Book excerpt: The creativity of the human mind was brilliantly displayed during the Florentine Renaissance when artists, mathematicians, astronomers, apothecaries, architects, and others embraced the interconnectedness of their disciplines. Artists used mathematical perspective in painting and scientific techniques to create new materials; hospitals used art to invigorate the soul; apothecaries prepared and dispensed, often from the same plants, both medicinals for patients and pigments for painters; utilitarian glassware and maps became objects to be admired for their beauty; art enhanced depictions of scientific observations; and innovations in construction made buildings canvases for artistic grandeur. An exploration of these and other intersections of art and science deepens our appreciation of the magnificent contributions of the extraordinary Florentines.