<P> However, a series of events that would be known as the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages was under its way . When came the Black Death of 1348, it sealed a sudden end to the previous period of massive scientific change . The plague killed a third of the people in Europe, especially in the crowded conditions of the towns, where the heart of innovations lay . Recurrences of the plague and other disasters caused a continuing decline of population for a century . </P> <P> The 15th century saw the beginning of the cultural movement of the Renaissance . The rediscovery of Greek scientific texts, both ancient and medieval, was accelerated as the Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottoman Turks and many Byzantine scholars sought refuge in the West, particularly Italy . </P> <P> Also, the invention of printing was to have great effect on European society: the facilitated dissemination of the printed word democratized learning and allowed a faster propagation of new ideas . </P> <P> When the Renaissance moved to Northern Europe that science would be revived, by figures as Copernicus, Francis Bacon, and Descartes (though Descartes is often described as an early Enlightenment thinker, rather than a late Renaissance one). </P>

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