AN EXPANDING WORLD

During the 16^th century, conflicts between the greatest European naval powers for supremacy at sea and for commercial superiority, led to new geographical and scientific discoveries, which weakened the old models of the world and the universe.

Since world was expanded thanks to overseas explorations, preexistent maps were not enough. So in around 150 AD, The Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy (2^nd century AD) wrote the Geography, that defined the discipline of geography and laid down the basis of global mapping. It was so culturally important since it allowed scholars to map the world for the first time. As a consequence it became an essential instrument for seafarers to discover and explore new lands. Among the most famous sailors, there wasn’t only Christopher Columbus but also Portuguese explorers who were sailing east such as Vasco da Gama.

As regards astronomy, in Ptolemy’s view of Universe the sun and the planets revolved in concentric spheres around a stationary earth: it was a geocentric model of universe. Below the moon was the world of mutability while above it that of permanence.

Ptolemy’s old order of ideas conformed with Christian principles. Together with the decay of ecclesiastic institutions, because of clerical corruption, Ptolemy’s model of universe was weakened by new cultural influences, such as the theories of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543), who set the basis of modern astronomy.

Copernicus was born in Poland but studied in Italy, in Bologna, where he was inspired by a mathematics professor to question the medieval astronomical dogma.

In Copernicus’ new model of solar system, the sun was at the centre, while the earth and the planets moved around it in a combination of circular movements. It created problems to the Church since it stated that the earth, that implied God’s creation, wasn’t at the centre.

The invention of telescope by Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) proved Copernicus’ theory.

Moreover, the Italian astronomer contributed to the development of modern science thanks to the establishment of the scientific method. It consisted in the study of the physical world by sensory observation, experiment and by mathematical measurement. 

At the same time, astrology continued to be taught at universities, where traditional medicine linked bodily rhythms and diseases to the motions of the seven planets and the influence of the twelve zodiac signs on the various organs of the body. The human microcosm was connected to the macrocosm of all creation.  

The chain of being was organized as an entire hierarchical system that linked the different orders of life, connecting plants and animals at each level of chain. At the start there was the inanimate class, followed by the vegetative class, then the animal class, with man at the top, and finally the angels.

In the chain, man was thought to be linked to animals because of his material nature and to angels thanks to the community of understanding. He had the unique function of linking al creation together.