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Astrology - Overview - Astrology In The Renaissance And Reformation

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Other Free Encyclopedias " Science Encyclopedia " Science & Philosophy: A-series and B-series to Ballistic Missiles - Categories Of Ballistic Missile " Astrology - Overview - Medieval Astrology, Astrology In The Renaissance And Reformation, Bibliography

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Editor's note: The following is the second post in Coin World's Symbols of Power series about three early coinage units.

R ead other posts in the series:

Our second coin term, "florin," was introduced in A.D. 1252, following a period of some 500 years in which the coinage of Western Europe had been predominantly silver. Named after its home city of Florence, "Firenze," it became the main medium for the return of coins made from gold. Few coins before the advent of a globalized economy would share its level of impact.

By the mid-13th century, gold was not only available for coinage but gold coinage was, in itself, both useful and desirable. The wealthy cities of Italy, primarily Florence, Genoa, Venice and Pisa, were increasingly dominating the economics of the Mediterranean, changing the flow of the trade routes in African gold from East to West. Situated on the banks of the river Arno, Florence in particular prospered as a commercial center, and was among the first cities to have a sophisticated banking system. Its wealth and patronage of the arts helped turn it into the leading city of the Renaissance.

This new coin was initially worth a Florentine lira, or 240 denarii (pennies). It was of too high a value for daily use, and seems always to have been destined for use in international trade.

The design of the florin barely changed throughout the three centuries of its existence, and features Florence's patron saint, John the Baptist, wearing a belted robe and rough, goatskin cape. A saint's halo surrounds his shaggy hair, while the reverse features a Florentine lily; Florence literally being "the blooming city."

We can get some sense of the high regard with which the Florentines viewed their new coin in the pages of Dante's The Divine Comedy, written in the early 1300s. In the lowest pits of the Inferno we meet Master Adam, a counterfeiter of florins. Master Adam was no ordinary back-street forger: he represented Adam of Brescia, who was employed by a rival Italian ruler to undermine the Florentine coinage "with three carats alloy." In the real world he was, as he says, burnt at the stake in 1281. In Dante's Hell he sits in the Eighth Circle, the Malebolge or "evil ditches" among the forgers, liars and leprous alchemists.

Success usually inspires imitation, and within a decade or so both France and England had issued gold coins inspired by the florin's existence. Eventually "florin" became the generic word for a gold coin in England and the word appears in Chaucer's "Pardoner's Tale" (late 14th century) as "floryns fyne of gold ycoyned rounde," conjuring the image of a glittering and seductive treasure. We hear of Edward III (reigned 1327 to 1377) making grants of annuities from the port of London of up to a thousand "florins of Florence," while in 1338 Florentine merchants traveling in Essex, England, were robbed by the locals of 160 of their florins. Beyond England and France the model of the florin was even more long lasting. Many places in western and southern Europe and around the Mediterranean simply made their own imitations, replacing the Florentine lily on the reverse with a local emblem.

Coin imitation could be a form of flattery, and yet poor reproductions began to shake confidence in the original florin. After 1284, there was also a powerful Italian rival in the shape of the ducat or ducato of Venice, an easy alternative when trust in the florin faltered. From around 1400 the ducat increasingly dominated Mediterranean trade, largely usurping the role of the florin. There were fewer direct imitations of the ducat to compromise its popularity, although its standards were also widely copied, along with its name. Even in Florence itself the word "ducat" became commonly used instead of "florin." The Venetian ducat maintained its ancient standards until the end of the Venetian Republic in the 19th century.

The florin also began to be affected by broad trends in European coinage. From the early 16th century silver became increasingly dominant as old mines were revived and new ones discovered. Many of the florins and gulden of Europe changed from being small gold coins to large silver ones, and the name went with the change, but they were the only continuing legacy of the florin's days of medieval grandeur. Indeed, the silver florins themselves later shrank in size and purchasing power. As the late medieval age of gold was fading before this new age of silver, the Florentine florin itself would soon cease to exist. The last one was issued in 1531, just as the Republic of Florence was being transformed into a hereditary duchy ruled by the Medici dynasty.

Florins of Florence might have vanished, but the florin as a name survived in many countries as a term describing a midrange silver coin, especially the Dutch gulden or guilder. Then, in 1849, the British government decided to issue a 2-shilling piece at a tenth of a pound in value. This fraction was a manifestation of the debate on the merits of a decimal system. One supporter of decimalization urged the introduction of this 2-shilling piece as early as 1838, saying he would "for perspicuity denominate the two-shilling piece, a Florin, as the name of the foreign coin nearest in value, and indeed a name not unknown in the English coinage."

The florin remained a part of the British currency system until the belated introduction of decimalization in the United Kingdom in 1971. The florin was adopted in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and was retained by Ireland post-independence until decimalization. Meanwhile, the Dutch florin, or gulden, lasted until the currency of the Netherlands disappeared with the introduction of the euro in 2002; with that the last working florin was gone.

Check back with CoinWorld.com for more from the Symbols of Power series, or let us alert you when a new post is up:

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Florin a coin with roots in Florence, global legacy

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Editor's note: The following is the second post in Coin World's Symbols of Power series about three early coinage units. R ead other posts in the series: Our second coin term, "florin," was introduced in A.D. 1252, following a period of some 500 years in which the coinage of Western Europe had been predominantly silver.

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Pietro d'Abano, also known as Petrus de Apono, Petrus Aponensis or Peter of Abano ( c. 1257 - 1316), was an Italian philosopher, astrologer, and professor of medicine in Padua. He was born in the Italian town from which he takes his name, now Abano Terme.

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Kids learn about the science of astronomy during the Renaissance. Discoveries by Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler.

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An indulgence, in Roman Catholic theology, means that temporal punishment (punishment here on Earth) for sins which have already been forgiven is taken from the sinner.

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Indulgence | Definition, History & Types

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Indulgence, a distinctive feature of the penitential system of both the Western medieval and the Roman Catholic Church that granted full or partial remission of the punishment of sin. The granting of indulgences was predicated on two beliefs. First, in the sacrament of penance it did not suffice to

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Guild: Guild, an association of craftsmen or merchants formed for mutual aid and protection and for the furtherance of their professional interests. Guilds flourished in Europe between the 11th and 16th centuries and formed an important part of the economic and social fabric in that era. The medieval

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Kids learn about guilds during the Middle Ages and Medieval times. Craftsmen and merchants from apprentice to journeyman to master.

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The Palazzo Pitti ( Italian pronunciation: [paˈlattso ˈpitti]), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker.

The palace was bought by the Medici family in 1549 and became the chief residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It grew as a great treasure house as later generations amassed paintings, plates, jewelry and luxurious possessions.

In the late 18th century, the palazzo was used as a power base by Napoleon and later served for a brief period as the principal royal palace of the newly united Italy. The palace and its contents were donated to the Italian people by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1919.

The palazzo is now the largest museum complex in Florence. The principal palazzo block, often in a building of this design known as the corps de logis, is 32,000 square metres. It is divided into several principal galleries or museums detailed below.

The construction of this severe and forbidding building was commissioned in 1458 by the Florentine banker Luca Pitti (1398-1472), a principal supporter and friend of Cosimo de' Medici. The early history of the Palazzo Pitti is a mixture of fact and myth. Pitti is alleged to have instructed that the windows be larger than the entrance of the Palazzo Medici. The 16th-century art historian Giorgio Vasari proposed that Brunelleschi was the palazzo's architect, and that his pupil Luca Fancelli was merely his assistant in the task, but today it is Fancelli who is generally credited. Besides obvious differences from the elder architect's style, Brunelleschi died 12 years before construction of the palazzo began. The design and fenestration suggest that the unknown architect was more experienced in utilitarian domestic architecture than in the humanist rules defined by Alberti in his book De Re Aedificatoria.

Though impressive, the original palazzo would have been no rival to the Florentine Medici residences in terms of either size or content. Whoever the architect of the Palazzo Pitti was, he was moving against the contemporary flow of fashion. The rusticated stonework gives the palazzo a severe and powerful atmosphere, reinforced by the three-times-repeated series of seven arch-headed apertures, reminiscent of a Roman aqueduct. The Roman-style architecture appealed to the Florentine love of the new style all'antica. This original design has withstood the test of time: the repetitive formula of the façade was continued during the subsequent additions to the palazzo, and its influence can be seen in numerous 16th-century imitations and 19th-century revivals. Work stopped after Pitti suffered financial losses following the death of Cosimo de' Medici in 1464. Luca Pitti died in 1472 with the building unfinished.

The building was sold in 1549 to Eleonora di Toledo. Raised at the luxurious court of Naples, Eleonora was the wife of Cosimo I de' Medici of Tuscany, later the Grand Duke. On moving into the palace, Cosimo had Vasari enlarge the structure to fit his tastes; the palace was more than doubled by the addition of a new block along the rear. Vasari also built the Vasari Corridor, an above-ground walkway from Cosimo's old palace and the seat of government, the Palazzo Vecchio, through the Uffizi, above the Ponte Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti. This enabled the Grand Duke and his family to move easily and safely from their official residence to the Palazzo Pitti. Initially the Palazzo Pitti was used mostly for lodging official guests and for occasional functions of the court, while the Medicis' principal residence remained the Palazzo Vecchio. It was not until the reign of Eleonora's son Francesco I and his wife Johanna of Austria that the palazzo was occupied on a permanent basis and became home to the Medicis' art collection.

Land on the Boboli hill at the rear of the palazzo was acquired in order to create a large formal park and gardens, today known as the Boboli Gardens. The landscape architect employed for this was the Medici court artist Niccolò Tribolo, who died the following year; he was quickly succeeded by Bartolommeo Ammanati. The original design of the gardens centred on an amphitheatre, behind the corps de logis of the palazzo. The first play recorded as performed there was by Terence in 1476. It was followed by many classically inspired plays of Florentine playwrights such as Giovan Battista Cini. Performed for the amusement of the cultivated Medici court, they featured elaborate sets designed by the court architect Baldassarre Lanci.

