Inventors of the Rennaissance
Featured at the St. Peter Museum
Exhibit on Inventors of the Renaissance
In this exhibit, we will explore the inventors that contributed to the Renaissance period. There were many great inventions that were created that advanced society a step further. Inventors of the Renaissance always seemed to be thinking ahead of their time. The works of Leonardo Da Vinci, Johann Gutenberg and Galileo Galilei were huge contributions to the time that are still greatly influencing our lives today.
Leonardo Da Vinci 1452-1519
Da Vinci was a man of many talents with many accomplishments that ranged from botany to anatomy, optics, music architecture and engineering. He created sketches of flying machines and submarines, which both were centuries away from being built. Included in his studies were also designs for advanced weapons, one of them being a tank. Needless to say, Da Vinci was an inventor well ahead of his time.
Johann Gutenberg
Around the year 1455, Gutenberg completed printing the first complete edition of the Bible using a printing press with movable type. Gutenberg's Bible is still used today, and was 1,286 pages long. His printing revolutions brought great changes to Europe. Gutenberg's creation allowed books to be more readily available, cheaper and easier to produce. Although the press was Gutenberg's invention, he was not credited in creating it because there was no such thing as patents at the time.
Printing press
Depiction of Johann Gutenberg
Page from Gutenberg's Bible
Galileo Galilei 1564-1642
Galileo invented many mechanical devices, one of them being Galileo is most well known for his invention of the telescope. His first telescope was invented in 1609 and was modeled after other telescopes produced in Europe, although his telescope could magnify objects twenty times. With the telescope you could see the moon, observe a supernova and discover sunspots. Along with the telescope, Galileo is credited with inventing the first thermometer. The thermometer was a container filled with bulbs of different masses, in which the bulb that was lowest indicated the temperature.