Science & Technology

Biology

development of particular significance at this time was the introduction of dissection into medical schools, a step that revitalized the study of anatomy. Because of what it reveals about medieval anatomy in general, the work of Mondino dei Liucci, the most famous of the Italian anatomists at the beginning of the 14th century, is particularly important. First, because there was no way of preserving cadavers, organs that spoiled quickly had to be dissected rapidly. Furthermore, it was the custom for the teacher to leave the actual dissection to an underling, who, not wishing to offend the teacher, agreed with all of his statements. Thus, although Mondino performed all of his own dissections and, from his observations, could have corrected the errors of the Greeks and Arabs, he did not choose to contradict any of the authorities. Even when the authorities contradicted themselves, Mondino sought to harmonize their views. Perhaps Mondino exemplifies the difficulty that was so characteristic of the era; namely, the problem of breaking away from established authority.

Interestingly, it was the artists, rather than the professional anatomists, who were intent upon a true rendering of the bodies of animals and men and thus were motivated to gain their knowledge firsthand by dissection. No individual better exemplifies the Renaissance than Leónardo da Vinci, whose anatomical studies of the human form during the late 1400s and early 1500s were so far in advance of the age that they included details not recognized until a century later. Furthermore, while dissecting animals and examining their structure, Leónardo compared them to the structure of man. In doing so he was the first to indicate the homology between the arrangements of bones and joints in the leg of the human and that of the horse, despite the superficial differences. Homology was to become an important concept in uniting outwardly diverse groups of animals into distinct units, a factor that is of great significance in the study of evolution.

Other factors had a profound effect upon the course of biology in the 1500s, particularly the introduction of printing around the middle of the century, the increasing availability of paper, and the perfected art of the wood engraver, all of which meant that illustrations as well as letters could be transferred to paper. In addition, after the Turks had conquered Byzantium in 1453, many Greek scholars took refuge in the West; the scholars of the West thus had direct access to the scientific works of antiquity, rather than indirect access through Arabic translations.