The cortile and extensions

With the garden project well in hand, Ammanati turned his attentions to creating a large courtyard immediately behind the principal façade, to link the palazzo to its new garden. This courtyard has heavy-banded channelled rustication that has been widely copied, notably for the Parisian palais of Maria de' Medici, the Luxembourg. In the principal façade Ammanati also created the finestre inginocchiate ("kneeling" windows, in reference to their imagined resemblance to a , a device of Michelangelo's), replacing the entrance bays at each end. During the years 1558-70, Ammanati created a monumental staircase to lead with more pomp to the piano nobile, and he extended the wings on the garden front that embraced a courtyard excavated into the steeply sloping hillside at the same level as the piazza in front, from which it was visible through the central arch of the basement. On the garden side of the courtyard Amannati constructed a grotto, called the "grotto of Moses" on account of the porphyry statue that inhabits it. On the terrace above it, level with the piano nobile windows, Ammanati constructed a fountain centered on the axis; it was later replaced by the Fontana del Carciofo ("Fountain of the Artichoke"), designed by Giambologna's former assistant, Francesco Susini, and completed in 1641.

In 1616, a competition was held to design extensions to the principal urban façade by three bays at either end. Giulio Parigi won the commission; work on the north side began in 1618, and on the south side in 1631 by Alfonso Parigi. During the 18th century, two perpendicular wings were constructed by the architect Giuseppe Ruggeri to enhance and stress the widening of via Romana, which creates a piazza centered on the façade, the prototype of the cour d'honneur that was copied in France. Sporadic lesser additions and alterations were made for many years thereafter under other rulers and architects.

To one side of the Gardens is the bizarre grotto designed by Bernardo Buontalenti. The lower façade was begun by Vasari but the architecture of the upper storey is subverted by "dripping" pumice stalactites with the Medici coat of arms at the centre. The interior is similarly poised between architecture and nature; the first chamber has copies of Michelangelo's four unfinished slaves emerging from the corners which seem to carry the vault with an open oculus at its centre and painted as a rustic bower with animals, figures and vegetation. Figures, animals and trees made of stucco and rough pumice adorn the lower walls. A short passage leads to a small second chamber and to a third which has a central fountain with Giambologna's Venus in the centre of the basin, peering fearfully over her shoulder at the four satyrs spitting jets of water at her from the edge.

The palazzo remained the principal Medici residence until the last male Medici heir died in 1737. It was then occupied briefly by his sister, the elderly Electress Palatine; on her death, the Medici dynasty became extinct and the palazzo passed to the new Grand Dukes of Tuscany, the Austrian House of Lorraine, in the person of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. The Austrian tenancy was briefly interrupted by Napoleon, who used the palazzo during his period of control over Italy.

When Tuscany passed from the House of Lorraine to the House of Savoy in 1860, the Palazzo Pitti was included. After the Risorgimento, when Florence was briefly the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, Victor Emmanuel II resided in the palazzo until 1871. His grandson, Victor Emmanuel III, presented the palazzo to the nation in 1919. The palazzo and other buildings in the Boboli Gardens were then divided into five separate art galleries and a museum, housing not only many of its original contents, but priceless artefacts from many other collections acquired by the state. The 140 rooms open to the public are part of an interior, which is in large part a later product than the original portion of the structure, mostly created in two phases, one in the 17th century and the other in the early 18th century. Some earlier interiors remain, and there are still later additions such as the Throne Room. In 2005 the surprise discovery of forgotten 18th-century bathrooms in the palazzo revealed remarkable examples of contemporary plumbing very similar in style to the bathrooms of the 21st century.

See a partial list of work at Paintings of the Galleria Palatina

The Palatine Gallery, the main gallery of Palazzo Pitti, contains a large ensemble of over 500 principally Renaissance paintings, which were once part of the Medicis' and their successors' private art collection. The gallery, which overflows into the royal apartments, contains works by Raphael, Titian, Perugino (Lamentation over the Dead Christ), Correggio, Peter Paul Rubens, and Pietro da Cortona. The character of the gallery is still that of a private collection, and the works of art are displayed and hung much as they would have been in the grand rooms for which they were intended rather than following a chronological sequence, or arranged according to school of art.

The finest rooms were decorated by Pietro da Cortona in the high baroque style. Initially Cortona frescoed a small room on the piano nobile called the Sala della Stufa with a series depicting the Four Ages of Man which were very well received; the Age of Gold and Age of Silver were painted in 1637, followed in 1641 by the Age of Bronze and Age of Iron. They are regarded among his masterpieces. The artist was subsequently asked to fresco the grand ducal reception rooms; a suite of five rooms at the front of the palazzo. In these five Planetary Rooms, the hierarchical sequence of the deities is based on Ptolomeic cosmology; Venus, Apollo, Mars, Jupiter (the Medici Throne room) and Saturn, but minus Mercury and the Moon which should have come before Venus. These highly ornate ceilings with frescoes and elaborate stucco work essentially celebrate the Medici lineage and the bestowal of virtuous leadership. Cortona left Florence in 1647, and his pupil and collaborator, Ciro Ferri, completed the cycle by the 1660s. They were to inspire the later Planet Rooms at Louis XIV's Versailles, designed by Le Brun.

The collection was first opened to the public in the late 18th century, albeit rather reluctantly, by Grand Duke Leopold, Tuscany's first enlightened ruler, keen to obtain popularity after the demise of the Medici.

The Palatine Gallery has 28 rooms, among them:

Room of Castagnoli: named after the painter of the ceiling frescoes. In this room are exposed Portraits of the Medici and Lorraine ruling families, and the Table of the Muses, a masterwork of stone-inlaid table realized by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure between 1837 and 1851.

Room of the Ark: contains a painting by Giovan Battista Caracciolo (17th century). In 1816, the ceiling was frescoed by Luigi Ademollo with Transportation of the Ark of the Covenant Containing the Tablets of the Law.

Room of Psyche: was named after ceiling frescoes by Giuseppe Collignon; it contains paintings by Salvator Rosa from 1640-1650.

Hall of Poccetti: The frescoes on the vault were once ascribed to Bernardino Poccetti, but now attributed to Matteo Rosselli. In the center of the hall is a table (1716) commissioned by Cosimo III. In the hall are also some works by Rubens and Pontormo.

Room of Prometheus: was named after the subject of the frescoes by Giuseppe Collignon (19th century) and contains a large collection of round-shaped paintings: among them is the Madonna with the Child by Filippino Lippi (15th century), two portraits by Botticelli and paintings by Pontormo and Domenico Beccafumi.

Room of Justice: has a ceiling frescoed by Antonio Fedi (1771-1843), and displays portraits (16th century) by Titian, Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese.

Room of Ulysses: was frescoed in 1815 by Gaspare Martellini, it contains early works by Filippino Lippi and Raphael.

Room of Iliad: contains the Madonna of the Family Panciatichi and the Madonna Passerini (c- 1522-1523 and 1526 respectively) by Andrea del Sarto, and paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi (17th century).

Room of Saturn: contains a Portrait of Agnolo Doni (1506), the Madonna of the chair(1516), and Portrait of Cardinal Inghirami (1516) by Raphael; it also contains an Annunciation(1528) by Andrea del Sarto, and Jesus and the Evangelists (1516) by Fra Bartolomeo.

Room of Jupiter: contains the Veiled Lady, the famous portrait by Raphael (1516) that, according to Vasari, represents the woman loved by the artist. Among the other works in the room, Paintings by Rubens, Andrea del Sarto and Perugin

Room of Mars: is characterized by works by Rubens: the allegories representing the Consequences of War (hence the name of the room) and the Four Philosophers (among them Rubens portrayed himself, on the left). On the vault is a fresco by Pietro da Cortona, Triumph of the Medici.

Room of Apollo: contains a Madonna with Saints (1522) by Il Rosso, originally from the Church of Santo Spirito, and two paintings by Titian: a Magdalen and Portrait of an English Nobleman (between 1530 and 1540).

Room of Venus: contains the Venus Italica (1810) by Canova commissioned by Napoleon. On the walls are landscapes (1640-50) by Salvator Rosa and four paintings by Titian, 1510-1545. Among the Titian paintings is a Portrait of Pope Julius II (1545) and La Bella (1535).

White Hall: once the ball room of the palace, is characterized by the white decorations and is often used for temporary exhibitions.

The Royal Apartments include 14 rooms. Their decoration has been changed to Empire style by the Savoy, but there are still some rooms maintaining decorations and furniture from the age of the Medici.

The Green Room, was frescoed by Giuseppe Castagnoli in early 19th Century. It exhibits an Intarsia Cabinet from the 17th century and a Collection of Gilded Bronzes; the Throne Room was decorated for King Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy and is characterized by the red brocate on the walls and by the Japanese and Chinese Vases (17th-18th century).

The Blue Room contains collected Furniture (17th-18th century) and the Portraits of members of the Medici Family painted by Justus Sustermans (1597-1681).

This is a suite of 14 rooms, formerly used by the Medici family, and lived in by their successors. These rooms have been largely altered since the era of the Medici, most recently in the 19th century. They contain a collection of Medici portraits, many of them by the artist Giusto Sustermans. In contrast to the great salons containing the Palatine collection, some of these rooms are much smaller and more intimate, and, while still grand and gilded, are more suited to day-to-day living requirements. Period furnishings include four-poster beds and other necessary furnishings not found elsewhere in the palazzo. The Kings of Italy last used the Palazzo Pitti in the 1920s. By that time it had already been converted to a museum, but a suite of rooms in the Meridian wing (now the Gallery of Modern Art) was reserved for them when visiting Florence officially.

This gallery originates from the remodeling of the Florentine academy in 1748, when a gallery of Modern Art was established. The gallery was intended to hold those art works which were prize-winners in the academy's competitions. The Palazzo Pitti was being redecorated on a grand scale at this time and the new works of art were being collected to adorn the newly decorated salons. By the mid-19th century so numerous were the Grand Ducal paintings of modern art that many were transferred to the Palazzo della Crocetta, which became the first home of the newly formed "Modern Art Museum".

