THE RENAISSANCE Era of Rebirth STABILITY Beginning in the late 900 s Western Europe as a whole experienced a period of greatly reduced violence as the invasions of Vikings and Magyars ended (the last wave of serious migrations ). Cities and trade developed at a level not seen since the Roman Empire. (Keep in mind, cities were still not as we understand them today.) With a growing economic base, Western Europeans could endow cultural and educational centers such as cathedrals and universities. (The university is a uniquely western phenomenon. This has implications not only for the spread of knowledge, but how knowledge itself is conceived in the West.) Over time, a new group of people gained power in European society, the merchant class: Often wealthier than local nobility (threatened noble status in society). Values of practicality and individual merit dominated their thinking. Society was not static, but designed for the rise and fall of individual fortunes. Vast wealth, especially in Italy, funded the intellectual and cultural movement known as the rebirth (rinascita it. or renaissance fr.) RECOVERY OF TEXTS According to those who lived through and identified the age of the Renaissance, what was being recovered was the greatness of Greece and Rome. By this they meant the human achievements in art, literature, architecture, politics, and philosophy, including natural philosophy. The movement was centered upon the recovery of classical learning as found in the ancient texts of Greece and Rome. Although some of these texts had been recovered in the 12th century, and others had never been lost, from about 1300 through about 1650 the libraries of Western Europe swelled as never before. (This began long before the printing press had an impact.) Where were the texts found? Christian East (especially with the pressure of Turkish invasions). Islam Western Europe itself. What was happening was a massive campaign of hunting down and copying everything from the ancient world.
HOW BIG IS YOURS? Cluny Monastery 13th c. -- 570 ms. Medici private library 1495 -- 1039 ms. (There were three other major libraries in Florence.) RECOVERY OF GREEK Along with the recovery of texts (this time) came the recovery of the ability to read Greek. With Turkish pressure refugees from the Byzantine East (such as Manuel Chrysoloras: 1350-1415) came west at exactly the time that western intellectuals were becoming interested in Greek texts. The full implications of the recovery of Greek language in the west are still being established by historians. However, these included: A much better understanding of the original meanings of Plato, Aristotle, Galen, and the other ancient philosophers. A very different understanding of Christianity according to the most ancient Greek sources (both Biblical and the Church Fathers.) A movement which had a much higher understanding of the dignity of man than was evident in the medieval West: THE HUMANISTS. HUMANISM What emerged in the Renaissance humanist movement was a new worldview in which humanity was seen as designed by God to rule, benevolently, over nature. The humanists were coming up with new, and very positive, answers to the question: What does it mean to be human? Much of this is the result of the western reading of the Greek Christian concept of Theosis or the gradual divinization of humankind. (I m still working on this project.) This had a tremendous impact on natural philosophy and led toward the development of the sciences as never before. The humanists also applied their insights and convictions to theories of politics, literature, and art. Although based in ancient texts, humanism often applied the ideas in original ways. (One example is the heavy focus on the secular meaning the here and now. ) Gradually, the ideas found in the recovered texts infused all of society and culture. (This includes the medical theory of the humors influencing art.)
Duccio, 1285 Leonardo, 1480 THE PLAGUE Arrived in Europe in 1347-48. (Lasted until 1720 s in Western Europe, but became far less deadly in the process.) Began (as far as we know) somewhere in Asia. Apparently found in China and India in the early 1330 s. Kennedy is more specific: p. 74. HOWEVER: Michele da Piazza was not fond of the Genoese. (Historians must look beyond a single primary source, whenever there are, in fact, more.) Muslim writers attribute it to India (as did many Western scholars also), or more commonly to the Land of Darkness (Mongolia). Although a Mongol origin reflects Muslim biases, it is also probably correct. It spread rapidly, and classical medicine offered little help in understanding or treating the disease. Directly or indirectly caused the death of nearly half of Western Europe
SYMPTOMS Fever, occasional nausea. Muscle spasms, stiffness. Delirium/stupor. Ring of red spots near the source of infection. Swelling of the lymph nodes, especially in the armpit and groin. (Large and egg shaped, termed buboes. Hence, bubonic plague. ) Skin lesions. Odd bleeding beneath the skin, sometimes gangrene. (Hence black plague. ) Symptoms appear within 2-6 days. Death, usually within two weeks. Once contracted the bubonic form of plague can have a survival rate from 10% 40%. Many other symptoms were also reported: perhaps other, coincident, diseases. TRANSMISSION We now know: Transmitted by the yersinia pestis bacteria. In fleas (digestive tract), on black rats, on ships, entering Genoa. Followed the rat and the flea northward along trade routes. Other forms of plague: Pneumonic: found in the lungs, and can be spread through coughing and body fluids. (Symptoms include bloody phlegm.) More fatal than standard bubonic form. Septicemic: viable bacteria in the blood leading to infection and fever. (almost 100% fatal.) Another potential transmission through body fluid. These forms might exist without the standard bubonic symptoms.
