timelinescience - 1501 to 1600

1501 to 1600

Setting the scene

The sixteenth century sees an explosion of knowledge and learning in all directions. The Renaissance is in full flood and the changes which it, along with the Protestant reformation of the Church in Europe, bring about make possible the freedom of thought which results in the developments of the century.

Publishing books is a growing business, and so knowledge becomes more widely available.

The very first year of the century sees the first confirmed caesarian section carried out on a living woman by Jakob Nufer in Switzerland. Of course, legend has it that Julius Caesar was the first child to be born in this way, but the Swiss delivery is the first for which we have reliable evidence.

The Tudors reign over England during the 16th century, with Henry VIII followed by his daughter, Elizabeth I. During this period of time a number of things are observed or discovered in Europe which have been well known in China for centuries - the first use of matches in Europe is over a thousand years later than they had been described in China.

By the end of the period, Shakespeare is writing his plays, Copernicus has redefined the Universe and the Catholic church has a serious rival in the Protestant churches of Europe and the Church of England. These are exciting and turbulent times!

The science

1504	Christopher Columbus correctly predicts the total eclipse of the moon.
1517	Girolamo Francastoro explains fossils as the remains of actual organisms - he decides that there are too many to be simply the result of Noah's flood.
1518 - 25	Smallpox reaches the Americas and causes huge loss of life among the native population.
1520	The Swiss doctor and alchemist Philippus Aureolus Paracheus introduces laudanum (made from opium) as a pain killer.
1540	The book Astronomicon Caesareum by Peter Apian notes that the tails of comets point away from the Sun, a fact known by the Chinese since 635 AD.
1543	The astronomer Nicholas Copernicus publishes his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ("On the revolutions of the heavenly bodies") which describes how the Earth and other planets orbit around the Sun. This theory is to replace earlier ideas that the Earth is fixed at the centre of the Universe, but it will be many years until this theory is accepted by more than a few people - the Catholic church will officially deny Copernicus's ideas until 1922. In the same year the physician Andreas Vesalius also publishes a book. De humani corporis fabrica ("On the structure of the human body") is important because Vesalius has obtained his ideas about anatomy through observing human bodies as they are cut up. Up until this point anatomists have based all their ideas on the written works of the Roman physician Galen, who lived and worked in the second century AD in an area of the world that is now part of Turkey.
1545	A book on surgery by the French author Ambroise Paré suggests treating wounds with soothing ointments instead of boiling oil.
1546	Girolamo Fracastoro puts forward the idea that diseases are like seeds that can be transferred from one person to another.
1552	The Italian anatomist Bartolemeo Eustachio discovers the adrenal glands, the detailed structure of the teeth and the Eustachian tubes which were named after him, although he did not publish his work until 1711. Late January/early February in Shensi Province of China - the worst earthquake ever kills 830,000 people.
1557	The first mention of the metal platinum in any written text.
1560	An Italian physicist forms the first scientific society. This is suppressed by the Inquisition.
1565	The first known drawings of fossils are published. Konrad von Gesner, the artist who did them, thinks they are tools that look like bones or shells.
1570	The pinhole camera is invented around this time.
1579	The first glass eyes are made.
1581	Galileo uses his pulse to time the swinging of the lamps in the cathedral at Pisa. He concludes that the time for a lamp to swing does not depend on the angle through which it swings. This observation eventually leads to the development of pendulum clocks.
1591	Thomas Harriot, an English mathematician, first notes snowflakes are six pointed or six sided although he does not publish this observation. The hexagonal character of snowflakes has been known in China from at least the 2nd century BC.
1592	Galileo develops a type of thermometer based on air.
1597	Galileo accepts the ideas of Copernicus about the Solar System. Andreas Libavius publishes Alchemia. This chemistry textbook describes how to make hydrochloric acid and ammonium sulphate and other chemicals.
1599	The first serious textbook of zoology is published by Ulisse Aldrovandi.