Following the Risorgimento and the expulsion of the Grand Ducal family from the palazzo, all the Grand Ducal modern art works were brought together under one roof in the newly titled "Modern gallery of the Academy". The collection continued to expand, particularly so under the patronage of Vittorio Emanuele II. However it was not until 1922 that this gallery was moved to the Palazzo Pitti where it was complemented by further modern works of art in the ownership of both the state and the municipality of Florence. The collection was housed in apartments recently vacated by members of the Italian Royal family. The gallery was first opened to public viewing in 1928.

Today, further enlarged and spread over 30 rooms, this large collection includes works by artists of the Macchiaioli movement and other modern Italian schools of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The pictures by the Macchiaioli artists are of particular note, as this school of 19th-century Tuscan painters led by Giovanni Fattori were early pioneers and the founders of the impressionist movement. The title "gallery of modern art" to some may sound incorrect, as the art in the gallery covers the period from the 18th to the early 20th century. No examples of later art are included in the collection since In Italy, "modern art" refers to the period before World War II; what has followed is generally known as "contemporary art" ( arte contemporanea). In Tuscany this art can be found at the Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci at Prato, a city about 15 km (9 mi) from Florence.

The Silver Museum (Museo degli Argenti), now called "The Grandukes Treasury" (Tesoro dei Granduchi), contains a collection of priceless silver, cameos, and works in semi-precious gemstones, many of the latter from the collection of Lorenzo de' Medici, including his collection of ancient vases, many with delicate silver gilt mounts added for display purposes in the 15th century. These rooms, formerly part of the private royal apartments, are decorated with 17th-century frescoes, the most splendid being by Giovanni da San Giovanni, from 1635 to 1636. The Silver Museum also contains a fine collection of German gold and silver artefacts purchased by Grand Duke Ferdinand after his return from exile in 1815, following the French occupation.

First opened in 1973, this museum is housed in the Casino del Cavaliere in the Boboli Gardens. The porcelain is from many of the most notable European porcelain factories, with Sèvres and Meissen near Dresden being well represented. Many items in the collection were gifts to the Florentine rulers from other European sovereigns, while other works were specially commissioned by the Grand Ducal court. Of particular note are several large dinner services by the Vincennes factory, later renamed Sèvres, and a collection of small biscuit figurines.

Situated in a wing known as the " Palazzina della Meridiana", this gallery contains a collection of theatrical costumes dating from the 16th century until the present. It is also the only museum in Italy detailing the history of Italian fashions. One of the newer collections to the palazzo, it was founded in 1983 by Kirsten Aschengreen Piacenti; a suite of fourteen rooms, the Meridiana apartments, were completed in 1858.

In addition to theatrical costumes, the gallery displays garments worn between the 18th century and the present day. Some of the exhibits are unique to the Palazzo Pitti; these include the 16th-century funeral clothes of Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, and his wife Eleonora of Toledo and their son Garzia, both of whom died of malaria. Their bodies would have been displayed in state wearing their finest clothes, before being reclad in plainer attire before interment. The gallery also exhibits a collection of mid-20th century costume jewellery. The Sala Meridiana originally sponsored a functional solar meridian instrument, built into the fresco decoration by Anton Domenico Gabbiani.

This ground floor museum exhibits carriages and other conveyances used by the Grand Ducal court mainly in the late 18th and 19th century. The extent of the exhibition prompted one visitor in the 19th century to wonder, "In the name of all that is extraordinary, how can they find room for all these carriages and horses". Some of the carriages are highly decorative, being adorned not only by gilt but by painted landscapes on their panels. Those used on the grandest occasions, such as the "Carrozza d'Oro" (golden carriage), are surmounted by gilt crowns which would have indicated the rank and station of the carriage's occupants. Other carriages on view are those used by the King of the Two Sicilies, and Archbishops and other Florentine dignitaries.

Today, transformed from royal palace to museum, the Palazzo is in the hands of the Italian state. Once under the "Polo Museale Fiorentino", an institution which administers twenty museums, from 2015 it is a department of the Uffizi Gallery, as a separate and independent structure within the Ministry of Cultural Properties and Activities, and has ultimate responsibility for 250,000 catalogued works of art. In spite of its metamorphosis from royal residence to a state-owned public building, the palazzo, sitting on its elevated site overlooking Florence, still retains the air and atmosphere of a private collection in a grand house. This is to a great extent due to the "Amici di Palazzo Pitti" (Friends of the Palazzo Pitti), an organisation of volunteers and patrons founded in 1996, which raises funds and makes suggestions for the ongoing maintenance of the palazzo and the collections, and for the continuing improvement of their visual display.

The Königsbau wing ('King's building / den') of the Munich Residenz, the former royal palace in the capital of Bavaria, was modelled after the Palazzo Pitti.

Chiarini, Marco (2001). Pitti Palace. Livorno: Sillabe s.r.l. ISBN 88-8347-047-8.

Chierici, Gino (1964). Il Palazzo Italiano. Milan.

Dynes, Wayne (1968). Palaces of Europe. London: Hamlyn.

Levey, Michael. Florence: A Portrait. Harvard University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-674-30658-9

Masson, Georgina (1959). Italian Villas and Palaces. London: Harry N. Abrams Ltd.

Pitti Palace and Museums - see sub-pages for individual museums

Gurrieri, Francesco; Patrizia Fabbri (1996). Palaces of Florence. Stefano Giraldi, photography. Rizzoli. pp. 66-77.

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The Palazzo Pitti ( Italian pronunciation: [paˈlattso ˈpitti]), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio.

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The Loggia dei Lanzi, also called the Loggia della Signoria, is a building on a corner of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy, adjoining the Uffizi Gallery. It consists of wide arches open to the street. The arches rest on clustered pilasters with Corinthian capitals.

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The word bargello appears to come from the late Latin bargillus (from Gothic bargi and German burg), meaning "castle" or "fortified tower". During the Italian Middle Ages it was the name given to a military captain in charge of keeping peace and justice (hence "Captain of justice") during riots and uproars.

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The Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge", Italian pronunciation: [ˈponte ˈvɛkkjo]) is a medieval stone closed- spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy, noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common. Butchers initially occupied the shops; the present tenants are jewelers, art dealers and souvenir sellers.

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Palazzo Vecchio in Florence: Florence's City Hall Since Medieval Times

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With fortress-like castellations and a 311 foot high bell tower, Florence's Palazzo Vecchio conveys the message of political power supported by military strength.

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Kids learn about food and cooking during the Renaissance. What did they eat?.

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History >>Renaissance for Kids

As Europe transformed from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, the daily life of the average person changed as well. People began to enjoy more luxuries, nicer clothes, finer foods, and the arts. There were more craftsmen, artisans, and merchants who developed into a middle class of people who had money, but who weren't nobles or royalty.

Of course, many people still lived hard lives full of work and toil. The daily life of the farmer and peasant was mostly work with little chance to improve their position.

Housing

The typical home for a poor farmer was a one room hut, but wealthier merchants began to live in large homes. These homes would have been dark and cold compared to today's homes. They didn't have running water or bathrooms either. They were probably pretty smelly.

Food

Most people ate bread and stew, but the rich had all sorts of interesting and fancy meals. People generally drank beer or wine with their meals, because the water would make them sick. You can go here to learn more aboutRenaissance food.

Clothing

Clothing was an important status symbol during the Renaissance. The wealthy dressed up in fancy clothing. Men wore a tight coat called a doublet and women wore long dresses. You can go here to learn more aboutRenaissance clothing.

Religion

The main religion of Renaissance Europe was Christianity and the main church was the Catholic Church. However, there were new ideas during this time including a new Christian church called Protestantism and a new philosophy called Humanism. Humanism was important to the Renaissance because it placed values on human accomplishments and the study of nature.

Entertainment

People during the Renaissance enjoyed all sorts of entertainment. They went to festivals, sporting events, and played games such aschess, checkers, and backgammon. Perhaps the biggest event was carnival which took place before Lent each year. People would have big parties and dress up in costumes for the Masquerade.

Shopping and Money

People would go shopping in the market place in town. Smaller towns would have specific market days when the local merchants and craftsmen would bring their goods into town for sale. Money wasn't as regulated as it is today. Each major city had its own money and the value of the coins could change on a regular basis.

Children During the Renaissance

The Renaissance was a time of great change in how children were treated. At the start of the Renaissance, children were treated like small adults. They were expected to act, talk, and dress like adults. As soon as they could, they were expected to begin working. They generally weren't hugged or coddled.

However, as people gained more free time and wealth during the Renaissance, they began to treat their children differently. Wealthy children were sometimes treated with love and had free time to play and enjoy their childhood.

School

School was primarily for the wealthy. A wealthy child, especially boys, either attended a college or had a private tutor. They mostly learned about grammar andarithmetic, but some studied philosophy, Latin, and public speaking.

Interesting Facts about Daily Life in the Renaissance

The dance form of ballet was invented during the Italian Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Some of the favorite foods of the nobles were large birds such as swans, peacocks, and herons.

Music and dancing was a popular form of entertainment and big part of Renaissance daily life.

The first violin was invented during the Renaissance by Italian Andrea Amati in 1555.

The invention of the printing press and the availability of books had a huge impact on the daily life of people during the Renaissance.

Activities

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Works Cited

History >>Renaissance for Kids

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History >>Renaissance for Kids As Europe transformed from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, the daily life of the average person changed as well. People began to enjoy more luxuries, nicer clothes, finer foods, and the arts. There were more craftsmen, artisans, and merchants who developed into a middle class of people who had money, but who weren't nobles or royalty.

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Illuminated manuscripts were hand-made books, usually on Christian scripture or practice, produced in Western Europe between c. 500-c. 1600 CE. They are so called because of the use of gold and silver which illuminates the text and accompanying illustrations. Although Muslim artisans also used this technique to ornament their books, the term "illuminated manuscripts" is most commonly used to refer to those works produced in Europe on Christian themes. However, the poetry and myth of pre-Christian authors, such as Virgil, was sometimes also illuminated.

Hand-made illuminated manuscripts were initially produced by monks in abbeys but, as they became more popular, production became commercialized and was taken over by secular book-makers. Illuminated manuscripts were quite costly to produce and only those of significant means could afford them. The most popular type was the Book of Hours which was a Christian devotional of prayers to be said at certain times throughout the day. More Books of Hours have survived than any other work of the period simply because more of them were produced. The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in c. 1440 CE signaled the beginning of the end of hand-made books generally and illuminated manuscripts specifically.

