What revolutionary discoveries were made in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and why did they occur in Europe?
The Aristotelian Universe as Imagined in the Sixteenth CenturyA round earth is at the center, surrounded by spheres of water, air, and fire. Beyond this small nucleus, the moon, the sun, and the five planets were embedded in their own rotating crystal spheres, with the stars sharing the surface of one enormous sphere. Beyond, the heavens were composed of unchanging ether. (Image Select/Art Resource, NY)
BBUILDING ON DEVELOPMENTS in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, tremendous advances in Europeans’ knowledge of the natural world and techniques for establishing such knowledge took place between 1500 and 1700. Collectively known as the “Scientific Revolution,” these developments were the result of many more people studying the natural world, who used new methods to answer fundamental questions about the universe and how it operated.