ABSTRACT
The Renaissance was deeply affected by the enormous health catastrophe of the Black Plague, which killed off almost half the population of Europe over a seven-year period from 1346 to 1353—recent estimates have raised the number of deaths to over 60 million. The Renaissance not only brought a new way of reading Roman and Greek medical classics, it also led to the first strong opposition to Galen. Paracelsus's revolutionary ideas about medicine and chemistry helped spark a new approach to medicine. Francis Bacon recognized the importance of empirical evidence as distinct from metaphysical speculation. For Bacon's legally trained mind, empirical knowledge was closely tied to confirmation by reliable witnesses. These ideas fertilized the seeds of the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century, which formed an intellectual and methodological basis for the mechanical patient. Bacon's ideas were the inspiration for the Royal Society and his recommendation to collect practical information became its History of Trades project.