A Brief History of Books

The written word was invented in Sumer, southern Mesopotamia, around 3500-3000 BCE, where clay tablets were used to convey information. The Egyptians began using papyrus scrolls by the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150-c. 2613 BCE) which were adopted by the Greeks and Romans, although these latter two also began to use writing tablets of wood covered with wax. Several such tablets could be bound together between covers of wood or metal to form a single volume; this was called a codex and it replaced the papyrus scroll in the Mediterranean region c. 400 CE.

From the 5th-13th century CE monasteries were the sole producers of books. monks were involved in every aspect of their production from processing the vellum to the final product.

Paper was invented in China by Ts'ai Lun (also given as Cai Lun, 50-121 CE) during the Han Dynasty in c. 105 CE, and was introduced into the Arab world by Chinese merchants in the 7th century CE. The cities of Baghdad and Damascus, especially, became important centers of paper and book production and Muslim writers began producing original works of literature and poetry, as well as treaties on mathematics, science, astrology, and philosophy. They also made extensive copies of western philosophers like Aristotle (384-322 BCE) which preserved many of his works long before they were appreciated in the west. Muslim artisans decorated their books with elaborate borders and illustrations and these are often defined as illuminated manuscripts.

In Europe, however, the acceptance of paper was still centuries away. The Chinese had been using paper for almost a century when people in Asia Minor developed writing surfaces made of animal hides (sheep or goats) which were soaked in water, scraped to remove hair, stretched on wooden frames to dry, and then bleached with lime; the finished product became known as parchment.

Parchment made of calfskin was called vellum, was of much higher quality as a writing surface, and so became more popular. European monks favored vellum and this became their standard material for the works which would become known as illuminated manuscripts. Paper and papyrus were considered un-Christian by the medieval church and their use was discouraged as these materials had been used by pagan writers in the past and were used by "heathens" of the east at this time. Paper would not be accepted by Europeans until the 11th century CE.

HOW THEY WERE MADE

As books became more popular, they were produced by secular merchants and sold in books stalls and stores. Initially, however, they were made by monks in monasteries, abbeys, and priories probably first in Ireland and then Britain and the continent.

Every monastery was required to have a library according to the rules of St. Benedict of the 6th century CE. Some books no doubt arrived with the monks who came to live there but most were produced at the site by monks known as scriptores in rooms called scriptoriums. From the 5th to the 13th century CE monasteries were the sole producers of books. The scriptorium was a large room with wooden chairs and writing tables which angled upwards to hold manuscript pages. Monks were involved in every aspect of a book's production from processing the vellum to the final product.

A director would distribute pages to be done to the monks in the room and then remain to supervise and maintain the rule of silence. Scribes worked only in the day and could not have candles or lamps near the manuscripts for fear of fire. The director would make sure that the monks remained at work, quietly, and continued until their pages were done. One monk rarely worked on a page to completion but rather traded with others in the room.

A monk would begin by cutting down a sheet of vellum to appropriate size. This practice would dictate the shape of books down to the present day as longer than they are wider. Once the vellum sheet was prepared, lines would be ruled across it for text and blank spaces left open for illustrations.

The pages of the Codex Argenteus were dyed purple, to denote the elevated subject matter, and the work was written & illustrated in silver & gold ink.

The text was written first in black ink (or gold or another appropriate color for the subject) between the ruled lines on the page and then would be given to another monk to proofread for errors; this second monk - or perhaps a third - would then add titles in blue or red ink and then pass the page on to the illuminator who would add images, color, and the requisite gold illumination. Monks wrote with quill pens and boiled iron, tree bark, and nuts to make black ink; other ink colors were produced by grinding and boiling different natural chemicals and plants.

The work was long and tedious, carried out in the silence of rooms lit only by narrow windows which were cold in winter and sultry in warmer weather. A scriptore-monk was expected to show up for work no matter the weather, their state of health, or interest in a project. It is clear, from brief comments written on some pages, that the monks were not always happy about their duties.

Scholar Giulia Bologna notes how many manuscripts include small notations written in the margins such as "This page was not copied slowly", "I don't feel well today", "This parchment is certainly hairy" and a long observation regarding having to sit for hours hunched over a writing table: "Three fingers write, but the entire body toils. Just as the sailor yearns for port, the writer longs for the last line" (37).

The Early Illuminated Manuscripts

The vellum works of Europe became the standard definition of a book for centuries. The word book comes from the Old English boc meaning 'a written document' or 'written sheet' and the texts produced on vellum in time came to be decorated with flourishes and illustrations. The earliest illuminated manuscript is the Vergilius Augusteus of the 4th century CE which exists in seven pages of what must have been a much larger book of Virgil's works.

It is not technically an illuminated manuscript because it makes no use of gold, silver, or any colored illustrations but it is the oldest European work which uses decorated capital letters to begin each page - a practice which would come to define illuminated manuscripts.

In the 5th century CE, the Ambrosian Iliad, an illuminated manuscript of Homer's work, was completed, most likely in Constantinople. This work is richly illustrated and the technique used seems to have influenced later artisans. The St. Augustine Gospels of the 6th century CE, another illuminated work, shows similarities to the earlier Iliad. The St. Augustine Gospels is a copy of the four gospels as translated by St. Jerome and was once completely illustrated but many of the pieces have been lost over time.

One of the most impressive of the early illuminated manuscripts is the Codex Argenteus ('Silver Book") of the 6th century CE which is a copy of the Bishop Ulfilas' translation of the Bible (c. 4th century CE) into the Gothic language. The vellum pages were dyed purple, to denote the elevated subject matter, and the work was written and illustrated in silver and gold ink. It is commonly accepted that the book was produced for the Gothic king Theodoric the Great (r. 493-526 CE) in Italy.

FAMOUS ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS

The greatest works were created between the 7th - 16th centuries CE when the basics of illustration and decoration had been mastered and were perfected. Among these works, the best known is the Book of Kells, currently housed at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, created c. 800 CE.

The Book of Kells was produced by monks of St. Columba's order of Iona, Scotland but exactly where it was made is uncertain. Theories regarding its composition range from its creation on the island of Iona, to Kells in Ireland, to Lindisfarne in Britain. It was most likely created, at least in part, at Iona and then brought to Kells to keep it safe from Viking raiders who first struck Iona in 795 CE, shortly after their raid on Lindisfarne Priory in Britain.

A Viking raid in 806 CE killed 68 monks at Iona and led to the survivors abandoning the abbey in favor of another of their order at Kells. It is likely that the Book of Kells traveled with them at this time and may have been completed in Ireland. The grandeur of this work is justly praised but it should be noted that there are many other high-quality illuminated manuscripts currently housed in private collections, museums, and libraries around the world. Among these many, some of the most impressive are:

The Book of Durrow (650-700 CE) - The oldest illuminated book of the gospels created either at Iona or Lindisfarne Abbey. It contains a number of striking illustrations including carpet pages of intricate Celtic-knot motifs with various animals entwined.

Codex Amiatinus (c. late 7th - early 8th century CE) - The oldest version of St. Jerome's Vulgate Bible. It was created in Northumbria, Britain, and although it is not technically "illuminated" it does contain a number of significant full-page illustrations and miniatures.

Lindisfarne Gospels (c. 700-715 CE) - Among the best-known and most admired illuminated manuscripts, this work was created at the Lindisfarne Priory on the "Holy Island" off the coast of Dorset, Britain. It is an illustrated edition of the gospels of the New Testament made in honor of the priory's most famous member, St. Cuthbert.

The Morgan Crusader Bible (c. 1250 CE) - Created in Paris most likely for Louis IX (1214-270 CE) whose piety was a defining characteristic of his reign. It was originally a work only of full-color illuminated illustrations of Old Testament events and lay subjects but later owners commissioned accompanying text to the images. The work is considered one of the greatest illuminated manuscripts and a masterpiece of medieval art.

The Westminster Abbey Bestiary (c. 1275-1290 CE) - Probably created in York, Britain, this work is a collection of descriptions of animals - some real and some imaginary - drawn from pre-Christian sources, the Bible, and legends. There were a number of bestiaries produced during the middle ages but the Westminster Abbey Bestiary is considered the finest for the skill of composition of the 164 illustrations it contains.

The Book of Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux (c. 1324-1328 CE) - Created in Paris, France by the leading illustrator of the time, Jean Pucelle, for the queen Jeanne d'Evreux (1310-1371 CE), wife of Charles IV (1322-1328 CE). It is a small Book of Hours delicately illustrated on exceptionally fine vellum with over 700 illustrations accompanying the text. The work is smaller than a modern-day paperback and must have required great skill to produce.

The Black Hours (c. 1475-1480 CE) - Created in Bruges, Belgium by an anonymous artist working in the style of the leading illustrator of the city, Wilhelm Vrelant who dominated the art from c. 1450 until his death in 1481 CE. It is made of vellum which was stained black and illuminated in striking blue and gold. The text is written in silver and gold ink. It is one of the most unique Books of Hours extant.

Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (c. 1412-1416 and 1485-1489 CE) - The most famous Book of Hours in the present day as well as its own time, this work was commissioned by Jean, Duke of Berry, Count of Poitiers, France (1340-1416 CE). It was left unfinished when the Duke as well as the artists working on it died of the plague in 1416 CE. The work was discovered and completed between the years 1485-1489 CE when it was recognized as a masterpiece. It is frequently referred to as the "king of illuminated manuscripts" because of the grandeur and intricacy of the paintings.

Grimani Breviary (c. 1510 CE) - An enormous work of 1,670 pages with full-page illustrations of scenes from the Bible, secular legend, contemporary landscapes and domestic scenes. The text is made up of prayers, psalms, and other selections from the Bible. It was probably made in Flanders but who created or commissioned it is unknown. The book was bought by the Venetian Cardinal Domenico Grimani (1461-1523 CE) in 1520 CE who declared it so beautiful that only select people of high moral standing should be allowed to see it and then only under special circumstances.

