Module 2

LESSON
1 Renaissance

Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• Determine the diffusion of technology during the Renaissance period.

• Explain the relevance of Renaissance towards human history and
present society.

Introduction:
Good day! Welcome to Lesson 1 of Module 2. In this lesson, you will be
exploring the different breakthroughs and diffusion of technology during the
Renaissance period.

Activity:
Arrange the following set of scrambled letters to come up with different words
which will describe the highlights during the Renaissance.

TRACHICURETE STAR CSICEEN

MUNIIONCOMCAT TIOLORANEXP

Analysis:
Referring to your answers from the activity, identify from which fields do these
people belong:

PEOPLE FIELD/S

1. Leonardo Da Vinci

2. Johann Gutenberg

3. Michelangelo

4. Galileo Galilei

5. Christopher Columbus
Abstraction: RENAISSANCE TECHNOLOGY
By A. Ruppert Hall
A. Rupert Hall, "Early Modern Technology, to 1600", in Melvin Kranzberg and
Carroll W. Purcell, Jr. (eds.), Technology in Western Civilization, Vol. I (Oxford
University Press: New York, 1967), pp. 79-103.

The period from the mid-14th century to the beginning of the 17th was the age of the
Renaissance, so called because it represented rebirth (re-naitre) of interest in the Greece
and Rome of Classical antiquity. Rebelling against medieval canons of taste and
scholarship, even rejecting in part the claim of religion to dominate all aspects of human
activity, the men of the Renaissance sought wider fields of knowledge, keener
satisfaction of the senses, a freer range of endeavor. In so doing they took themselves to
be re-creating the life of the ancient world, which appeared to them as so much more
beautiful, wise, and ingenious than their contemporaneous European world. To the
exponents of this Classical revival, the collapse of the golden civilization of antiquity had
introduced an epoch of barbarism from which their own generations were the first to
escape. Artists, writers, scientists, and even the more refined craftsmen looked to the
past for inspiration and examples on which to model their own work. Latin and Greek
were the indispensable keys to style, knowledge, and good taste, assuming a
foundational significance in education they were to retain for centuries.

Naturally, the merits of new techniques and styles were not ignored outside Italy; by the
end of the 16th century Italianate products of all kinds were being manufactured in
France, the Netherlands, and England. In most cases in the 16th century--and indeed long
afterwards--the diffusion of techniques was chiefly affected by persuading skilled
workers to emigrate to regions where their skills were not yet plentiful. Despite the rapid
diffusion of techniques, local methods and regional excellencies could remain significant
for relatively long periods. The best of the instrument-makers were splendid craftsmen;
some were learned, while others profited by putting into practice the ideas of their
learned friends. Their best trade, probably, was in instruments for navigation and
surveying, both of which were becoming advanced, mathematical arts.

The Renaissance is regarded today as one of the most creative and glorious periods of human
endeavor. Yet in terms of the history of technology it perhaps does not rank as high as the
Middle Ages with its power revolution and its agricultural innovations. In terms of the basic
inventions and improvements made in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance did little more than
to increase their size and scope. Machines became larger and more intricate and production
increased, but there were few basic innovations. Yet, as we have seen, there were two major
innovations during the Renaissance, i.e., gunpowder and printing, which were to have
immense consequences for the development of Western civilization.
 The Diffusion of Technology

AGRICULTURE
•With the general population growth of the 16th century there was a demand for more food.
•Increase production by enriching the land with animal manure, seaweeds, marl, or lime (a practice used
long before but neglected before).
•Increase land area by breaking new ground or replacing vineyards with grain fields and by reclaiming
and draining wastes.

•Andries Vierlingh wrote (about 1578) the first systematic account of land drainage, which was to
become a Dutch skill above all.

WINDMILLS AND OTHER POWER DEVICES

•The earliest mills were little wooden huts containing the machinery placed high on a strutted post,
so that the sails could sweep clear of the ground.
•Detailed improvement with its essential structure was first illustrated by Ramelli (1588) and well
established by the end of the 16th century.
•The fully developed windmill with capacity power output up to 50horsepower was the most
elaborate large-scale machine before the steam engine.
•As early as the 14th century, water power was applied to many industrial uses besides the grinding
of grain.

