To be fair Greg, what are his contemporaries doing in science? I don't think he was "cutting edge" for a man standing at the door of the "Age of Reason". I know the Renaissance was delayed in N. Europe. I would argue, it was the likes of Martin Luther that kept it that way. He was a reactionary in the truest sense - a conservative reacting to the corruption of the church with a heavy-handed agenda and strict interpretation of HIS selections from the bible. Da Vinci died two years before ML was excommunicated by Pope Leo to put it in context. Solon's point was, IMO, that much of the rhetoric SOUNDS not unlike people today (not you, but some). I've actually had people tell me fossils were put there by Satan to fool me into not believing Genesis. That's weak. My wife's kin believe that we in California are replaying Sodom and Gomorrah - they are a little softer in tone than ML, but not much. Here's what some others were doing during ML's life.
weburbia.com
1480: Leonardo de Vinci, description of parachute
1480: Leonardo de Vinci, compares reflection of light to reflection of sound waves
1490: Leonardo de Vinci, capillary action
1492: Leonardo de Vinci, foresees flying machines
1494: Leonardo de Vinci, foresees pendulum clock
1514: Nicolaus Copernicus, writes about heliocentric theory but does not yet publish
1515: Leonardo Da Vinci, progress in mechanics, aerodynamics and hydraulics
1537: Niccolo Tartaglia, trajectory of a bullet
1551: Girolamo Cardano, studies of falling bodies
1553: Giambattista Benedetti, proposed equality of fall rates
1543: Nicolaus Copernicus, heliocentric theory published
1546: Gerardus Mercator, Magnetic pole of Earth |
