MEDI/EVAL SCIENCE IN THE WEST 



Nor need we doubt that to the best of his opportunities 

 he was himself an original investigator. 



LEONARDO DA VINCI 



The relative infertility of Bacon's thought is shown 

 by the fact that he founded no school and left no trace 

 of discipleship. The entire century after his death 

 shows no single European name that need claim the 

 attention of the historian of science. In the latter 

 part of the fifteenth century, however, there is evidence 

 of a renaissance of science no less than of art. The 

 German Miiller became famous under the latinized 

 named of Regio Montanus (1437-1472^ although his 

 actual scientific attainments would appear to have 

 been important only in comparison with the utter 

 ignorance of his contemporaries. The most dis- 

 tinguished worker of the new era was the famous 

 Italian Leonardo da Vinci a man who has been called 

 by Hamerton the most universal genius that ever 

 lived. Leonardo's position in the history of art is 

 known to every one. With that, of course, we have no 

 present concern; but it is worth our while to inquire 

 at some length as to the famous painter's accom- 

 plishments as a scientist. 



From a passage in the works of Leonardo, first 

 brought to light by Venturi, 1 it would seem that the 

 great painter anticipated Copernicus in determining 

 the movement of the earth. He made mathematical 

 calculations to prove this, and appears to have reached 

 the definite conclusion that the earth does move or 

 what amounts to the same thing, that the sun does 

 not move. Miintz is authority for the statement that 



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