This thoroughly revised third edition of an award-winning book offers a keen insight into how the Scientific Revolution happened and why. Covering central scientific figures, including Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and Bacon, this new edition features:

* Greater treatment of alchemy and associated craft activities to reflect trends in current scholarship
* Extended material on Francis Bacon
* A new historiographical essay

Reflecting on the origins of scientific practice in early modern Europe, Peter Dear traces the revolution in thought that changed the natural world from something to be contemplated into something to be used.

Concise and readable, this book is ideal for students who are studying the Scientific Revolution and its impact on the early modern world. The first edition was the winner of the Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize of the History of Science Society.