Browse Items (85 total)

John Calvin escaped from France to Switzerland at the height of conflicts between Protestants and Catholics and became incredibly radicalized. He believed in predestination, the idea that when a person is born, God has already decided if he or she…

Martin Luther’s 95 Theses are known as the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s writings consisted mostly of pamphlets, which were the primary method of debate during the Reformation. Luther translated the Bible into German and…

The Gutenberg Bible was the first major text printed using movable type and the printing press. It was considered the beginning of the revolution of printed books, which increased the availability of major works in Europe and helped to increase…

Isaac Newton is considered the preeminent figure of science of his time period. He developed the universal law of gravity and had a mechanistic worldview. Mechanists believed that the world operated on a clock and that nature adhered to mathematical…

Galileo Galilei is known for taking advantage of the newly developed telescope to look at the stars. He discovered the mountains on the moon, that planets are different than stars, the four moons of Jupiter, and sunspots. Dialogue Containing the Two…

Descartes was a rationalist and a proponent of deductive reasoning. He was focused on trying to derive universal laws, exemplified by his statement, “I think, therefore I am.” Discourse on Method explains Descartes’ views on deductive reasoning and…

Francis Bacon was a prominent courtier during the reign of James I of England and a foundational figure in the scientific revolution. He believed that scientists needed a new approach to gaining knowledge and understanding nature. Bacon disliked…

For 1,000 years, European views of the body were based on the work of Galen and Hippocrates. This view of the body centered around four humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) that reached equilibrium in every person. Patients were healed…

William Shakespeare, the prolific and preeminent writer of plays and sonnets in England during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, represents the spread of plays throughout Europe and especially England during the Early Modern period. Most people…