Renaissance (#2)

1. Renaissance (#2)

2. Math & Science • Renaissance scientists thought mathematics could help them understand the universe • they created many of the symbols we use in math today: the symbols for the square root (√— ) and for positive (+) and negative (-) numbers • Engineers and architects used new mathematical formulas to design ways to strengthen buildings • Studied astronomy - scientists learned that the earth moves around the sun

3. Changes in Education • Students continued their religious studies, but also studied the humanities, especially history • One scholar, Petrach, warned against forgetting about history: • O inglorious age! that scorns antiquity, its mother, to whom it owes every noble art … What can be said in defense of men of education who ought not to be ignorant of antiquity [ancient times] and yet are plunged in … darkness and delusion?

4. Paper & Printing • Helping ideas travels…. • Papermaking spread from China to the Middle East to Europe • Paper was cheaper and easier to create than using animal skins

5. Johann Gutenberg developed a printing press: used moveable type where letters were put into a frame, ink spread across the letters and then paper laid atop and pressed onto the letters • In 1456 Gutenberg printed the Bible in Latin & later in other languages; as it became more easily available people wanted to learn to read and increased the desire for education

6. Important Authors • Miguel de Cervantes wrote Don Quixote which poked fun at the Middle Ages time period • William Shakespeare wrote sonnets, but is most famously known for his plays. • He wrote over 30 comedies, tragedies, and histories • Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, Othello