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🙂 Greetings to regular and new readers of the site “Ladies-Gentlemen”! The article “Scientists of the Middle Ages and Their Discoveries: Facts and Videos” contains information about famous scientists in the field of alchemy, medicine, geography. The article will be useful for schoolchildren and history lovers.
Scientists of the Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is an era in history from the XNUMXth to the XNUMXth century. The medieval world was full of prejudice and ignorance. The Church zealously watched those who strive for knowledge, and literally persecuted them. Knowledge was considered useful if it brought the Lord closer to knowledge.
Medicine caused harm more often than good – it was necessary to rely only on the strength of the body. People did not understand what the Earth looks like and came up with various fables about its structure.
But even in this ignorance there was a place for an analogue to the modern scientist. Of course, such a concept did not exist, because no one had any idea about scientific methods yet. The main activity of philosophers was aimed at finding a philosopher’s stone that would turn any metal into gold, and the elixir of life, which gave eternal youth.
Alchemy
And although it is generally accepted that the scientific picture of the world did not exist before the appearance of Newton in the XNUMXth century, the prerequisites for the scientific world evolved step by step.
Even 400 years before Newton’s activity, the monk Roger Bacon conducted an experiment in which a ray directed through water was decomposed into a spectrum. The natural scientist came to the conclusion, as did Newton later, that white has an invariable geometry. Roger Bacon wrote that mathematics is the key to other sciences.
Like most thirteenth-century alchemists, Bacon was one of the experimental philosophers who sought the Philosopher’s Stone. Medieval alchemists were obsessed with gold for a reason. Gold is a very remarkable metal. First of all, it cannot be destroyed. Experimenters have asked this question all the time.
Why does the variability of matter inherent to other substances not apply to gold? This metal can be heated, melted, given a new shape – it remains with unchanged qualities.
Studying gold has become a search for excellence on earth. All manipulations with metal were not aimed at enrichment, alchemists were striving not for wealth, but for the knowledge of the secret of the shiny metal.
Numerous experiments have led to a lot of discoveries. Alchemists discovered the technique of applying gilding. They got concentrated acids, discovered various methods of distillation, and, in fact, laid the foundations of chemistry.
Famous alchemists of the Middle Ages:
- Albert the Great (1193 – 1280)
- Arnoldo de Villanova (1240 – 1311)
- Raymond Llull (1235 – 1314)
- Vasily Valentine (1394 – 1450)
- Paracelsus (1493 – 1541)
- Nicolas Flamel (1330 – 1418)
- Bernardo, the Good Man of Treviso (1406-1490)
Church
No matter how we scold the clergy, these people have been the most educated for many centuries. They were the ones who pushed the boundaries of science, conducted scientific experiments, and made notes in church libraries.
In the eleventh century, a monk of Malmesbury Abbey, Ailmer, secured a pair of wings and jumped from a high tower. The aircraft carried him nearly 200 meters before hitting the ground, breaking his legs in the process.
Eilmer of Malmesbury – XNUMXth century English Benedictine monk
During the treatment, he told the abbot that he knew what his mistake was. His flying invention lacks a tail. True, the abbot forbade further experiments, and controlled flights were postponed for 900 years.
But the ministers of the church had the opportunity to make discoveries in other areas of human activity. The medieval church did not oppose itself to science; on the contrary, it wanted to use it.
The most perspicacious ones expressed their bold thoughts. They assumed that mankind would have ships controlled not by a hundred rowers, but by one person, carts moving without any manpower, an aircraft that would take a person off the ground and return him back.
This is exactly what happened, and progress has been delayed by humanity, perhaps from a reluctance to objectively assess the past.
Medicine
Today, people need one thing from medicine – to make us better. But medieval doctors had more ambitious goals. For starters, eternal life.
For example, Artefy is a philosopher who lived in the XII century. He wrote a treatise on the art of extending human life, claiming that he himself has lived for at least 1025 years. This charlatan boasted of his acquaintance with Christ, although then it turned out that he had already lived for more than 1200 years.
The alchemists believed that if they could turn metal into perfect gold using the Philosopher’s Stone, then they could use it as an elixir of eternal life and make humanity immortal. And although the elixir of eternal life was not found, there were undoubtedly experts in this field.
Doctors who lived 600-800 years before our time, quite rightly believed that the disease is not caused by external factors, but occurs when the body lacks health. Therefore, doctors, with the help of diets and herbs, tried to restore health.
There were whole pharmaceutical shops with a large number of medicinal products. In medical treatises, at least 400 plants are mentioned, with various medicinal properties.
The main advantage of medieval doctors is that they perceived the body as a whole.
The most ancient scientist and physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037) worked for many years on his encyclopedia “The Canon of Medicine”, which absorbed the medical knowledge of the medieval East.
Mondino de Luzzi (1270 – 1326) – Italian anatomist and physician resumed the practice of public autopsies of deceased people, prohibited by the Catholic Church, to educate students.
Alchemist, physician, philosopher, naturalist Paracelsus (1493-1541)
The famous healer and alchemist from Switzerland – Paracelsus (1493-1541) knew anatomy perfectly. In practice, he mastered the skills of surgery and therapy. He criticized the ideas of ancient medicine, independently developed a classification of diseases.
Map
For a long time people believed that the earth was flat. But it is known for sure that Robert Bacon wrote in his writings: “The rounding of the earth explains why, having climbed to the height, we see further.” The dissent of the church authorities impeded the development of many sciences, but geography, perhaps, suffered the most.
This is proved by the maps found by archaeologists. Only mariners needed accurate maps, and they had them. We do not know who drew these maps and how the process of creating them went. Their accuracy amazes modern specialists.
Among the travelers of the Middle Ages, the Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin (date of death 1475) should be noted. He traveled from the city of Tver to India! It was incredible in those days! His notes, made during the voyage, are called “Walking the Three Seas.”
The Italian merchant and traveler Marco Polo (1254 – 1344) was the first of the Europeans to describe China. The Book of Marco Polo was one of the main sources for the mapping of Asia.
Video
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