In this episode, Adam explains why our understanding of the Renaissance is off, including the story of Copernicus, the unsung figure who changed medical science forever and the country that created our most destructive economic forces. Here are his sources.
Sources
“Not true! Islamic Scholars criticized the accepted view long before Copernicus did.”
F. Jamil Ragep. “Copernicus and His Islamic Predecessors: Some Historical Remarks.” History of Science. 1 March 2007.
“Al Battani and Al-Tusi were two of the many major scientific figures in the Islamic world who, between the 9th and 13th centuries, questioned the Greek astronomy that the rest of Europe accepted.”
Sheila Rabin. “Nicolaus Copernicus.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Fall 2015.
“Because he worked for the Catholic Church his whole life.”
Sheila Rabin. “Nicolaus Copernicus.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Fall 2015.
“Yep! In fact, the church was so tolerant of Copernicus that some of his writings were even taught and read at major Catholic universities.”
Mano Singham. “The Copernican Myths.” Physics Today. Dec 2007.
“The only problem: The entire idea is completely ahistorical, because there’s no evidence anyone ever felt that way. In fact, most people at the time were taught the exact opposite!”
Ronald Number and Kostas Kampourakis, editors. Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science. Harvard University Press, Nov 2015.
“It was fundamentalist protestants who eventually rejected Copernicus, because his work contradicted passages in the bible.”
Mano Singham. “The Copernican Myths.” Physics Today. Dec 2007.
“And when Galileo started looking through his telescope, adding his observations to Copernicus’ theory, the church started freaking out.”
Mano Singham. “The Copernican Myths.” Physics Today. Dec 2007.
“But this didn’t happen until seventy years after Copernicus died!”
Steph Solis. “Copernicus and the Church: What the history books don’t say.” The Christian Science Monitor. 19 Feb 2013.
“In 1537, Vesalius enrolled in the University of Padua in Northern Italy -- one of the best medical colleges in the world.”
Fabio Zampieri, Mohamed El Maghawry, Alberto Zanatta, and Gaetano Thiene. “Andreas Vesalius: Celebrating 500 years of dissecting nature.” Global Cardiology Science & Practice. 22 Dec 2015.
“Back then, the alpha and omega of human anatomy was a Greek physician by the name of Galen.”
Evandro Tinoco Mesquita, Celso Vale de Souza Júnior, and Thiago Reigado Feirreira. “Andreas Vesalius 500 years - A Renaissance that revolutionized cardiovascular knowledge.” Brazilian Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery. Mar-Apr 2015.
“So much so that when they did dissections in school the Professor would just read Galen-- or a commentary on him- - and an assistant would point things out as a surgeon chopped up the body.”
David Wootton. Bad Medicine: Doctors Doing Harm Since Hippocrates. Oxford University Press, 2006.
“Vesalius went on to identify more than two hundred instances where Galen got some aspect of basic anatomy wrong.”
Fabio Zampieri, Mohamed El Maghawry, Alberto Zanatta, and Gaetano Thiene. “Andreas Vesalius: Celebrating 500 years of dissecting nature.” Global Cardiology Science & Practice. 22 Dec 2015.
“Vesalius came to the conclusion that Galen had done his dissections on monkeys, dogs, and other animals and simply theorized that humans were similar.”
David Wootton. Bad Medicine: Doctors Doing Harm Since Hippocrates. Oxford University Press, 2006.
“But when Vesalius brought his discovery to his fellow physicians, many rejected him.”
Monica-Maria Stapelberg.Through the Darkness: Glimpses into the history of western medicine. Crux Publishing Ltd, 2016.
“But as Vesalius’ reputation grew, he was able to convince magistrates to execute criminals on his schedule to ensure the body was fresh.”
Maurits Biesbrouck and Omer Steeno. “Andreas Vesalius’ corpses.” Acta Medico-Historica Adriatica. 2014.
“On one occasion, he even removed the still pulsing heart of a man he thought was dead.”
Maurits Biesbrouck and Omer Steeno. “Andreas Vesalius’ corpses.” Acta Medico-Historica Adriatica. 2014.
“Vesalius published his groundbreaking book in the summer of 1543.”
Fabio Zampieri, Mohamed El Maghawry, Alberto Zanatta, and Gaetano Thiene. “Andreas Vesalius: Celebrating 500 years of dissecting nature.” Global Cardiology Science & Practice. 22 Dec 2015.
