Human Body During The Renaissance

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The Renaissance is commonly known as a period of rebirth. New ways of thinking and acting were rapidly evolving. It was a time of great challenges and discoveries for the individual. People could share ideas, objects, and skills in so many ways that changed the whole outlook of humanity. For a while, the church told the people what they wanted them to believe. People at the time started to be more curious about the human body and how it works. Scientists like Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea Vesalius, and William Harvey and much more have created remarkable works and were courageous enough to go against the church. One of the ideas was the human body and how it functioned. For the first time in centuries, they could study the human body. …show more content…

Ordinary people understood the human body during the Renaissance because with the first medical schools in Europe, people who were interested in the medical field could go to school and learn about human dissection. Human dissection has allowed people to get a visual understanding of the body’s functions. This advanced their ideas and helped the diseased. Andrea Vesalius was a professor of surgery and anatomy. He executed his ideas to students through dissection, he wrote the book called On the Structure of the Human Body, which started the observation of science and anatomy. The book explains the human body from the pure flesh and blood to the skeleton. It includes pictures of dissections that he had conducted. To demonstrate his teachings, he stole condemned and diseased bodies. He would have a public demonstration and he could prove that humans having two jaw bones, as opposed there only being one, which was previously believed by Galen. Vesalius revealed the mysteries of the inner body as a complex map of flesh, blood, and bone (Brotton 99). His exploration of the secrets of the human body opened the way for the later 16th-century studies of the ear, female reproductive organs, venous system, and William Harvey 's theory from 1628 of blood circulation. Harvey worked out that it was impossible for the blood to be burned up in the muscles and recreated as Galen claimed. Also, he identified the difference between arteries and veins, later becoming doctor for the …show more content…

The study of the human body changed everyday life in several ways. The art that was drawn during the Renaissance is still used today to demonstrate to students. Students are shown these magnificent works because they 're so detailed and well oriented. They serve as great examples to help with specifically medical students understanding of the human body. Before the Renaissance, most people were afraid of the human body’s interior. None of this would be taught today, if it wasn 't for the courageous artists and scientists going against the church and figure out the human body. Also, the artwork accomplished has helped art students. Da Vinci’s passion for anatomy remains exceptional among contemporary artists (Candea 25). Another way that the study of the human body changed every day was medicine; it became more efficient. Paracelsus rejected the classical belief in the humoral theory. Instead he took a more alchemical approach to medicine, arguing that the basic components of nature could be matched to specific diseases, which later led him to the cure of syphilis. “In drawing the new practical world with institutional and financial authorities” (Brotton 105). Fugger’s took his credit for his on the syphilis treatment. The Fugger were a German family who were merchants and bankers and brought about the idea that drugs could be sold. Later, replacing the Medici family. For that reason, is why the we have modern pharmaceutical industry, and the world of patent

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