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Nicolas Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer, priest, and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, Among the great polymaths of the Renaissance, Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, artist, atholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist.
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Ferdinand Magellan famously completes the first circumnavigation of the globe.
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The noted cartographer Gerard Mercator (1512-1594) publishes his justly famous cartographic projection system.
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In mathematics, Simon Stevin (1548-1620) proposes the use of decimals.
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He was quickly turned over to the secular authorities and, on February 17, 1600 in the Campo de' Fiori, a central Roman market square, "his tongue imprisoned because of his wicked words" he was burned at the stake. His ashes were dumped into the Tiber river. All Bruno's works were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1603.
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Galileo did not actually invent the telescope himself. Rather he heard about the invention, designed his own, and was the first to turn it towards the heavens. Galileo's telescope for the first time revealed that the Moon was blemished and imperfect.
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Two worlds come into cosmic conflict. Galileo's world of science and humanism collides with the world of Scholasticism and absolutism that held power in the Catholic Church. The result is a tragedy that marks both the end of Galileo's liberty and the end of the Italian Renaissance.
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Isaac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, and is considered by many scholars and members of the general public to be one of the most influential people in human history.
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Newton sends brief exposition of his theory of colors to the Royal Society in London, which republishes it in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions, leading to criticism of Newton.
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For the last twenty-three years of his life, Newton didn’t publish any scientific works. Sir Isaac Newton died on March 31, 1727. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. This was an important honor.
