ABSTRACT
Industries such as textiles and leather working expanded, and new industries appeared. The size of the middle class increased; at the same time the average person became much more materialistic than during the early Middle Ages. The period between 1500 and 1800 is one of change marked by terms such as the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment, and the Age of Revolutions. Revolutionary developments took place, including the discovery of a whole new part of the world by Columbus and other explorers, the change from an earth-centered universe to the sun-centered universe of Copernicus, and the theory of the universal workings of gravitation from Sir Isaac Newton. The founder of modern anatomical studies is the Flemish-born, Italian-trained Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564). The culminating development in this period was the explanation of the circulation of the blood by the English physician, William Harvey, who had studied in Italy and was greatly influenced by Italian medicine.
