What caused the discoveries of the Medical Renaissance?

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What caused the discoveries of the Medical Renaissance?

There were many important discoveries in the Renaissance in the medical field.  There were several key men who pushed the boundaries of the theories and treatments of medicine.  There were many factors that helped with the discoveries of the Renaissance.  These included wealth; people were much richer after the Black Death so they could invest in education.

Also many people had a renewed interest in the writings of the Romans and Greeks and their thoughts. I think that the main reason there was so much progress in this period was due to people finally dissecting human bodies to see whether the ideas of Galen and the physicians of his time were true.  The ideas of Galen had been preserved in the medical profession for hundreds of years so it was very dangerous to challenge the ideas of Galen especially as Galen’s ideas had the backing of the Christian Church.  The second most important factor of the medical Renaissance was the improved methods of printing.  This meant that people’s ideas could spread really quickly and be seen by many.

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There were many men who helped change the face of medicine but there were three men who stand out from the rest.  These men are Andreas Vesalius, William Harvey and Ambroise Pare.  We will look at each of these men in turn so we will start off with Andreas Vesalius.

In 1500 the most important medical book were that of the great Greek physician Cladius Galen.  Galen’s ideas had been very dominant and influential for hundreds of years, and Vesalius was the first person to prove that some of Galen’s ideas had been wrong.  Vesalius ...

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