An encyclopedic collection of key scientists and the tools and concepts they developed that transformed our understanding of the physical world. * Includes over 200 A-Z entries covering topics ranging from Gregorian reform of the calendar to Thomas Hobbes, navigation, thermometers, and the trial of Galileo * Provides a chronology of the scientific revolution from the founding of the Casa de la Contratacion, a repository of navigational and cartographic knowledge, in 1503, to the death of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek in 1727