Renaissance Science & Math
Medicine of the Translation Movement (pre-Renaissance)
In the 1100s, Persian physician Mansur expanded on the works of Aristotle, Hippocrates, al-Razi, and Avicenna to produce The Anatomy of the Human Body, a medical treatise of 40 drawings and explanations of various parts of the human body, including many organs. He was also the first person to anatomically draw a pregnant woman.
Ibn Sina wrote A Canon of Medicine, which remained a central medical textbook in universities until 1650. This page from his Canon details the process of diagnosing and treating a patient.
Medieval Medicine (pre-Renaissance)
The Scientific Method
Francis Bacon, Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler advocated the scientific method based on empiricism (arriving at conclusions and knowledge based on observation and experience, usually through experiments).
Empiricism was promoted and used by Ibn Al-Haytham and Avicenna during the Islamic Golden Age.
Medicine During the Renaissance
Scientists began applying the scientific method to medicine and anatomy in the 15th century. Andreas Vesalius described the anatomy of the brain and other organs, but he had little knowledge of the brain's function, thinking that it resided mainly in the ventricles. He also described and illustrated the position and function of every muscle in the body and came to the conclusion that nerves transmit sensation. Vesalius is considered the father of human anatomy.
A page from Vesalius’ Fabrica
Ottoman Advances in Medicine
Some of the greatest advances in medicine were made by the Ottomans. Ottoman physician Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu wrote the first surgical atlas for Sultan Mehmed II. It included 134 surgical procedures (including spinal surgeries and the treatment of fractures, epilepsy, and cancers) and 156 surgical instruments. His work was largely based on the previous work of Arab physician al-Zahrawi during the Islamic Golden Age. Sabuncuoğlu was the first to describe drainage treatments for hydrocephalus (fluid buildup in the brain) and he discussed a breast cancer treatment that involved removing tumors in their early stages to prevent spread to the rest of the body. Understanding that pathogens could spread through contact, he used early forms of antiseptic in surgery (typically mixtures of olive oil and wine). He also wrote about complications during childbirth and was the first to illustrate female physicians.
Illustration from the Sabuncuoğlu’s surgical atlas Imperial Surgery
Ming Contributions to Medicine
Li Shizhen, a physician and pharmacologist, compiled The Compendium of Materia Medica, a medical text with over 1,871 plant, animal and mineral substances to treat various ailments. Three became particularly important throughout the world: chaulmoogra oil (the only known treatment for leprosy), ephedrine (still widely used to treat colds), and inoculation against smallpox. The Compendium is still published today and can be purchased on Amazon (pictured right) in multiple languages.
While Greek and Arab scholars like al-Haytham had made strides in the study of optics, the first eyeglasses for vision were not invented until around 1290 in northern Italy. This painting, “Portrait of the Dominican Cardinal,” painted by Tommaso da Modena in 1352, is the earliest known depiction of someone wearing eyeglasses.
In England, Roger Bacon used al-Haytham’s Book of Optics (from the Islamic Golden Age) to study eyesight and lenses, creating the first magnifying glass around 1268.
Polymath and “Renaissance man” Leonardo da Vinci combined his passion for art and his thirst for knowledge to create detailed and groundbreaking anatomical sketches.
Da Vinci’s Anatomical Manuscript, c.1490
Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man
The Ulugh Beg Observatory in Samarkand
Mathematician al-Kashi (who worked at the Ulugh Beg Observatory) developed the Law of Cosines (used in trigonometry) and invented a mechanical (analog) planetary computer which he called the Plate of Zones, which could predict the true positions in longitude and latitude of the Sun and Moon, and the planets. He also improved the accuracy of calculating pi.
A page from one of al-Kashi’s treatises
Copernicus’ Heliocentric Theory