Important Figures of the Scientific Revolution

1. Johannes Gutenberg
 Where? Germany
 What did they study? Experimenting with type since 1438
 What did they discover/ invent & how? Borrowed money to build
machine and practice, but couldn’t pay it back – made the printing
press (Setting metal type using cast system and metal alloys and
printing on paper)
 When did this happen? 1455 42 line bible printed – first book
printed in Europe using movable type
 What were people’s reactions? Revolutionized learning and
spread of knowledge across Europe

2. Nicolaus Copernicus
 Where? Poland
 What did they study? Church law & medicine
 What did they discover/ invent & how? Asked to make new
calendar for church – built observatory and used data from others
to support theory – discovered Heliocentric universe - planets
revolve around the sun and revolve on their own axis – sun one of
many stars with own solar systems
 When did this happen? 1543 – On the Revolutions of Heavenly
Spheres published
 What were people’s reactions? Church condemned book in 1616

3. Galileo Galilei
 Where? Italy
 What did they study? Math, Physics & Astronomy
 What did they discover/ invent & how? Used ideas of eyeglass
maker to magnify 30 times and improve refracting telescope - Able
to view objects in space much clearer – observations led him to
confirm Copernicus’ theory
 When did this happen? 1609 constructs first telescope
 What were people’s reactions? Was tried by inquisition and
ordered to recant his ideas and live under house arrest
4. Isaac Newton
 Where? England
 What did they study? Studied Math, Astronomy, Alchemy &
Religion - Became Math professor
 What did they discover/ invent & how? Universal gravitation,
laws of motion, how light and colour spectrum, reflecting telescope
*story of the apple falling on his head 
 When did this happen? 1687 publishes Principia - theories on
gravity and laws of motion, but research actually concluded 20
years earlier
 What were people’s reactions? Found useful but also challenged
his theories

5. Francis Bacon
 Where? England
 What did they study? English, Law, Philosophy
 What did they discover/ invent & how? Empirical scientific
method (based on observation) experiment – gather data – analyze
– make conclusions - study during retirement
 When did this happen? 1620, when Bacon published Book One
of Novum Organum Scientiarum (Latin for "new method")
 How does invention/ discovery work? What were people’s
reactions? Respected after publication of book