Medical Renaissance
period of medical advances in early modern european history / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Medical Renaissance is a period of progress in European medical knowledge. It lasted from about 1400 to 1700 AD. During this period, there was a new interest in the ideas of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Discoveries from the Medical Renaissance paved the way for modern medicine.[1][2]
At the beginning of this period, around 1400, doctors did not understand anatomy and physiology. They had a lot of ideas that sound strange to modern people. Several things helped scientists make progress.[3][4] Starting in the 1450s, the printing press made it possible for medical books to be mass-produced. This made it easy for medical knowledge to spread. Scientists published books sharing knowledge about anatomy and physiology. In 1543, Andreas Vesalius published De humani corporis fabrica (“On the fabric of the human body”), a detailed anatomy book.[5] This was the first time in history that realistic diagrams of dissections were published. By studying anatomy, physicians learnt the positions of bones, muscles, and organs.
Much later, in 1628, the Englishman William Harvey discovered that the heart pumps blood, which travels through the body in blood vessels, and returns to the heart in the circulatory system.[6] Thus physicians began to understand the basic facts of anatomy and physiology.