What the tudors did for us. Pt. 2, The thinkynge revolution.

Adam Hart-Davis takes a look at lasting innovations of the Tudor era. We are first shown the alchemists' method of distillation. One of the metals discovered in this way was antimony, used to make the letters in printing presses. No Tudor printing presses survive so Nigel Roche and Leslie Gaye (sp?) build one, working from contemporary prints showing a press in action. The introduction of this machine was the beginning of the popular press, with English replacing Latin as the language of the education system. William Tindale's translation of the Bible from Latin into English contributed to the standardisation of English. Long-held ideas about medicine were challenged after the legalisation of human disection in 1540, with Flemish anatomist Vesalius producing the first scientific study of the human body. Hart-Davis looks at a detailed pop-up medical book in the Wellcome Trust Library. Jack Greene tells of the practice of apothecaries which persisted until the discovery that disease could be treated with minerals and chemicals. The idea of the Solar System worked on by Copernicus and Galileo led the way to observational science. The programme concludes that mass communication and new thinking were embraced by the Tudors which meant that Britain was leading the way into the modern world.