Prayer book of Claude de France (c. 1517 CE) - One of the most unique and impressive illuminated manuscripts, this book is small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand and yet is illustrated with 132 brilliantly realized works framed by elaborate and striking borders. The little book was made for Claude, queen of France (1514-1524 CE) along with a Book of Hours by an artist who was known, after completing these works, as Master of Claude de France.

The Printing Press & the End of Illumination

By the 13th century CE, literacy in Europe had improved and professional book-makers appeared on the scene in response to demand. In Britain, literature produced in vernacular languages had been encouraged since the reign of Alfred the Great (871-899 CE) and, in France, since the time of Charlemagne (800-814 CE). The greater demand led to the necessity for more scribes and many of these were women.

That both men and women were now involved in book production is clear from their known places of origin (such as nunneries rather than monasteries) as well as the same kind of notations the monks left on pages. Scholar Christopher de Hamel notes one such instance:

It is frequently said that women had an important role in promoting vernacular writing [English] because girls were not customarily taught Latin as thoroughly as boys. It is quite true that vernacular prayer books can often be traced to nuns rather than monks, for example...In fact the earliest dated Lancelot manuscript must have been written by a female scribe. It was made in 1274 and ends with the request that the reader will pray for the scribe, `pries pour ce li ki lescrist'; `ce li' is a feminine pronoun. (148)

Books continued to be produced by hand until the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in c. 1440 CE. By 1456 CE, he had printed the Latin Bible - now commonly referred to as the Gutenberg Bible - and the process of printing books instead of crafting them by hand was mastered.

Shortly after this, Gutenberg's press and equipment were seized for outstanding debts and Gutenberg's patron, Johann Fust, developed the printer's techniques successfully to mass produce written works. A single book of approximately 400 pages would have once taken at least six months to produce; now it could be printed in less than a week.

Even so, people then - as now - liked what they knew and many rejected the new product of the printed book. Giulia Bologna notes how "the great bibliophile Federigo da Montefelto, Duke of Urbino, would have felt shame to have had a printed book in his library" (39). Printed books were at first considered cheap imitations of "real books" and printers, recognizing this, went to lengths to make them look like hand-made works of the past by binding them in leather, adding gold gilt to the covers, and hiring illustrators to provide images for the text. These practices helped make the new products more palatable to book collectors. Still, illuminated manuscripts were commissioned, though in far fewer numbers than in the past, up through the early years of the 17th century CE.

As the printed book became more widely accepted, however, the skills of illumination were valued less and less and eventually were forgotten. The work of the artists - most of them anonymous - would live on, however, in the books they had created. Illuminated manuscripts were intentionally crafted as valuable items from their beginning but became more so once they were no longer produced. The wealthy sought out these books and cultivated collections in their private libraries which preserved the works up through to the present day.

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Illuminated manuscripts were hand-made books, usually on Christian scripture or practice, produced in Western Europe between c. 500-c. 1600 CE. They are so called because of the use of gold and silver which illuminates the text and accompanying illustrations.

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How did people eat during the Renaissance? This is something I talk a lot about during my tours as I find it lends a sense of familiarity to a mostly unfamiliar historical period and allows us to connect to the characters that pepper (sorry) the stories I tell about Florence during its Golden Age.

People during the Renaissance loved a good handbook; we have massive amounts of prescriptive literature about everything from how to raise a family (Leon Battista Alberti's Della Famiglia), to how to be a good artist (Cennino Cennini's Il Libro dell'Arte), to how not to be generally disgusting (Galateo by Giovanni della Casa). It should not surprise us, therefore, that within many of these behavior manuals we find information about how and what to eat. (Anyone with a bit of knowledge about contemporary Italy knows that variations on these "food rules" are still firmly in place today.)

Typically speaking, there were two meals per day: the comestio, usually eaten sometime before 11am, and the prandium, which occurred just before sunset. Breakfast was virtually non-existent as it consisted of nothing more than a slice of bread and a small glass of wine. Paolo di Messer Pace da Certaldo attempted to bring order to mealtimes in his treatise Il Libro dei Buoni Costumi (a book about how the common man might cultivate good habits) when he advised that meals be "cooked once a day only, in the morning", to keep "the cooked food for the evening" and "to eat little before going to bed". In terms of what an everyday meal might consist of, Paolo suggests bread, wine, beans, millet porridge, and chestnuts during the appropriate season. Soups and some vegetables might make an appearance as well. Pork and fowl were reserved for special occasions.

Even the wealthy in Florence ate rather frugally on a daily basis, though they tended to step it up when guests were invited over. Apparently things had gotten a bit out of control in trying to impress, as the Florentine Republic decided to regulate what could be served at the dinner table when guests were present: only two main dishes, one boiled, one roasted. Fish was substituted on meatless days. Lest you think that sounds meager, consider that the boiled dish could offer three different kinds of meat and the roasted dish four kinds. Exceptions could be made by petitioning the city priors and demonstrating that the exemption was being made for the glory of the Republic and not for personal gain. What I wouldn't give to see one of those requests!

Restaurants existed in the form of osterie-easy going places where businessmen, artists and literati could spend a few hours eating and socializing. We know the names of some of the more famous osterie, including the "Baldracca" in San Pier Scheraggio, the "Giardino" in via de' Pilastri and my personal favorite, "Il Pennello" (the paintbrush), opened by painter Mariotto Albertinelli after he decided that the artist's life was too rife with criticism and humiliation to be enjoyable.

Banquets were another story entirely. Used as a symbol of status and wealth, banquets celebrated family anniversaries, public and religious festivals, and of course, weddings. During the warm months, banquets were held in outdoor loggias which were located adjacent to the family palazzo. (Though there were more then 40 of these loggias in Renaissance Florence, one of the only surviving examples is the Rucellai Loggia on via della Vigna Nuova). Neighborhood people not invited to the party would stand a respectable distance away but close enough to glimpse the sumptuous clothing of the guests, see the rich tapestry and lace decorations, hear the music, watch the dancing, and smell the delicious courses as they were being brought out. The host would typically distribute large amounts of food to the people, indicating that the banquet was being held for the entire city.

Food was eaten with fingers, so hand washing before the meal at a stone basin called a lavabo and during the meal with acqua linfa (water perfumed with orange blossoms) was key. Guests also used napkins to keep their hands relatively clean during the long meal. Any food that remained uneaten was thrown under the table or into bowls placed there for the occasion. In between courses, the tables were cleaned off and guests enjoyed short concerts, dancing and sometimes even plays.

The senescalso was technically responsible for the carving of the meat but in reality he was more of a butler (or party planner) in charge of the entire ritual associated with banquets, from the organization to the execution of the meal itself.

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Renaissance mealtimes - how did people eat during the Renaissance?

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How did people eat during the Renaissance? This is something I talk a lot about during my tours as I find it lends a sense of familiarity to a mostly unfamiliar historical period and allows us to connect to the characters that pepper (sorry) the stories I tell about Florence during its Golden Age.

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Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 - 24 May 1543) was an astronomer. People know Copernicus for his ideas about the sun and the earth. His main idea was that our world is heliocentric ( helios = sun). His theory was that the sun is in the middle of the solar system, and the planets go around it. This was published in his book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres).

Copernicus was born in 1473 in the city of Thorn ( Toruń), in Royal Prussia, a mainly German-speaking region that a few years earlier had become a part of the Kingdom of Poland. He was taught first in Cracow and then in Italy, where he graduated as a lawyer of the church. He studied also medicine to serve his fellow clerics. Copernicus spent most of his life working and researching in Frauenburg (Frombork), Warmia, where he died in 1543.

Copernicus was one of the great polymaths of his age. He was a priest, mathematician, astronomer, doctor, jurist, physician, classical scholar, governor, administrator, diplomat, economist, and soldier. During all these jobs, he treated astronomy as a hobby. However, his formula of how the sun, rather than the earth, is at the center of the solar system, is still one of the most important scientific hypotheses in history. It was the beginning of modern astronomy.

Images for kids

"Here, where stood the house of Domenico Maria Novara, professor of the ancient Studium of Bologna, NICOLAUS COPERNICUS, the Polish mathematician and astronomer who would revolutionize concepts of the universe, conducted brilliant celestial observations with his teacher in 1497-1500. Placed on the 5th centenary of [Copernicus's] birth by the City, the University, the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna, the Polish Academy of Sciences. 1473 [-] 1973."

Via Galliera 65, Bologna, site of house of Domenico Maria Novara. Plaque on portico commemorates Copernicus.

Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God, by Matejko. In background: Frombork Cathedral.

Copernicus's translation of Theophylact Simocatta's Epistles. Cover shows coats-of-arms of (clockwise from top) Poland, Lithuania and Kraków.

Ptolemy and Copernicus, ca. 1686, at King Jan Sobieski's library, Wilanów Palace: an early Copernicus depiction

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Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 - 24 May 1543) was an astronomer. People know Copernicus for his ideas about the sun and the earth. His main idea was that our world is heliocentric ( helios = sun). His theory was that the sun is in the middle of the solar system, and the planets go around it.

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As the U.S. government debuts a new $100 bill on Apr. 21 — this one will be redesigned to ward against digital copying and counterfeiting — TIME traces the history of banknotes from ancient China to modern cocaine dens. Here are 10 tidbits about money that may surprise you

Keren Su / CORBIS

Paper bills were first used by the Chinese, who started carrying folding money during the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907) — mostly in the form of privately issued bills of credit or exchange notes — and used it for more than 500 years before the practice began to catch on in Europe in the 17th century. While it took another century or two for paper money to spread to the rest of the world, China was already going through a fairly advanced financial crisis: the production of paper notes had grown until their value plummeted, prompting inflation to soar. As a result, China eliminated paper money entirely in 1455 and wouldn't adopt it again for several hundred years. Another not-so-well-known fact: the word cash was originally used to describe the type of round bronze coins with square holes commonly used in the Tang Dynasty, called kai-yuans.

Read "China's Plans for Replacing the Dollar."

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Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Money - TIME

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As the U.S. government debuts a new $100 bill on Apr. 21 - this one will be redesigned to ward against digital copying and counterfeiting - TIME traces the history of banknotes from ancient China to modern cocaine dens.

