ABSTRACT
The magnetic compass, the Caravel, maps, and moveable metal type literally opened new worlds, for pharmacy, dramatically expanded the Old World's materia medica. In the wake of the Great Plague, many of the medieval institutions that held power were challenged by the new scholarship. The use of moveable metal type created a communications revolution, an explosion of information that resonates to our own time. The religious language that had been used since civilization began was being replaced with a secular, later, scientific language to explain how the world worked. The discovery of the New World ushered in a flood of new plants and substances that rapidly expanded the European materia medica. Pioneers such as Paracelsus challenged the medical establishment and laid the foundation for the Scientific Revolution which profoundly shaped the future of pharmacy. Some important figures who experimented and changed the thinking about medical treatment during Early Modern Era were Ambrose Pare, Nicholas Houel and Theodore Turquet de Mayerne.
