Renaissance Art & Science @ Florence

Susan B. Puett · J. David Puett

Oct 2016 · Truman State University Press

About this ebook

 The creativity of the human mind was brilliantly displayed during the Florentine Renaissance when artists, mathematicians, astronomers, apothecaries, architects, and others embraced the interconnectedness of their disciplines. Artists used mathematical perspective in painting and scientific techniques to create new materials; hospitals used art to invigorate the soul; apothecaries prepared and dispensed, often from the same plants, both medicinals for patients and pigments for painters; utilitarian glassware and maps became objects to be admired for their beauty; art enhanced depictions of scientific observations; and innovations in construction made buildings canvases for artistic grandeur. An exploration of these and other intersections of art and science deepens our appreciation of the magnificent contributions of the extraordinary Florentines.

About the author

Susan Puett has a BA from Duke University in history and education, holds a certificate in the teaching of kindergarten from Belmont University, and is a graduate of the University of Miami Chemical Dependency Training Institute. She has worked throughout her career as a teacher, group facilitator, and advocate for young people and currently is devoting her time to professional writing. She is the author of one historical book, as well as numerous poetic works that have appeared in various journals. In recent years her passion for art and history, as well as her Italian heritage, has coalesced in a desire to immerse herself in the study of the Italian Renaissance, and most particularly Florence.

J. David Puett has a BS and MS in physics and earned his PhD in biochemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has held faculty and administrative positions in biochemistry and molecular biology at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, the University of Miami School of Medicine, and the University of Georgia, where he served as department head for fourteen years. He is currently Regents Professor and department head emeritus at the University of Georgia and adjunct professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine at Chapel Hill. His science teaching has focused on human, medical, and physical biochemistry, as well as topics in Renaissance Florence (honors and first-year seminars). He has authored hundreds of scientific publications including research articles, reviews, and books.

Susan and David, who now reside in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, have been traveling to Italy for many years and together have led groups of University of Georgia honors students to Florence on travel-abroad programs focused on art and science in the Renaissance. They have also accompanied study-abroad students to Florence from the University of Georgia Cortona campus where David taught for five years. Although this book is their first major collaborative endeavor, the authors have jointly published an article on Florentine Renaissance apothecaries and their role in both medicine and art.