0 INTRODUCTION

4. RHETORIC AND THE WORLD OF SCIENCE IN THE EModE PERIOD
workshops, so these experiments were usually unmethodical. Nevertheless, despite their
methodological lacks, authors such as Zilsel consider that the greatest achievements of
the Renaissance culture are owed to these artisans, not to scholars or humanists. For this
reason, superior craftsmen such as artists or surgeons are usually considered “the
immediate predecessors of science” (Zilsel 1942: 553). The general situation of science in
ME and the problems that needed to be overcome by science are perfectly summarized in
this quotation from Zilsel (1942: 544):
the two components of the scientific method were separated by a social
barrier: logical training was reserved for upper-class scholars;
experimentation, causal interest, and quantitative method were left to
more or less plebeian artisans. Science was born when, with the
progress of technology, the experimental method eventually overcame
the social prejudice against manual labor and was adopted by rationally
trained scholars.
This rebellion did not take place until the second half of the 16 th century, when scholars
rejected scholasticism and humanism. As a result of the technological inventions and
economic change detailed further below, scholars started to show an interest for nature
and physical experience, although they still rejected experimentation. Furthermore, this is
the time when superior craftsmen got in touch with scholars, and even started to write
diaries and articles where they noted down their experiments. These publications were
written in the vernacular and, although they were disregarded by scholars, their peercraftsmen
showed a great interest in them (Zilsel 1941: 28, 1942: 552, 554).
About 1550, the advances in technology enabled activities such as navigation or
mining, which had both technical and learned features, to become very important in
economical terms (Zilsel 1941: 28, 1942: 554). It was at this time when educated scholars
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