How Did The Renaissance Change From The Middle Ages

The time of the Renaissance was one of the most important periods in history; it brought a variety and diverse amount of inventions and technological advancements that later helped develop western civilization. Renaissance is the French word for rebirth. This period was known for the rise of learning, literature, arts and technology. Between the 14th and 16th century’s major changes struck in Western Europe. The changes from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance were tremendously significant. The era of the Renaissance brought the inventions and technological advancements of the first portable watch, gunpowder, movable printing press, and the microscope.

Prior to the invention of the clock time was calculated by the rising and setting of the

The printing press was considered one of the most significant inventions of the renaissance. The invention of the printing press changed the lives of the people in Europe and eventually all over the world. Before the invention of the printing press bookmaking and letter writing permitted one to copy all the words by hand, this process was very time-consuming and wearying. The first printing press was made in China, which consisted of 5000 alphabetic characteristics, making it extremely slow and tedious to work with. Gutnenber developed metal type for each of the 26 characters in the Roman alphabet, and designed a way to move the characteristics around on a printing plate. The printing pressed allowed information to be printed at a fast pace which later led to the spread of new ideas. Reproduction of text was now done at a fast pace. Books could be made much faster, with relatively little effort; bookmaking became less expensive, therefore allowing more people to buy reading material (Red Apple Education, 2014). Over a long period of time the influence of the printing press increased literacy by making print available to the general public. The printing press become a valuable asset to scholars and scientists, it enabled them to publish their discoveries and ideas. In todays society the printing press has been innovated to colored printers. Without the

The major aspect of their invention was the use of two lenses, one used to bend light and the other to enlarge images. The use of two lenses allowed one to observe tiny specimens under the microscope. The microscope at the time could enlarge about 270 times the normal size of the specimen being observed. The invention of the microscope interested many scientists throughout Europe during the time of the renaissance. It led to many new discoveries in the field of biology, and brought a better understanding of the human anatomy and medicine. The invention of Zacharias and his father’s microscope further led to many innovations and discoveries of other types of microscopes. Robert Hooke was a scientist, mathematician, and engineer who later constructed a compound microscope from which he made many important discoveries. He did many experiments and discovered “cells” from the divisions in bark. The term cell is still used today, making it quite significant. Around the 16th century Antoni van Leeuwenheok constructed a single lens microscope and was the first to describe a single celled organism. The single lens microscope allowed bacteria and single celled organisms viewed (Krebs, 2004). The discovery of the first microscope led to many new inventions of different microscopes. Microscopes are still used in