History of science / 1500 CE — 1699 CE
Scientific Revolution
Models, evidence and experiment
Print, telescopic observation and anatomy transform how knowledge circulates and how competing models are tested.
Selected stories
Copernicus publishes a cosmos with a moving Earth
De revolutionibus, printed in Nuremberg, reorganizes planetary motion through Earth's rotation and solar orbit while retaining circular-motion devices.
Vesalius tests old anatomy against bodies and images
The Fabrica, published in Basel, combines human dissection, detailed images and text to challenge descriptions inherited from Galen.
Kepler tests elliptical orbits against observations
Using Tycho Brahe's Mars observations, Kepler replaces uniform circular orbits with ellipses and the equal-area relation.
The Starry Messenger brings telescopic sights into public debate
Galileo reports an uneven Moon, countless stars and Jupiter's moons, using new observations to challenge inherited pictures of the heavens.
The Principia links Earth and sky through dynamics
Newton organizes laws of motion and universal gravitation into a mathematical framework connecting terrestrial bodies, planets and moons.