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The centerpiece of today's modern bathroom, the flush toilet has equal roots in ancient sanitation practices, Elizabethan politics and Industrial Revolution know-how. Primitive latrines that utilized a constant stream of water to carry away waste date back at least 5,000 years, and early toilet systems were used by the several ancient civilizations, including the Romans and the Mohenjo-Dara and Harappa of the Indus Valley.

The first modern flushable toilet was described in 1596 by Sir John Harington, an English courtier and the godson of Queen Elizabeth I. Harington's device called for a 2-foot-deep oval bowl waterproofed with pitch, resin and wax and fed by water from an upstairs cistern. Flushing Harington's pot required 7.5 gallons of water-a veritable torrent in the era before indoor plumbing. Harington noted that when water was scarce, up to 20 people could use his commode between flushes. Harington described his device in a satirical pamphlet entitled 'A New Discourse on a Stale Subject, called the Metamorphosis of Ajax"-a pun on the term "a jakes," which was a popular slang term for toilets. Although Harington installed a working model for Queen Elizabeth at Richmond Palace, it took several centuries-and the Industrial Revolution's improvements in manufacturing and waste disposal - for the flush toilet to catch on.

In 1775 English inventor Alexander Cumming was granted the first patent for a flush toilet. His greatest innovation was the S-shaped pipe below the bowl that used water to create a seal preventing sewer gas from entering through the toilet. In the late-19th century, a London plumbing impresario named Thomas Crapper manufactured one of the first widely successful lines of flush toilets. Crapper did not invent the toilet, but he did develop the ballcock, an improved tank-filling mechanism still used in toilets today. Crapper's name would become synonymous with the devices he sold (although the English word "crap" predates him by centuries), thanks in part to American servicemen stationed overseas during World War I. These doughboys, unfamiliar with the relatively new-fangled invention, referred to the toilets as "crappers"-due to the Crapper brand's ubiquity in England and Franc-and brought the term back home with them after the war.

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The centerpiece of today's modern bathroom, the flush toilet has equal roots in ancient sanitation practices, Elizabethan politics and Industrial Revolution know-how. Primitive latrines that utilized a constant stream of water to carry away waste date back at least 5,000 years, and early toilet systems were used by the several ancient civilizations, including the Romans and the Mohenjo-Dara and Harappa of the Indus Valley.

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The basic umbrella was invented more than 4,000 years ago. There is evidence of umbrellas in the ancient art and artifacts of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and China.

These ancient umbrellas or parasols were first designed to provide shade from the sun. The Chinese were the first to waterproof their umbrellas for use as rain protection. They waxed and lacquered their paper parasols in order to use them for rain.

Origins of the Term Umbrella

The word "umbrella" comes from the Latin root word "umbra," meaning shade or shadow. Starting in the 16th century the umbrella became popular in the western world, especially in the rainy climates of northern Europe. At first, it was considered only an accessory suitable for women. Then the Persian traveler and writer Jonas Hanway (1712-86) carried and used an umbrella publicly in England for 30 years. He popularized umbrella use among men. English gentleman often referred to their umbrellas as a "Hanway."

James Smith and Sons

The first all umbrella shop was called "James Smith and Sons." The shop opened in 1830 and is still located at 53 New Oxford Street in London, England.

The early European umbrellas were made of wood or whalebone and covered with alpaca or oiled canvas. The artisans made the curved handles for the umbrellas out of hardwoods like ebony and were well paid for their efforts.

English Steels Company

In 1852, Samuel Fox invented the steel ribbed umbrella design. Fox also founded the "English Steels Company" and claimed to have invented the steel ribbed umbrella as a way of using up stocks of farthingale stays, the steel stays used in women's corsets.

After that, compact collapsible umbrellas were the next major technical innovation in umbrella manufacture, which arrived over a century later.

Modern Times

In 1928, Hans Haupt invented the pocket umbrella. In Vienna, she was a student studying sculpture when she developed a prototype for an improved compact foldable umbrella for which she received a patent in September 1929. The umbrella was called "Flirt" and was made by an Austrian company. In Germany, the small foldable umbrellas were made by the company "Knirps," which became a synonym in the German language for small foldable umbrellas in general.

In 1969, Bradford E Phillips, the owner of Totes Incorporated of Loveland, Ohio obtained a patent for his "working folding umbrella."

Another fun fact: Umbrellas have also been crafted into hats as early as 1880 and at least as recently as 1987.

Golf umbrellas, one of the largest sizes in common use, are typically around 62 inches across but can range anywhere from 60 to 70 inches.

Umbrellas are now a consumer product with a large global market. As of 2008, most umbrellas worldwide are made in China. The city of Shangyu alone had more than 1,000 umbrella factories. In the U.S., about 33 million umbrellas, worth $348 million, are sold each year.

As of 2008, the U.S. Patent Office registered 3,000 active patents on umbrella-related inventions.

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Did You Know Umbrellas Are 4,000 Years Old?

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The basic umbrella was invented more than 4,000 years ago. There is evidence of umbrellas in the ancient art and artifacts of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and China. These ancient umbrellas or parasols were first designed to provide shade from the sun. The Chinese were the first to waterproof their umbrellas for use as rain protection.

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Several thousand years ago, whether you were an Egyptian with migraines or a feverish Greek, chances are your doctor would try one first-line treatment before all others: bloodletting.

The doctor would open a vein with a lancet or sharpened piece of wood, causing blood to flow out and into a waiting receptacle. If you got lucky, leeches might perform the gruesome task in place of crude instruments.

Considered one of medicine's oldest practices, bloodletting is thought to have originated in ancient Egypt. It then spread to Greece, where physicians such as Erasistratus, who lived in the third century B.C., believed that all illnesses stemmed from an overabundance of blood, or plethora. (Erasistratus also thought arteries transported air rather than blood, so at least some of his patients' blood vessels were spared his eager blade.)

In the second century A.D., the influential Galen of Pergamum expanded on Hippocrates' earlier theory that good health required a perfect balance of the four "humors"-blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. His writings and teachings made bloodletting a common technique throughout the Roman empire. Before long it flourished in India and the Arab world as well.

In medieval Europe, bloodletting became the standard treatment for various conditions, from plague and smallpox to epilepsy and gout. Practitioners typically nicked veins or arteries in the forearm or neck, sometimes using a special tool featuring a fixed blade and known as a fleam.

In 1163 a church edict prohibited monks and priests, who often stood in as doctors, from performing bloodletting, stating that the church "abhorred" the procedure. Partly in response to this injunction, barbers began offering a range of services that included bloodletting, cupping, tooth extractions, lancing and even amputations-along with, of course, trims and shaves. The modern striped barber's pole harkens back to the bloodstained towels that would hang outside the offices of these "barber-surgeons."

As hairdressers lanced veins in an attempt to cure Europeans' ailments, in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica bloodletting was believed to serve a very different purpose. Maya priests and rulers used stone implements to pierce their tongues, lips, genitals and other soft body parts, offering their blood in sacrifice to their gods. Blood loss also allowed individuals to enter trance-like states in which they reportedly experienced visions of deities or their ancestors.

Bloodletting as a medical procedure became slightly less agonizing with the advent in the 18th century of spring-loaded lancets and the scarificator, a device featuring multiple blades that delivered a uniform set of parallel cuts. Respected physicians and surgeons extolled the practice, generously prescribing it to their most esteemed patients.

Marie-Antoinette, for instance, seemed to benefit from a healthy dose of bloodletting while giving birth to her first child, Marie-Thérèse, in 1778, 14 years before the guillotine would shed more of the queen's blood. As an excited crowd thronged her bedchamber, hoping to witness a dauphin's arrival, the mother-to-be fainted, prompting her surgeon to wield his lancet. Marie-Antoinette immediately revived after the bloodletting-perhaps because the windows were simultaneously opened to let in fresh air.

America's first president was less fortunate than France's most infamous queen. On December 13, 1799, George Washington awoke with a bad sore throat and began to decline rapidly. A proponent of bloodletting, he asked to be bled the next day, and physicians drained an estimated 5 to 7 pints in less than 16 hours. Despite their best efforts, Washington died on December 14, leading to speculation that excessive blood loss contributed to his demise. Bloodletting has also been implicated in the death of Charles II, who was bled from the arm and neck after suffering a seizure in 1685.

By the late 1800s new treatments and technologies had largely edged out bloodletting, and studies by prominent physicians began to discredit the practice. Today it remains a conventional therapy for a very small number of conditions. The use of leeches, meanwhile, has experienced a renaissance in recent decades, particularly in the field of microsurgery.

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A Brief History of Bloodletting | HISTORY

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As researchers announce that bloodletting might have some benefits after all, find out more about this ancient treatment's long history.

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The Renaissance marked a new period of interest in art and science throughout Europe. People were curious about how the human body worked so they dissected dead bodies. This new study of the human anatomy contradicted earlier theories and brought about a more scientific approach to medicine. For hundreds of years, people thought that the heart made blood from food and drink, and the body absorbed it. An English doctor named William Harvey (1578-1657) showed that the heart recycles blood and acts as a pump to circulate it throughout the body.

Despite new medical discoveries, many doctors still practiced old ways. Most sick people could not afford to see a trained physician. Instead, they consulted midwives who assisted with childbirths and made herbal remedies to treat illnesses. Minor surgeries were not done in the hospital but at the local barbershop. Barber-surgeons used the same sharp instruments to cut hair as they did to lance boils, remove warts, extract teeth, and blood-let. Blood-letting is the ancient practice of draining blood out of a person to rid the body of poisons.

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Medicine: The Renaissance (1400 - 1600s) | Kids Work!

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The Renaissance marked a new period of interest in art and science throughout Europe. People were curious about how the human body worked so they dissected dead bodies. This new study of the human anatomy contradicted earlier theories and brought about a more scientific approach to medicine.

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People have always had a fascination with observing the passing of time. From prehistoric man to the modern day technology craze, the watch world has seen an abundant amount of different devices used to measure time. Sundials and water clocks were among the most common methods of tracking time before the mechanical clock was invented in the late 1200s.