MEDIEVAL ATTRIBUTIONS Wrath of God. (Widespread, but never excludes other, physical, causes. Medieval people were not as fatalistic as we assume.) Astrological influences. (The seemingly official position coming out of the University of Paris.) Miasmas That universal name for vapors and other unseen causes. (Also the position of the medical faculty at Paris.) Alphonso de Cordoba: human to human contact. (Sight?) Konrad of Megenberg: Earthquake caused miasmas, and the Jews. Specific reasons for death: Gentile da Fogliano: Poison centering on heart or lungs. Giovanni della Parma: overheated choleric matter. REMEDIES Elixirs and potions (often with exotic ingredients.) Purgatives Bleeding Lancing the buboes (helped) Leaving the area (also helped) Quarantine (definitely helped) (Eventually) Burning everything affected (definitely helped) posies and sweet smelling boxes or bags to drive away vapors (helped the smell.) Avoiding animals (helped.) Killing cats. (oops) (For physicians) Protective clothing. (Helped.)
EFFECTS Serious population reduction. Economic boom (reduction of poverty.) Spotty occurrences raise questions (Why were they spared?) New tensions between Christians and Jews. Questioning the tidy answers of the Scholastic theologians. (DO we understand God as we think?)(humanism gets a boost.) Questioning the answers of doctors. Art and Culture: The theme of untimely and arbitrary death gains force in the rise in death as a theme -- consider images such as the Grim Reaper and the Dance of Death.
The Scientific Revolution Precisely through the knowledge of these texts, provided by the humanists, the renewal of science was being prepared. endeavoring to see in nature what Greek writers had declared to be there, European scientists slowly came to see what really was there. (Marie Boas) John Henry
In the Renaissance: Mathematical texts were recovered from Antiquity, and discovered among the Moslems, which allowed mathematics to advance beyond arithmetic and geometry, to Algebra (a Moslem discipline) and Trigonometry. This allowed for a questioning and refinement of astronomy. Texts in medicine and astronomy proper were also recovered which challenged many of the assumptions which medieval thinkers had about the cosmos. In addition, a new focus on nature and this age which can be observed in humanism and art led to the observation of nature itself as a means of obtaining answers. Mathematization and Empiricism The Renaissance recovery and development of mathematics contributed to a growing confidence that knowledge and certainty regarding the natural world could be obtained through mathematics and precise measurement. The Renaissance focus on the natural world contributed to the belief that knowledge of nature could be obtained through observation of natural phenomena and experiment (empiricism). These two trends summarize the fundamental changes of the Scientific Revolution. Not so Revolutionary... The term Scientific Revolution is a complete anachronism only applied a&er the modern understanding of science developed (19th c.) It is, therefore, inherently whi'ish. Along with the term came the habit of ignoring the very NON-scientific trends which contributed to the changes that occurred, including: Alchemy, Astrology, and the trend toward magic Religion and such factors as the Reformation Outside context (social, cultural, economic, and political influences) Only when the people involved are seen as products of their time, and not ahead of their time, can the phenomenon be understood without serious distortion.
