Abstract: the article is devoted to socio-cultural understanding of the phenomenon of technical activity of the Renaissance. The article considers the main features of the development of engineering thought and scientific knowledge in this period from the point of view of their inclusion in the general cultural background of the era. The analysis of comparison of transformations of epistemological installations of the Middle Ages and Renaissance is carried out. If in the Middle Ages the basic ethnoseological attitude towards the world is the understanding of things as tools and emanations of superpersonal forces, the main method of knowledge in the Renaissance becomes experience, implying the union of reason and feelings, aimed at the contemplation of nature, which serves as the only source of true wisdom, there is a rejection of the traditional and largely anonymous role of the engineer as a provider of technical services. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the idea of universal harmony of artistic and engineering thought, dominating in the community of scientists of the XV-XVI centuries. New methodology and technology reflected the evolution of the concept of the cognizing subject-universal man about the world as a universe.
Keywords: technology, features of technical knowledge, engineering