Two eras in history came almost simultaneously: the High Renaissance and, in contrast to it, the Reformation. A third phenomenon which we must deal with began at approximately the same time. It is often called the Scientific Revolution

We can date the rise of modern science with Copernicus(1475-1543), the Polish astronomer, and Vesalius (1514-1564), who was Italian.

But this is not to say that nothing that could be called science preceded them. The Greeks, the Arabs, and the Chinese had a deep knowledge of the world....