13th- 16th Centuries

In 1275, the first mechanical clock was invented in England. One of the oldest working clocks is found at Salisbury Cathedral, completed in 1386. This clock does not have any face and tells the time by striking the hours. In the early 1300s, three mechanical clocks were built in Italy. One was an astronomical clock, the second ringing a bell every hour and the third followed the hours, sunrise and days of the month. As the years progressed, blacksmiths continued to build clocks with loud bells to be heard throughout manor houses and towns.

The 16th century brought along the use of using brass, bronze and silver rather than the iron previously used. In the 1540s the Swiss watch industry was born because reformer John Calvin banned people from wearing jewelry. This forced jewelers to learn another craft, watchmaking. In 1574, the first known pocket watch is created in bronze with religious depictions on both the front and back.

17th-19th Centuries

The Pendulum

The Pendulum clock was patented by Christian Huygens in 1656 but was first studied in 1602 by Galileo. The pendulum clock decreased deviation in time to around 15 seconds a day over the existing mechanical accuracy of 15 minutes a day. The movement found by the motion of the pendulum was found to measure the force of gravity. Scientists, including Isaac Newton studied the pendulum and helped accurately measure the shape of the earth due to the force of movement. Over the years, the pendulum was not only used for scientific purposes, but it was also perfected to keep some of the most accurate time.

Pocket Watches

While pocket watches started to be produced in the late 16th century, they only showed the hour. It was not until 1680 that minute hands were added to clocks. The first second hand made an appearance 10 years later but did not become common practice for quite some time. The pocket watch replaced the old pendant time piece. This change is said to have occurred after Charles II of England introduced waistcoats. Due to wearing the watch in a pocket rather than being protected in a pendant, the shape was flattened and curved to avoid any sharp edges protruding and damaging clothing. The face was covered with glass in 1610 to protect the hands from damage.

Clock Ownership

The 1700s saw clock ownership becoming more widespread. Manufacturers were producing clocks in all shapes and sizes, including grandfather cases and decorative table clocks. Because clocks were becoming more mainstream, more development with technology followed. The deadbeat escapement introduced in 1715 brought along greater precision. The first self winding mechanism was invented in 1770 by Abraham- Louis Perrelet. Jean-Antoine Lepine created a thinner movement in 1770 which also allowed watchmakers to make thinner watches, more easily concealed. The lever escapement, although invented in 1759, was improved upon in 1785. This escapement was primarily used in Britain as Swiss watchmakers used cylinder escapements until the late 1800s.

Mass Production

With the upgrades in technology in the 19th century, manufacturers were also able to develop their own systems for duplicating tools and machinery. Mass production blossomed in the United states, primarily in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Cheaper materials allowed for the mass production of pocket watches which made them available to ordinary people for the first time. The mass production also called for a change in how pocket watches were wound. From around 1860 onwards, key winding was replaced by key-less winding. This meant that the pocket watch was wound by turning the crown.

Wristwatches

The first wristwatch was created in 1812, to fit the wrist of the Queen of Naples, however, they had previously been introduced in the 1570s but were described as an arm watch. Wristwatches were primarily worn by women as the watches were prone to damage by the elements, which is why men wore pocket watches. Wristwatches became more popular for men in the military. In 1880, Constant Girard, of Girard-Perregaux, mass produced two-thousand wristwatches for German Naval Officers. Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont was in search of a watch that would allow him to keep both hands on the controls while timing flights. He reached out to good friend Louis Cartier to come up with an alternative. Cartier and his watchmaker Edmond Jaeger developed the Santos wristwatch, popularized by Santos-Dumont wearing it during his flights.

World War I

During the first World War, a pocket watch meant that to keep an eye on the time, soldiers could not fully carry all of their equipment. To keep their hands free, they were given wristwatches called "trench watches." These early wristwatches were made with pocket watch movements, some brands would put the crown at 12 o'clock while others moved it to 3 o'clock. They were worn on leather straps and allowed for accurate coordination of maneuvers and attacks. Wristwatches became part of the Officer's Kit for the war front. They were required to have a luminous wrist watch and unbreakable crystal, which were also to be purchased individually rather than supplied by the military. Because the men were to purchase their own watches, there were many adverts seen all over which helped popularize wristwatches.

Modern Developments

In 1930, the first stopwatch was patented by the Breitling Watch Company even though they were originally invented in the 1770s. The chronograph, while similar to a stopwatch, measures time in addition to recording time increments. Electric watches were introduced in the 1950s. The hands were moved mechanically yet the balance wheel was powered by a solenoid, a thin wire wrapped around a metallic core producing a magnetic field when an electric current is passed through. These electric watches foreshadowed the quartz watch, introduced in 1969. The quartz watch removed all moving parts found in mechanical watches, replacing them with a battery. This meant that the watches became more shock absorbent and could maintain better accuracy with no cleaning or oiling. These quartz watches were driven by a battery powered circuit rather than a self winding movement. Quartz watches used digital counters rather than a wheel train to add up beats to track the time, this is still found in quartz watches today.

Non-quartz watches are still manufactured today, mainly by luxury Swiss brands. Many are created by hand still and feature hand polished surfaces from the dial all the way to the smallest screws. The production of these watches is a true art-form that not many people possess.

The Future of Watches

Silver, stainless steel and gold have all been common watch materials, companies have experimented utilizing titanium and carbon fibre in their case designs as well as using aluminum and platinum. In more recent years, watches have been made with even more high tech materials including silicon and ceramic. Some of these materials are also found in the watch movements, not just the cases.

Watches have always gone hand in hand with technology and inventions, we have really seen this over the past few decades with quartz and electric watches. Most recently with the technology expanding in the computer and mobile phone industry, companies have been experimenting with the "smart watch." These watches not just reserved for watchmakers, as software companies have spent a lot of time in researching how micro technology can be. Apple has introduced the iWatch, and you can also find the Google Watch and Android Wear. To keep up with these smart watches, many luxury watch brands are now introducing their own smart technology. IWC recently released information on their IWC connect, which is worn on the strap rather than built into the watch. TAG Heuer also announced their own collaboration with Google and Intel to create a smart-watch. Brands such as Montblanc, Frederique Constant, Alpina, Mondaine and Movado have also made smart watch announcements.

The mechanical watch once almost died with the quartz watch craze but it was brought back to life. Even with all the new technological advances and releases, mechanical watches are here to stay. There is a beauty in the manufacturing and mechanical innovation of these watches that people are drawn to. This is seen in the watch world of vintage collectors, who strive to find classic watches made before the push of technology. These new technologies seen today will help the imagination explore unforeseen paths in watchmaking and beyond.

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History of Watches | Development of Wristwatches

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People have always had a fascination with observing the passing of time. From prehistoric man to the modern day technology craze, the watch world has seen an abundant amount of different devices used to measure time. Sundials and water clocks were among the most common methods of tracking time before the mechanical clock was invented in the late 1200s.

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In this day and age, most of us keep a thermometer in our medicine cabinet, and with cold and flu season just around the corner, it's the ultimate device for proving that we're simply too sick to go into work or school. But have you ever wondered where the thermometer got its start? Read on to find out.

The very first tools for measuring temperature-apart from using the back of your hand-were known as thermoscopes. While multiple inventors, including Galileo Galilei, developed their own versions at the same time, the first man to add a numerical scale to the device was Santorio Santorio. According to the Oxford University Press, Santorio created multiple designs of thermometers, but they were inconsistent, and it took a long time to get an accurate reading.

Gabriel Fahrenheit was inspired by thermometers of the 1600's, and in 1714, he succeeded in making a practical thermometer, using mercury, or quick-silver, in lieu of alcohol, which could read temperatures within a reasonable amount of time. Soon after, Hermann Boerhaave, and more specifically, his student, Anton de Haen, brought the thermometer into more popular use in the medical field, when de Haen integrated its use into his bedtime routine. He believed it to be an accurate way of determining fever, and was able to find a correlation between fever, chills, and the acceleration of the pulse. In a terrible bit of irony, Fahrenheit himself died after a sudden bout of fever in 1736.

However, the thermometer didn't gain mainstream acceptance in the medical field until 1868, when Carl Wunderlich published a study that helped define the healthy range of temperatures for humans. His measurements took twenty minutes to complete and were taken on a foot-long thermometer inserted under the axilla-don't worry, that's just a fancy way of saying armpit-which made it difficult to incorporate the thermometer into the modern home. Luckily, two years earlier, Thomas Clifford Albutt had designed a portable thermometer that could read a person's temperature in only five minutes, which brings us into the age of the modern clinical thermometer.

In modern medicine, there are three main types of thermometer: oral (mouth), axillary (armpit) and, of course, the dreaded rectal. Happily, most of us would say we've never been subjugated to a rectal thermometer, but chances are we have-we just don't remember it. When it comes to taking temperatures for infants, babies, and toddlers, a rectal thermometer is often more accurate than oral and axillary thermometers.

Luckily-though they often seem to be forgotten-there are two other types of thermometers. The first, the tympanic thermometer, was developed in 1964 by Theodor H. Benzinger and later evolved with the use of infrared technology by David Philips in 1984. A tympanic thermometer can be inserted into the ear canal to record the infrared radiation emitted, which is then converted into a temperature reading.

The second is the forehead thermometer. Invented in the 1990s, there are two different types of forehead thermometers. The first is a small plastic strip embedded with liquid crystals, that will change colors after being pressed against the patient's skin for a specified period of time.

The other, slightly more high-tech version, is similar to the tympanic thermometer in that it converts infrared radiation emissions to produce a temperature reading. However, in lieu of being placed in the ear, it can be pressed directly to the forehead.

Nowadays, the majority of adults use an oral or tympanic reading when taking their temperature. While mercury thermometers (not the safest of choices) are still in use here and there, digital thermometers have become much more widely accepted.

As technology has progressed, more options have become available that are quicker, more accurate, and less invasive. For example, the Nokia connected thermometer, Thermo, launched in 2016, can take a highly-accurate temperature at the temporal artery using an array of 16 infrared sensors. It then offers color-coded fever feedback based on age, and all the info is automatically saved to the user's smartphone, where the app can also offer advice.

So, the next time you start to feel a fever coming on, and pick up a thermometer, think about the four centuries of innovation that it took to bring you the convenience of a modern thermometer!