In Medicine: In medicine particularly, the changes which occurred would not necessarily be considered progress by any definition when they are considered in context. (Drugs involving the ingestion of mercury and arsenic, and an upturn in bleeding, for example.) The crisis of the plague was partly responsible for a serious loss of confidence in the answers of Aristotle/Galen, and the rise in other diseases contributed to this as we*. An explosion of new answers to theoretical questions and new cures for disease characterized the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. However, other trends in the period which were not specifica*y medical at the time contributed to the development of modern medicine in the course of time. Copernicus: More than Astronomy Nicholas Copernicus: (1473-1543) Cathedral Canon, Krakow, concerned with calendar reform. Posited, based on mathematics, that the cosmos would be simpler, and calculations more accurate, if it were recognized that the sun was at the center and the earth was the third planet out. Attributed the idea to Pythagoras but was actually using Aristarchus of Samos (later). Personal reasons for this position included his religious conviction that the symbol of God (light and the sun) should hold a privileged place over the home of humans (earth.) In this his reverence for the Scriptures (and possibly the Corpus Hermeticum) can be seen. The book, De Revolutionibus Orbius caelestium (On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres) was published in 1543, when he was on his deathbed. Copernicanism: For safety, Copernicus theory was published as only a theory by Osiander, a Lutheran pastor who wrote the introduction. (The Lutheran connection would haunt Galileo.) Note: the concern for safety had nothing to do with the position of the Roman Catholic Church. It had everything to do with the context of Lutheran universities. The premier Lutheran university, at Wittenberg, knew of heliocentric ideas and rejected them. The old geocentric system of Ptolemy was often superior in explanatory power and mathematical calculation to anything Copernicus had done. (Copernicus knew this also.) This was especially true since the improvements of math allowed two scholars, Puerbach and Regiomontanus, to refine the ancient system of Aristotle and Ptolemy. In other words, when it appeared, heliocentrism was simply not the best theory. Another theory, that of Tycho Brahe, would soon replace Ptolemy because of superior math. Copernicanism s first serious follower was Johannes Kepler, half a century after the death of Copernicus (Kepler had his own spiritual reasons, and Galileo would have political ones.)
Francis Bacon: More than Empiricism (1561-1626) A theorist who argued that Aristotelian methods of observation were inadequate and should be replaced by a new, objective, and rigorous experimentation. Largely responsible for our modern understanding of falsifiability. Later he would be praised or blamed for separating science and religion. HOWEVER: Bacon presented his own theories and arguments in terms of a religious reformation. He argued that nothing could be truly known of God s creation unless mistaken ideas (mostly from those who were not Christian) were abandoned. By observing things themselves a new grammar could be developed which would allow humankind to read the book of nature as it had learned to read the Scriptures. Bacon and Medicine Medicine, in England at least, took a turn toward empirical research as a result of a particular belief of Bacon s: That the curse of the original sin which brought death could be reversed in the end times (before the return of Christ), and people could live indefinitely. He wrote his theories of life, death, and health in a book ca*ed Historia Vitae et Mortis. (Nutrition was a central focus.) His ideas would be tested repeatedly. Evidence of this is found in a host of manuscripts in the British Library, and a number of publications. From the Historia: Whatever can be repaired gradua*y without destroying the original whole is, like the vestal fire, potentia*y eternal. This is not so strange in light of another trend, far stranger, to our thinking. THE DARKER SIDE OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION The Occult Sciences
THE RECOVERY AND SANCTION OF ANCIENT MAGIC: Through the humanists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries two small libraries of hidden (occult) knowledge were taken-up by the intellectuals of the day: The Cabala - a collection of Jewish magical texts. The Corpus Hermeticum and other Hermetica - a collection of (seemingly) ancient Egyptian texts which meshed with, and appeared to sanction, the Christian worldview. (In reality they were written in the early Christian centuries and combined Christianity with a number of other popular philosophies.) Both sets of texts provided guidelines for the practice of magic, and sophisticated explanations of the theory behind magic. Both appeared to reconcile magic with the Judeo-Christian worldview. Via these texts, the practice of high magic (intellectual magic) entered forcefully into the mainstream of Christian Europe. The effect could primarily be seen in the rise of Alchemy and Astrology among Christian intellectuals between the late fifteenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth. KEY CONCEPTS: Magic -- the use of occult (hidden)/spiritual powers to manipulate the world and one s own identity within it. Natural Magic -- uses invisible forces and properties of natural things ( creation or the creatures ) to manipulate Demonic Magic -- calling upon and commanding the power of spiritual beings to manipulate A necessary assumption is that all things in the cosmos are connected so that nothing can be to a part done without affecting the whole, as in a spider s web. Magic is learning to manipulate the strands by which the whole is connected. Astrology: The belief that, as a function of the interconnectedness of all things, the heavens influence the earth in predictable ways. (Works best w. Aristotle s Cosmos.) ALCHEMY Alchemy: Not about gold but the transformation of things into their perfect forms. The goal of transforming one substance into another would be the ultimate command of nature -- mastery of matter itself. Philosopher s Stone The substance which would perfect matter, undoing the curse on the earth of Genesis 3. Elixir of Life Either the Philosopher s Stone, or a byproduct, which would perfect life, undoing the curse of death, of Genesis 3. Along the way, the various transformations were assumed to result in useful medicines.
