Mindset Breakers

Here are the important people who lived during the Renaissance. They had found many new methods and theories that was very radical back then. They discovered new laws of science and gave new meanings to art. These four people had countered wrong perceptions, fixed misunderstandings and help to shape the world as we know today. Who are they, and what did they do? Let’s check it out!


Leonardo Da Vinci

Who hasn’t heard of him? Dan Brown’s Novel, which has been brought to a movie, The Da Vinci code, has made Da Vinci more popular than before. Da Vinci is known as a painter, but he is also a scientist, engineer, botanist and even a musician! He’s the first person to operate a human body surgically. He had even already thought about the possibility of a flying transportation! He had so many brilliant ideas, but didn’t give his focus on one particular idea and died. He only left paintings, but really incredible ones, such as the popular Monalisa, Madonna on the Rocks, and The Last Supper, which is now, unfortunately, in a concerning condition.


Nicholas Copernicus

He lived in Poland during the 16th century. The son of a rich trader, he once thought of being a Priest. But he is more interested in astronomy, math, law and medic, which made him to change tides and become a scientist instead. One day, he found that Geocentric, the perception that says earth is the center of the solar system, is absolutely wrong. He found out that the sun is the axis of the solar system; which will be called Heliocentric later. This new idea is rejected by the Catholic Church based by the bible. In 1616, 73 years after Copernicus’ death, the church declared that his book about Heliocentric is deviate. Yet finally, after two centuries, the church finally took back the statement and approves Copernicus’ theory.


Galileo Galilei

21 years after Copernicus’ death, Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy. He was the first son of six siblings. His father was a musician and a scientist. He had been to the monastery to be a monk for some time, but due to his family’s economic condition, his father told him to get a job and help the family. So he went to the University of Pisa and learnt Pharmacy. Besides that, he also studied math and astronomy. In the age of 25, he had already been a math professor in the University of Pisa. One day, he invented a machine that can help us look over long distances. He called it the “Telescope”. When he looked from his telescope, he found out that Jupiter is revolved by its 4 moons. This made him believe the theory of Copernicus and supports it by his discovery. And just like what they did to Copernicus, the Church decided that Galileo was deviate and held him in a prison for the rest of his life. He died in his prison cell by the age of 77.


William Shakespeare

Who doesn’t know about the famous drama, Romeo and Juliet? It was created by William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. When he was 18, he married Anne Hathaway, which was 18 years older than him. They had 3 children, Susannah, and the twins, Hammet and Judith. Unfortunately, Hammet died in the age of 11 because of her sickness. Nobody knew his job when he was in the age of 20, but in 1592, he became an actor and a scriptwriter in Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a theatre company. Seven years after his death in 1616, his friends published Shakespeare’s drama collection, in 1 book. It contains 37 of Shakespeare’s drama scripts, such as the famous Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello. His drama scripts, Julius Caesar and Anthony and Cleopatra uncovered the dark Roman History.

These are the people who had given their contribution to the world. Now it’s our turn to expand the knowledge from them to build the better world. To make this world not only a modern, but a better place to live. (Dee, Edu)

Source: Student’s Oxford Encyclopedia

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