•Georgius Agricola (1556) in “De re metallica” described, in relation to mining and metallurgy,
overshot water-driven machines for pumping water (suction and rag-and-chain), for hoisting spoil,
for ventilating the mine, for crushing ore and grinding it, for stirring the mixing tubs, and for
blowing the smelting furnaces.

METALS
•Both iron and steel were largely used for the manufacture of knives, tools, weapons, armor, chains,
anchors, screw-bolts, nails, chests, locks, clocks, agricultural implements, and so on, through the
various arts of the smith.
th
•Writers of the 16 century dealt with metallurgy all devoted particular attention to the precious
metals.
•Lazarus Ercker (1574) whole career life was explicitly directed to the practical goals of metallurgy
and mining.
•From the first assay of ores through to the trial of the purity of the finished product, the treatment
of the precious metals was an exact art.

THE RISING STANDARD OF LIVING

•Agriculture, the omnipresent grain mill, the metal industries represented by a smith in every
village--these were part of the technological fabric of life that was changing rapidly in early modern
times.
•Tools changed as steel cheapened; the iron spade replaced the wooden spade with an iron tip.
Buttons replaced tied "points"; shoes were still made to fit either foot, but in the 16th century
knitted silk hose became the rage. Hops transformed ale into beer, and the first bottled beer was
not far off. Wheat and barley began to supplant medieval rye
•William Lee, an English clergyman invented a knitting machine (1589), ancestor of the later
"stocking-frame."
TRANSPORTATION EXPANSION
•Great expansion of trade and travel due to the demand for higher living standards and of the increasing
technical proficiency that made such rising standards possible.

•Bigger port facilities were required for the bigger and more numerous ships; large dockside cranes,
various types of dredgers, quays were built with timber piling or masonry; and warehouses were put up
for the storage of goods.
•There were also two important additions to industrial land transport: the introduction of the
wheelbarrow, and of wooden tracks in mines along which little four-wheel carts were pushed.
•The birth of the railway. The first true canals were begun near Milan in the 1450's.

TEXTILES
•England was noted for its high quality woolens; cotton, silk, and rugs came from the East; fine linen,
figured fabrics, tapestries, and so on had their particular centers of manufacture.
•An unknown inventor of the 15th century added the "flyer" to the older spindle wheel so that twisting
the yarn and winding it became a single operation rather than two successive ones. But fingers still had
to manipulate the yarn.
•The concept of sewing machine as a complex mechanical device came from the spinning wheel.

CLOCKS AND INSTRUMENTS

•The invention of clock increasingly ruled human affairs as part of everyday life since the mid-14th
century.
•Extraordinary craftsmanship was to make the clock into a most beautiful and ingenious device, enriched
with automata, astronomical displays, chimes, and alarm mechanisms.
•Along with these crafts of the skilled metalworkers a new one emerged, that of the maker of scientific
instruments. This craft really had several branches, for some instruments were made of wood (mariners'
forestaffs and quadrants), others of brass (astrolabes, gunners' quadrants, astronomical instruments),
and others again of steel (calipers, large drawing compasses).
•Introduction of the telescope (1609) the optical lens-maker.

WARFARE
•War is one human activity which, though deplorable, was almost continuous in early modern times and
touched on almost every technique.
•Unfolding consequences of the discovery of gunpowder.
•The beginning of modern European history can be dated from the introduction of gunpowder.
•By 1325 primitive cannon were in action, and from 1370 mechanical artillery (on the lever
principle) was falling into suspension.
•By 1450 the hand gun had appeared, beginning the obsolescence of crossbow and longbow.
Powder-making became an important industry, along with cannon-founding and gun-making.
•By 1500 heavy guns, mortars, and explosive mines had made the medieval castle almost untenable.

PRINTING
•Invention of printing help to remove the barriers of communication between men. This invention has
had incalculable significance to human history, far beyond its immediate technological effect.
•Invention of printing is credited to Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany, sometime in the 1440's.
•He developed a satisfactory method of producing separate type of such accurate dimensions that it
could be assembled easily and when assembled could be held firmly together so that successive images
could be made from them with reasonable speed and convenience.
•The invention of printing, therefore, like that of many other devices, rests upon many prior inventions.
Like many other inventors, Gutenberg's contribution was that of a creative synthesis-- sorting and
selecting the essential elements and combining them into a new form.
 The discovery of gunpowder and invention of printing were the two major
innovations during the Renaissance. Which of the two is most important in
our present society today? Defend your answer. (5 Points)

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