What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?

Question

One of the common reasons given for the Renaissance and the subsequent scientific revolution is the rediscovery of classical works by scholars in Europe and the social change that the study of those works brought. However the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world at that time also had access to the Ancient Greek and Roman works. In fact, there were several Islamic scientists during the early Middle ages who made important discoveries. What are the major reasons then that the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution happened in Europe but not in the other two regions. In fact, why didn't such a change happen in the Ancient World itself? Was it the establishment of universities that happened in large part in Europe that was responsible for this change?

Answer 1

You hit on a very important point that classical texts by themselves were not enough to have a Scientific Revolution. If it were, the Islamic world should have had its own Scientific Revolution centuries earlier. A key issue to look at is the European development of intellectual networks outside of any singular control. Some things to keep in mind here. Europe was politically divided so it was harder to kill ideas that were unpopular with ruling elites. Add to this, the Church's history of political independence. The Reformation only added to this tendency. You have print that allows our intellectual network to communicate. Consider the example of Galileo. It is remarkable of little, the Catholic Church's persecution of Galileo really mattered for the general course of European science as Pope Urban VIII was limited in his reach by both political and religious boundaries. Remember, science is not a lone genius in a lab. You only get science when your "frenemies" replicate your work and are forced to admit that you are right.

Answer 2

Most of your question is correct that in Europe, the change occurred as more of the old Greek and Roman learning was rediscovered (ie - repurchased) from Islamic traders who themselves had kept copies from ancient Roman times and built huge libraries at Baghdad (Iraq) and Timbuktu (Mali) among others. Also the gold salt trade facilitated the transmission of Arabic numerals as they were used to account for Arabic trades and where less cumbersome than using the old Roman numeral system!

There is a theory that many discoveries and changes in knowledge from both the Greeks and the Romans did occur and where lost in the great Earthquake/fire and subsequent destruction of the Library at Alexandria. If it was not for scholars such as Ibn Battuta who wrote accounts and others like Al Jabir ( the father of Algebra) we as the inheritors of the Western civilization would not be where we are today in my considered opinion.

Answer 3

The Renaissance, or "rebirth" came about when Europe began free trade and rediscovered Greco-Roman writings by expert thinkers. It took the development of a leisure class, which came about because King John of England signed the Magna Carta in the thirteenth century, which coaxed Europeans like Marco Polo to travel abroad and made it hard for the Roman Catholic Church and Holy Roman Empire to restrain the new, nearly insatiable thirst for knowledge that led to the founding of universities. Soon after, Gutenberg invented the movable type printing machine, which caused an educational explosion across Europe!

The rest is, as they say, history.