have used to describe their investigations into the nature of the universe was "natural Philosophy."

The most famous natural philosopher working at the time of Elizabeth, who was also English, was Francis Bacon. His most famous book the Novum Organum was not published until 1620, a couple of decades after Elizabeth I's reign.

Other important figures of the time include Descartes (1596-1650), who created a deductive logic that was important to the creation of the scientific method; Galileo (1564-1642), the first to use a telescope for astronomy; Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), who explained the motions of the planets around the sun using mathematics; Paracelusus (1493-1541), who began studies that would lead to modern chemistry; and Robert Fludd ( 1574-1637), an early biologist.

The most important developments in science were not in the discoveries themselves, but in the development and expansion of the universities, especially Oxford and Cambridge, which included the important step of teaching students in the vernacular, rather than in Greek or Latin.

Mathematics became increasingly important also, as mathematical texts (including Euclid's Geometry) were translated at this time from Arabic and Greek into Latin, and then into English, and other modern European languages.

In technology, the telescope, the microscope and the first effective thermometers were built and used in scientific research.

In engineering there was an increase in the use of water and wind to power mills, and it was at this time that Britain began to build its extensive canal network. London received its first municipal water system in 1582, when Elizabeth was Queen. And do not forget the improvements the English made in their sailing ships which (with aid of lucky storm!) destroyed the Spanish Armada.

For a more complete discussion of the early scientific revolution may I suggest Man and Nature in the Renaissance, by Allen G. Debus

Michael McGuckin
mcguckm@muohio.edu