Renaissance man

Da Vinci s more formal education began when he became an apprentice in the studio of the sculptor and painter Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence. The artist immediately recognized da Vinci s rare artistic talent and introduced him to his patron, Lorenzo il Magnifico de Medici. Soon after, da Vinci became a part of the Medici court and, in so doing, was exposed to a unique intersection of art and science known as the Medici effect (see Section 2.5). 

There is no easy way to characterize da Vinci. He was a figure who was truly larger than life and a man who had a strong impact on our civilization. 

Leonardo s scientific methodology for studying nature is his most important contribution to humankind. 

Leonardo da Vinci and Krzysztof Arciszewski are figures of obviously different historical significance. However, there are striking similarities between their lives. Both men received a nontraditional education. 

The second similarity between these two Renaissance men was that both had committed, or were accused of committing, crimes in their formative years and were forced to leave the environments in which they were raised and educated. Da Vinci had to leave Florence, while Arciszewski left Poland for many years. Both situations were extremely traumatic for these men and led them eventually to lifelong travels in periods of history where travel was not the norm. Their travels exposed them to various cultural environments and expanded their understanding of the world. 

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For a colourful study of a colourful figure see Joscelyn Godwin, Athanasius Kircher. A Renaissance Man and the Quest for Lost Kiowledge (London Thames and Hudson, 1979). A more specific study of Jesuit alchemy is Martha Baldwin, Alchemy and the Society of Jesus in the Seventeenth Century, Ambix, (1993) 42-52. 

Godwin, Joscelyn, Athanasius Kircher. A Renaissance Man and the Quest for Lost Knowledge (London Thames and Hudson, 1979). 

Godwin, Joscelyn. Athanasius Kircher Renaissance man and the quest for lost knowledge. Thames Hudson, 1979. 96p... 

The study of phenomena and processes at the phase boundaries of matter is the realm of the surface scientist. The tools of his trade are drawn from across the spectrum of the various scientific disciplines. It is therefore interesting that, in investigating the properties of such boundaries, the sur-facist must transcend the interdisciplinary boundaries between the subjects themselves. In this respect, he harkens back to the days of renaissance man, when knowledge knew no boundaries, and was pursued simply for its own sake, in the spirit of enlightenment. 

It is perhaps all too easy to forget that the worldview that dominates the West, and has dismissed alchemy for so long, is a comparatively recent development. Newton saw the world much as his predecessors did, and has been described as the last Renaissance Man, the last of the Babylonian and Sumerian magi , as Maynard Keynes put it, because he saw Nature as a unity, a vast puzzle to be solved by the devout seeker. It is ironic that the world that Newton helped create has anything but a unified view of nature, a world whose short-sightedness and materialistic greed threaten nature herself, and humanity as a whole. 

Another important contribution to alchemy was made by the mystical and hermetic beliefs that arose in the early years of the Christian era, and were revived, with the ideas of Aristotle, in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Man, the Microcosm, was thought to be a reflection on a small scale of the Universe or Macrocosm. All things in the Universe were linked in harmony with each other. Man could discover and use this harmony for his own benefit, primarily through the system of correspondences that outlined a special relationship between certain planets, feelings, and objects, and ultimately by discovering the universal spirit that permeated the Universe. It was this spirit that the alchemists were attempting to identify and possess in the Philosopher s Stone. 

Mister Rathbone was most fortunate to be a student of Professor Draper, a true renaissance man. Dr. Draper was an experienced master teacher. His textbook, first published in 1846 and undoubtedly used by Mr. Rathbone, was written to satisfy the need expressed in its Preface ... 

These two categories, described above in their pure form, coalesce in certain phenomena that exhibit the essential features of both— that is, the dangerousness to self, characteristic of illness, and the dangerousness to others, characteristic of crime. One such phenomenon, all too familiar to medieval and Renaissance man, was contagious illness. When, at last, toward the end of the thirteenth century, Europe was rid of leprosy, it was swept by successive epidemics of bubonic plague which decimated the population. Then, in the sixteenth century, syphilis assumed epidemic proportions. 

The best way to understand the concept of a Renaissance man is to examine Renaissance figures such as Leonardo da Vinci (Figure 2.5), a giant of the Italian Renaissance (Wrey 2005) and Krzysztof Arciszewski, a lesser-known figure of the Polish Renaissance, whose travels and achievements in... 

Finally, in regards to social responsibility, today s version of a Renaissance man, or a person who excels at a diversity of subject matters and has many... 

As a true Renaissance man, Zwicky believed in the human dimension of our lives and he was involved in various charitable activities related to education. These emotionally charged activities complemented his mathematics- and physics-based research and made him a complete human, balancing his emotional and rational thinking. Most likely, it was one of the keys to his extraordinary achievements in science. 

Fritz Zwicky was a modern Renaissance man who lived in several cultures, spoke several languages, and had many professional interests, both scientific and engineering. His life, and particularly his various contributions, are truly inspiring. For all these reasons, he should be... 

Alexander Faickney Osborn (Figure 7.1) was in many respects an unusual man. He could have easily qualified as a modern Renaissance man in the American world of advertising and business during the traditional 1940s and 1950s, when he was mostly active and made his everlasting impact. 

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) An Italian genius considered the epitome of the Renaissance man, da Vinci was a superb artist, architect, engineer, mathematician, geologist, musician, mapmaker, inventor, and writer. Creator of such famous... 

The paradigm of Renaissance man is Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). His continual observations, notebooks fuii of machines, dissections, natural phenomena and processes are all directed to the mastery of nature through its perfect depiction. Science was an aid to the painter in his recreation the world. Implicit is the notion that there is an underlying coherence and reason to the universe, a consistency to be tapped into. The apparent modernity of his ideas veneer a very different consciousness, a method much removed from our own. Leonardo applied contemporary humanist models which placed man as the measure of all things. Everything was literally anthropomorphic, from geology upwards. His work mirrors the sensibilities of his time, and our re-interpretations to find new significance for him reflect our own. 

Bruno Z. Kisch was a noted medical authority and Professor of Chemistry at Yeshiva University, my alma mater. I had the privilege of studying under Professor Kisch, particularly his Philosophy of Science course, in which he demonstrated the erudition of a true Renaissance man. He was an authority in the field of philosophy and exerted a profound influence on Jewish theology, especially In areas where science, religion, and medical ethics interact. 

Walter Stockmayer made beautiful polymermusic for more than 60 years. He was a Renaissance man with degrees from both MIT and Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. After his Ph.D. in 1940 he worked on war projects at Columbia before returning to MIT in 1945. In 1952 he was promoted to Full Professor and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1956. He received the National Medal of Science in 1987 (Fig. 5.5). 

Renaissance man discovered many a mechanical marvel. The achievement of the astronauts... opened up comparable prospects to the men of today, but of infinitely wider scope . 

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