WHAT DID THE OCCULT SCIENCES CONTRIBUTE TO MODERN SCIENCE? The majority of key players in the Scientific Revolution practiced one or both. (Boyle, Newton, Kepler, Paracelsus, Leibniz, van Helmont, etc., etc.) Alchemy and Astrology, especially, were both a source, and a motive, for the study of the natural world. Alchemy and astrology were a further venue for observation of nature and experimentation (contributing to Empiricism.) Magic, and particularly alchemy, contributed the assumption of hidden forces and connections operating in the universe which made the whole thing work. (For Gilbert, magnetism was possible, and for Newton, this was the very idea of gravity.) Natural magic -- the idea that forces inhere in nature and can be manipulated by proper techniques or technology -- was separated from other forms of magic which assumed the influence of spirits. Natural magic was stripped of its name and incorporated, wholesale, into the assumptions of modern science. Alchemy gave rise directly to experimental chemistry and chemical medicine. EXAMPLES IN MEDICINE 15th. c. Marsiglio Ficino s Three Books on Life: Combines astrology, natural magic, traditional medicines (of all kinds), and Christian Theology into a guide for extending life. Life itself is recognized as an occult force within the web of the cosmos. 17th c. Kenelm Digby s Powder of Sympathy : A concoction which could use the hidden connections between things to effect cures. (Example: Wound and Sword.) Most of Paracelsus cures (especially involving mercury, lead, and other metals.) MAN AS MICROCOSM: The World is pirmarily the totality of everything, consisting of heaven and earth ( ). In the second mystical sense, however, it is appropriately identified as man. For as the world has grown out of four elements, so does man consist of four humours ( ). -- Isidore of Seville, A.D. 560-636 De Natura Rerum
ASTROLOGY: BASIC ASSUMPTIONS The Kosmos is a unified whole, all parts interacting with each other. All motion in the Cosmos descends from the Spiritual realm through the Outer Spheres to influence the realm of change. (In Aristotelian Astrology.) As the celestial realm is superior to the terrestrial, celestial beings (whether lifeless stars and planets, or the spirits they contain, or deities) wield influence over the terrestrial. As the celestial realm also operates in a predictable manner, the influence of the celestial realm on the rest of the cosmos may be predicted. As man is a microcosm or an analogy, for the whole scheme of the cosmos, there are always body parts, moods, and events in human existence which relate directly to their celestial counterparts, because they are analogous to them. Note: Astrology, because of the assumptions involved, is inherently Greek in origin. It did not have to be fatalistic: the stars were only one set of influences among many.
The reasoning behind sympathy in the worlds of the visible and the invisible is quite compatible with earlier medieval thought connected to holy objects and relics. CONCLUSIONS 1. Our modern popular portrayals of Magic, Sorcery, and the occult (whether from WB or Disney) are but the images of the everyday Renaissance era infused with Hermetic/Cabalistic signs and symbols. 2. The popular myth of an essential conflict between Christianity and the Occult is historically groundless. (A 20th century development as we presently have it.) The issue for earlier Christians was which occult powers were compatible with orthodoxy. Christianity contains its own occult powers. 3. Modern science shares with magic the belief in the manipulation of nature, the belief that special knowledge leads to the mastery of occult powers in the universe, etc. and is indebted to magic for these aspects. 4. Natural magic was not accepted equally by everyone. However, most of those objecting to one form practiced or valued another. 5. Medically, the quest for hidden causes eventually is quite fruitful.