Summary
During the sixteenth century, the Renaissance
focus on understanding reality led to a revival of the study of nature.
Interest in the fields of botany and anatomy grew rapidly. Adding to this
interest, many new observations and specimens were brought back to Europe from
the newly opened and explored New World. Artists of the Renaissance sought to
better understand their subjects in the world around them, and thus studied the
structures, functions, and habits of plants extensively. The medicine of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries emphasized the use of vegetable remedies, and
physicians were often the foremost botanists of the time because of the need to
distinguish between many plants, foreign and domestic. Books began to appear in
which plants were described and portrayed with great skill, and some of the
botanical figures of the sixteenth century are considered among the best ever
produced.
Botany first 'flowered' in Germany in the early sixteenth century. Otto
Brunfels was the first to produce a major work on plants. However, he fell
victim to a blunder made by many botanists of the time. In reverence for the
ancients, whose botanical studies were widely revered, he attempted in his study
to compare his findings to those of the Greeks and Romans. The differences in
plant life produced by the variation in geography meant that comparison was
futile, and confusion resulted in the field of botany, clouding the work of many
of Brunfels' immediate followers. The most remarkable German botanist of the
early period was Leonard Fuchs. Fuchs produced a guide to collecting
medical plants that is considered a landmark in the history of natural
observation. His woodcut prints are the most beautiful and accurate of the
period. However, Fuchs did little work concerning plant geography or
classification, which he left to his followers.
Many of the same trends that led to the development of botany also provoked the
study of anatomy during the sixteenth century. The founder of modern anatomy
was Andreas Vesalius of Belgium. As a student and professor in Belgium and
Paris, Vesalius was educated in the anatomical works and theories of the ancient
Greek physician Galen, whose views on anatomy had long been the standard in
Europe. Vesalius questioned Galen's authority, and when he became professor in
Padua, Italy in 1537 he immediately instituted sweeping reforms in the study of
anatomy. Whereas students of anatomy had traditionally read the works of Galen
and read descriptions of dissections, Vesalius was not content simply to read.
He instituted a more hands-on style of instruction and study, all the while
working diligently on his masterwork, On the Fabric of the Human Body,
which he published in 1543 at the age of 28. It is considered the first great
modern work of science, and the foundation of modern biology. Vesalius made
unprecedented observations regarding the various shapes and sizes of the human
skull, and also compares human skulls with the skulls of dogs, foreseeing
anthropological themes that would not become widely studied until centuries
after his time. Vesalius' drawings and descriptions of muscles are so accurate
and unique that modern scientists return to them even today.
The beginnings of the Scientific Revolution owe much to the spirit of inquiry
that arose during the Renaissance. The reverence for the works of the ancient
thinkers unearthed, among other things, the botanical studies of the ancient
period, which immediately provoked interest in comparison. Additionally, the
quest for realism in Renaissance art led to the study of plant and animal
structures, as artists labored to better comprehend the forms and functions of
their subjects. Indeed, Leonardo da Vinci,
the great artist of the Renaissance, may also be considered the first great
anatomist, involving himself heavily in the dissection of cadavers to gain a
better understanding of the workings of the human body. Leonardo and others
also showed great interest in plant life, sketching plants and raising questions
about the minute structures and intricate functions of vegetable life. The rise
and spread of printing during the Renaissance played a further part in garnering
interest in the physical world, as students of nature could publish and
circulate their observations and theories throughout Europe. The Renaissance
awakening to the great beauty and diversity of nature led to the scientific
study of that beauty and variety.
Despite advances, botany was still shackled by the same restrictions that
commonly inhibited the advancement of science during the early Scientific
Revolution. Though the revival of botany was owed in part to the study of the
ancient botanists, the reliance on the ancients for authority was quite damaging
to the field. Like many other scientific fields during the same period, it had
been centuries since anyone had questioned the standard set of botanical beliefs
advanced by the ancients, and it was difficult to break away now. It is clear
that if Otto Brunfels had not attempted to compare his work so closely to the
work of the ancient Greeks and Romans, his findings would have been far more
lucid and his followers could have moved forward in the field. However, he
could not break from the influence of the ancients, and the result was
confusion, in his own works and for his followers.
However, attitudes toward traditional authority were changing during the early
years of the Scientific Revolution. The attitude taken toward Galen by Andreas
Vesalius is representative of these changing perspectives. Men were no longer
content to rely on ancient authority for the truth. Instead, they sought to do
their own observation, and their own experimentation, in order to see for
themselves what the truth might actually be. Vesalius was not alone in this
emotion. He was simply an early member of a long line of scientists and
philosophers who would see the works of the ancients not as the unquestionable
authorities which they had been portrayed as during the Middle Ages, but rather
as a foundation and guide for future progress.