Annelise Driscoll

Annelise is a graduate of Hamilton College who enjoys writing, reading and roller derby. When she isn't noveling, she can be found doing yoga and watching British baking shows.

View all articles

In this day and age, most of us keep a thermometer in our medicine cabinet, and with cold and flu season just around the corner, it's the ultimate device for proving that we're simply too sick to go into work or school. But have you ever wondered where the thermometer got its start? Read on to find out.

The very first tools for measuring temperature-apart from using the back of your hand-were known as thermoscopes. While multiple inventors, including Galileo Galilei, developed their own versions at the same time, the first man to add a numerical scale to the device was Santorio Santorio. According to the Oxford University Press, Santorio created multiple designs of thermometers, but they were inconsistent, and it took a long time to get an accurate reading.

Gabriel Fahrenheit was inspired by thermometers of the 1600's, and in 1714, he succeeded in making a practical thermometer, using mercury, or quick-silver, in lieu of alcohol, which could read temperatures within a reasonable amount of time. Soon after, Hermann Boerhaave, and more specifically, his student, Anton de Haen, brought the thermometer into more popular use in the medical field, when de Haen integrated its use into his bedtime routine. He believed it to be an accurate way of determining fever, and was able to find a correlation between fever, chills, and the acceleration of the pulse. In a terrible bit of irony, Fahrenheit himself died after a sudden bout of fever in 1736.

However, the thermometer didn't gain mainstream acceptance in the medical field until 1868, when Carl Wunderlich published a study that helped define the healthy range of temperatures for humans. His measurements took twenty minutes to complete and were taken on a foot-long thermometer inserted under the axilla-don't worry, that's just a fancy way of saying armpit-which made it difficult to incorporate the thermometer into the modern home. Luckily, two years earlier, Thomas Clifford Albutt had designed a portable thermometer that could read a person's temperature in only five minutes, which brings us into the age of the modern clinical thermometer.

In modern medicine, there are three main types of thermometer: oral (mouth), axillary (armpit) and, of course, the dreaded rectal. Happily, most of us would say we've never been subjugated to a rectal thermometer, but chances are we have-we just don't remember it. When it comes to taking temperatures for infants, babies, and toddlers, a rectal thermometer is often more accurate than oral and axillary thermometers.

Luckily-though they often seem to be forgotten-there are two other types of thermometers. The first, the tympanic thermometer, was developed in 1964 by Theodor H. Benzinger and later evolved with the use of infrared technology by David Philips in 1984. A tympanic thermometer can be inserted into the ear canal to record the infrared radiation emitted, which is then converted into a temperature reading.

The second is the forehead thermometer. Invented in the 1990s, there are two different types of forehead thermometers. The first is a small plastic strip embedded with liquid crystals, that will change colors after being pressed against the patient's skin for a specified period of time.

The other, slightly more high-tech version, is similar to the tympanic thermometer in that it converts infrared radiation emissions to produce a temperature reading. However, in lieu of being placed in the ear, it can be pressed directly to the forehead.

Nowadays, the majority of adults use an oral or tympanic reading when taking their temperature. While mercury thermometers (not the safest of choices) are still in use here and there, digital thermometers have become much more widely accepted.

As technology has progressed, more options have become available that are quicker, more accurate, and less invasive. For example, the Nokia connected thermometer, Thermo, launched in 2016, can take a highly-accurate temperature at the temporal artery using an array of 16 infrared sensors. It then offers color-coded fever feedback based on age, and all the info is automatically saved to the user's smartphone, where the app can also offer advice.

So, the next time you start to feel a fever coming on, and pick up a thermometer, think about the four centuries of innovation that it took to bring you the convenience of a modern thermometer!

View all articles

Sleep more.

People that average more than 7 hours of sleep a night are 21% less likely to feel stressed.

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The History of the Medical Thermometer - Withings

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In this day and age, most of us keep a thermometer in our medicine cabinet, and with cold and flu season just around the corner, it's the ultimate device for proving that we're simply too sick to go into work or school. But have you ever wondered where the thermometer got its start?

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invention of the pencil graphite conte inventor us usa lead pencil pencils k-12

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Invention of the Pencil - EnchantedLearning.com

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Let's take a look at the history of the piano.

When talking about piano history, mention must be made of the early instruments that paved its way.

The first historical mention of instruments is in Genesis 4:21. The King James Version reads as follows: "And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ". The first instrument in history to have a keyboard was the Hydraulis, the precursor of the modern organ. It was built in Greece about 220 B.C. By the Second Century A.D. the organ was commonly used at important festivities in Greece and the Roman Empire.

The earliest keyboards were played with the hands, wrists, fists, knees, or feet. Up to the 13th Century the scales were diatonic (as in GABCDEF) rather than the twelve tone chromatic scale we use today.

The piano is founded on earlier technological innovations. The 14th and 15th Centuries saw the development of different kinds of keyboard stringed instruments. Some came with hammers, including the chekker, dulce melos, and clavichord. Some were plucked instruments, including the virginal, spinet and harpsichord.

In this discussion of the history of the piano, let's now talk about its inventor. Who invented the piano? The modern piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731) of Padua. He was an expert harpsichord maker, employed by Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, as the Keeper of the Instruments. The first piano he built was about the year 1700 or 1698. Historians are not in total agreement as to the exact date. The keyboard looked different to today's piano keyboard layout; the natural keys were black while the accidentals were white. It was Sebastian LeBlanc who suggested that the black and white keys be switched. The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s.
History of the piano - the harpsichord and clavichord
At the time of Bartolomeo Cristofori's invention of the piano, the most popular keyboard instruments were the harpsichord and the clavichord. Both of these instruments looked like the piano that exists today. The major difference between them and a modern day piano is the way their sound was produced. In a clavichord the strings are struck by tangents, while in a harpsichord they are plucked by quills.

A major drawback of the harpsichord was the fact that the dynamics (loudness or softness) of each note couldn't be controlled. This meant that composers couldn't evoke emotion in their music as needed. The clavichord aimed to improve on this shortcoming. While it still plucked at strings, it allowed the strings to continue vibrating as long as the key was depressed. As a result players had more control over the volume of their instrument. The technically more advanced clavichord became very popular but it still had its weaknesses. Although it allowed artists to be more expressive, the tone of the harpsichord was too delicate. It was not suited for large hall performances and would often be drowned by other instruments.
The piano was likely formed as an attempt to combine the loudness of the harpsichord with the control of the clavichord.
Cristofori was able to solve the fundamental mechanical problem of piano design: the hammer must strike the key but not remain in contact with it. That was the problem with the clavichord: the tangent remained in contact with the clavichord string, thus dampening the sound. Additionally, it was imperative that the hammer return to its rest position without bouncing violently, and that the instrument allow one to repeat a note rapidly. Thanks to the work of Cristofori, this was now possible. Many different approaches to piano actions followed, all modeled after Cristofori's piano action. Although Cristofori's early instruments came with thin strings and were much quieter than the modern piano, they were significantly louder and had more sustaining power than the clavichord.

Cristofori's new instrument was known as the pianoforte because it allowed players to produce notes at different dynamic levels by controlling the inertia with which the hammers hit the strings. The original Italian name for the instrument is clavicembalo (or gravicembalo) col piano e forte (literally harpsichord capable of playing at the normal level, and more strongly).

Many years after the first version of the piano was created it was still called a harpsichord. This has made it difficult to know this specific aspect of the history of the piano, whether the great composers of the age such as Scarlatti or Vivaldi knew of its existence. The word pianoforte, shortened later to piano, appeared only in 1732.

Video - Brief History of the Piano

Cristofori's piano was largely unknown until 1711 when an Italian writer, Scipione Maffei wrote about it. His article was a very enthusiastic one and included a diagram of the mechanism. Subsequently, many piano builders started their work because of what they read in that article. One example was Gottfried Silbermann, better known as an organ builder. He built pianos that were direct copies of Cristofori's except for one important addition; he invented the forerunner of the damper pedal we use today. It lifts all dampers from the strings at once.

When speaking about the history of the piano, mention must be made of Johann Sebastian Bach. When Silbermann first showed Bach one of his early instruments in 1736, he did not like it. According to legend, Bach did not think much of its sound. He was said to have destroyed it with an axe. Bach later saw a new instrument in 1747 and approved it. At the time, he was visiting Frederick the Great of Prussia at his court in Potsdam. He improvised an impressive three-part figure on a theme suggested by the king. The instrument caught the attention of composers across Europe. Its fame extended to the British colonies in America. Having a piano in the home became the height of fashion for high-ranking nobles in these colonies.
The history of the piano - the second half/late eighteenth century
The second half of the eighteenth century was characterized by rapid development of the piano. The instrument was made by a number of manufacturers with a focus on coming up with a more powerful, sustained sound. There were English pianos with a heavier mechanism and louder volume while Austrian pianos had a lighter mechanism and softer timbre. The first pianists began to perform in public on this new generation of pianos produced by Broadwood, Stein, Streicher, Zumpe and Tschudi.

During the late 18th century, piano-making flourished in the Viennese school which included the likes of Johann Andreas Stein and the Viennese makers Nannette Streicher and Anton Walter. Viennese-style pianos featured wood frames, two strings per note, and leather-covered hammers. Some of these pianos came with black natural keys and white accidental keys, the opposite of modern day pianos and keyboards. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his concertos and sonatas for such instruments. The pianos of the Mozart era had a softer more ethereal tone than today's pianos or English pianos, and had less sustaining power.
Piano History - Part Two Go here to continue reading about the history of the piano. Who Invented The Piano and Why... and Where? Are you learning to play the piano? Return from History of the Piano (Piano History) to home page. Click here for my number one recommendation for learning how to play.
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The history of the piano - piano history and facts

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Let's take a look at the history of the piano. When talking about piano history, mention must be made of the early instruments that paved its way. The first historical mention of instruments is in Genesis 4:21. The King James Version reads as follows: "And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ".

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History of newspaper publishing - Wikipedia

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The modern newspaper is a European invention. The oldest direct ancestors of the modern newspaper were the handwritten news sheets that circulated widely in Venice as early as 1566. These weekly news sheets were filled with information on wars and politics in Italy and Europe.