“The book and its dedication to Charles the Fifth helped Vesalius land a job as a court physician to the Holy Roman Emperor.”
Katherine Park. “About De Humani Corporis Fabrica.” Andreas Vesalius: De Humani Corporis Fabrica, CD Edition. Octavo, 1998.
“It was a tolerant and cosmopolitan society that attracted traders and immigrants from across Europe.”
Merry Wiesner-Hanks. Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789. Cambridge University Press, 21 Feb 2013.
“To support their flourishing economy, the Dutch helped develop crucial modern financial institutions -- a commodity exchange, a lending bank and a joint stock company.”
Anne Goldgar. Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age. University of Chicago Press, 15 Sep 2008.
“But the Dutch weren’t all progress. They also created the first recorded economic bubble!
Alistair Sooke. “Tulip mania: The flowers that cost more than houses.” BBC, 3 May 2016.
“And in the 1630s, prices began to rise.”
Anne Goldgar. Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age. University of Chicago Press, 15 Sep 2008.
“This is called a futures contract. And here’s the important part: once you had the contract, you could resell it to someone else, potentially for a lot more money.”
Jan De Vries. “HAROLD J. COOK. Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. 2007. Pp. xiv, 562. $35.00 and ANNE GOLDGAR. Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2007. Pp. xx, 425. $30.00.” The American Historical Review, 1 April 2008.
“At the height, people traded the equivalent of fifty seven hundred pounds of meat for a single bulb.”
Anne Goldgar. Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age. University of Chicago Press, 15 Sep 2008.
“Or three times the annual salary of a skilled craftsman.”
Anne Goldgar. Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age. University of Chicago Press, 15 Sep 2008.
“Even the equivalent of a luxury home in Amsterdam.”
C.W. and A.J.K.D. “Was Tulipmania Irrational?” The Economist, 4 Oct 2013.
“A bubble occurs when people are so excited about making a profit that the price of a good becomes detached from its actual value.”
Robert Shiller. “Speculative Asset Prices.” Nobel Prize Lecture, 8 Dec 2013.
“In February 1637, the Tulip market plunged into turmoil. It resulted in lawsuits and widespread anger.”
Anne Goldgar. Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age. University of Chicago Press, 15 Sep 2008.
“The crash was so devastating that in January 1638, the city of Haarlem set up a new government body, The Commission for Flower Affairs, just to deal with the fallout.”
Anne Goldgar. Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age. University of Chicago Press, 15 Sep 2008.
“In the 1980s, Japan suffered an enormous real estate bubble. Losses were upwards of nine trillion dollars, and fourteen years after it burst they were only starting to recover.”
Martin Fickler. “Take It From Japan: Bubbles Hurt.” The New York Times, 25 Dec 2005.
“And in the United States, when the dot-com bubble burst nearly a trillion dollars in stocks evaporated in less than a month. “
Ben Geier. “What Did We Learn From the Dotcom Stock Bubble of 2000?” Time, 12 Mar 2015.
“Akbar the Great, a Mughal Muslim ruler, brought enlightened religious tolerance to his diverse subjects. His rule was unlike any in Europe.”
Michael Fisher. A Short History of the Mughal Empire. I.B. Tauris, 30 Mar 2015.
“By the end of his reign he 230 controlled an empire that covered much of modern day India. From Afghanistan to Bengal.”
Craig Considine. “Finding Tolerance in Akbar, the Philosopher-King.” The Huffington Post, 10 June 2013.
“Akbar on the other hand, invited Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Christians to his court to debate and discuss religion.”
F. Lehmann. “Akbar I.” Encyclopædia Iranica, 29 July 2011.
“In 1575, he even built a special building called the House of Worship -- with the sole purpose of being a place where guys could just hang and talk religion.”
Michael Fisher. A Short History of the Mughal Empire. I.B. Tauris, 30 Mar 2015.
“But Akbar kept going full throttle on uniting religions. In the 1580s, he even invented an uber-tolerant religion of his very own!”
Michael Fisher. A Short History of the Mughal Empire. I.B. Tauris, 30 Mar 2015.
For More on This Topic
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/copernicus/
http://www.vesaliusfabrica.com/en/vesalius/biography/vesalius-biography.html