The focus of this volume, the Proto-Scientific Revolution, is that distinctive period, essentially High Renaissance in character, which paved the way for the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. The epicentre of this important period is 1543, the annus mirabilis which saw the publication, amongst other seminal works, of Copernicus' On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, and Vesalius' magnificently illustrated On the Fabric of the Human Body. A substantial literature exists on the Copernican Revolution, but the present original collection of papers, accessible to the non-specialist reader, breaks new ground, not only in bringing the works of Copernicus and Vesalius together, but by placing them within the context of the Proto-Scientific Revolution as a whole, the Renaissance of the arts, and the Reformation. In addition, the book, while noting discontinuities, pin-points linkages between the Proto-Scientific Revolution and the periods preceding and following it. As the volume focuses on an age which experienced the impact of both linear perspective and movable type printing, emphasis is placed upon the changing nature and roles of both image and word.
