Renaissance in The Low Countries - Science

Science

The new age presents itself in science as well. Flemish anatomist Andreas Vesalius's life typically shows both the new possibilities and the troubles that came with them. He delivered ground-breaking work in rediscovering the human body, after centuries of disregard for it. This earned him great respect from some, but also caused several enquiries into his methods (dissection of the human body) and the religious implications of his work.

While Vesalius performed ground-breaking work in rediscovering the human body, Gerardus Mercator, as one of the leading cartographers of his time, did the same for rediscovering the outside world. Mercator too came into trouble with the Church because of his beliefs, and spent several months in jail after a conviction for heresy.

Both scientists' lives show how the Renaissance scientist is not afraid of challenging what has been taken for granted for centuries, and how this leads to problems with the all-powerful catholic church.

Though the invention of the printing press by Laurens Janszoon Coster in the 1430s appears to be a romantic notion, the Low Countries had an early start in printing. By 1470 a printing press was in use in Utrecht, where the first dated extant book was printed in 1473, while the first book in the Dutch language was the 1477 Delft Bible. By 1481 the Netherlands had printing shops in 21 cities and towns. Famous publishing houses like those of Christoffel Plantijn in Antwerp from 1555 on, Pierre Phalèse the Elder in Leuven from 1553, and the House of Elzevir in Leiden from around 1580 turned the Netherlands into a regional center of publishing.