Knowra Renaissance technology Renaissance technology Renaissance technology comprises tools, machines, and technical practices developed or adopted in Europe from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries. It combined inherited knowledge with new methods in printing, navigation, mining, warfare, and engineering.
Medieval technology : Technologies used in Europe and neighboring regions during the Middle Ages, including watermills, clocks, and improved agricultural tools. Renaissance makers adapted machinery and craft knowledge developed in the preceding centuries.
Printing press : A machine that applies pressure to transfer ink from movable type or a prepared plate onto paper. Its adoption made book production faster and cheaper than copying manuscripts by hand.
Leonardo da Vinci's mechanical designs : Drawings and proposals for machines by Leonardo da Vinci, including devices for flight, warfare, and industrial work. His notebooks document the era's inventive engineering and its limits in available materials and power.
Johannes Gutenberg : A German goldsmith associated with the development of movable-type printing in Europe in the mid-fifteenth century. His press made repeatable printing a defining technical change of the period.
European colonization of the Americas : The conquest, settlement, and exploitation of the Americas by European powers beginning in the late fifteenth century. Ships, navigation instruments, and firearms supported European overseas expansion and conquest.
Mechanical clock : A timekeeping device that uses regulated gears and a stored energy source to measure time. Clockmaking refined precision gears and mechanisms also used in Renaissance machinery.
Caravel : A small, maneuverable sailing ship developed in Iberia and used in Atlantic exploration. Its rigging and handling suited the exploratory voyages of the fifteenth century.
Crankshaft : A rotating shaft that converts reciprocating motion into rotation or rotation into reciprocating motion. Crank mechanisms helped transmit power in pumps, mills, and other machinery.
Printing revolution : The rapid expansion of printing and printed communication following the spread of the European printing press. Technical innovations in presses and type transformed the circulation of knowledge.
Scientific Revolution : A transformation in European approaches to the natural world from the sixteenth through seventeenth centuries. Printing, instruments, and workshops helped create conditions for new forms of scientific inquiry.
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