Engineering The Renaissance

The original machines and engineering diagrams of Leonardo da Vinci were without doubt a high point of the italian renaissance in relation to technological innovation. But his work was not produced in isolation. It seems reasonably certain that da Vinci had access to technical manuscripts produced earlier in the 15th century, written at the beginning of the surge in scientific, artistic and technological pursuits that was destined to spread across Europe.

One of these intellectual 'antecedents' was Mariano di Iacopo [Jacopo] (aka Mariano Taccola; and also referred to during his life as the 'Archimedes of Siena') (1381-?1453). Taccola was a sculptor by trade and pursued a varied career as public adminstrator and notary. That Siena lacked any significant water access and was in a semi-perpetual state of war were no doubt great influences upon him.

At the age of 50 Taccola began producing engineering manuscripts - a new type of technical publication that favoured the prominent display of explanatory illustrations - the first of which was completed in ~1433. These works are said to contain a large array of devices that had not previously been recorded but it's not known for certain how many of these ideas began with Taccola. His output is essentially collected in 2 manuscripts 'De Ingeneis' and 'De Machinis' which, despite any speculation about the originator, document the technical proficiency of the Tuscany engineering community at the beginining of the renaissance.

"At one time or another he has been credited with the invention of the explosive undermining of city walls, the suction pump, underwater breathing apparatus, the box-caisson method for building bridges, water mains and sluice gates, and vertically axled windmills and watermills. Taccola's importance was encyclopedic account of contemporary machine practice. Two ideas of great importance first appeared in Taccola's manuscripts: the chain transmission system and the compound crank with connecting rod. By the latter, rotary motion could be converted to reciprocal motion, a technical concept that has been considered crucial for the postmedieval development of Western technology."

And if you believe some of the speculative entries around the internet (I don't) then Taccola was also responsible for inventing the catapult and the trebuchet. Unless you have at least JSTOR journal access online {eg.}, then the internet is not particularly brimming with vast quantities of credible sources about Taccola from my searches.

• The images above all come from a ~280 page facsimile edition of 'De Ingeneis', online among Cornell University's KMODDL digital collection. No thumbnail images unfortunately.
• One often cited original manuscript is Palatina 766 in Florence - the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze has poor quality images however. Sections of this manuscript are reproduced elsewhere and the best quality images are at this Princeton University site which also gives some context and explanation about the machines (I haven't gone through to decide if it's merely a repeat of some of the KMODDL series).
• The Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza at the University of Florence have perhaps the most comprehensive site devoted to Taccola, although the manuscript page images are small (everything except the short, visually useless movie, is in english).
• KMODDL biography of Taccola.
• The Sienese Engineers.
• Leonardo and the Renaissance Engineers.
• 'Writings about Technology ca. 1400-ca. 1600 A.D. and their Cultural Implications' by Bert S Hall (I've linked to this before - it's a scholarly essay well worth reading)
• Smith College Museum of Science in Massachusetts has an exhibition of ancient inventions, including a couple that are attributed to Taccola (the images are better quality seen with 'view image' in firefox)
• A small selection of Taccola manuscript pages in colour.
• Leonardo - animated; Leonardo3 (much more for example)
• I haven't quite decided what I think about the 'China1421' site {page that mentions Taccola} that accompanies a book/video from last year. On one view it seems quite detailed and scholarly. But...
• Previously: machines / combat.
  

Modern Dutch Collection

'Tentoonstelling der nagelaten werken
van Vincent van Gogh (Book Cover) 1893'

'Proofs for the Notenkraker en Muizenkoning 1898'

Woodblock from the De Veeze Collection.

Two pages from a 1900 Calendar.

'Nederlandsche almanak 1903'

'Meesterstukken der XIX Eeuwsche Schilderkunst 1868'

'Onze Kunst - voortzetting van de vlaamscheschool. 1903'

'Kronings kalendar - 1898'

'Herfstgeneurie - Opus 35 - muziek van Cath van
Rennes ; woorden van Willem Kloos ; op steen
geteekend door Theo Goedvriend. 1900'

'De ondergeteekende wenscht mede te werken
tot de uitgave van 'Het leelijke jonge
Eendje' door T. v. Hoytema.' {Invitation, 1863}

'Hoe de Vogel 1892'

'Gedenkboek - uitgegeven ter gelegenheid
van het vijftigjarig bestaan van het Koninklijk Instituut
van Ingenieurs, 1847-1897 Back Cover 1900'

'Jaarboek van den Hoofdcursus te Kampen - 25e Jaargang, 1907'

The Wolfsonian-Florida International University have recently contributed the Modern Dutch Collection to the PALMM digital cooperative.

There are 633 items ranging from 1880{allegedly}-1940 and encompassing bookcovers (probably the majority), magazine and advertising images, calendars, design drawings and proofs, photographs, bindings and design/book ephemera - with a heavy emphasis on the art nouveau style. I suppose having the choice of 6 image sizes (the largest are enormous, >5Mb) makes up for the limited background information available. It is in fact a great collection.

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On a completely different subject, David Mattison reports that Virginia's Richmond Daily Dispatch issued during the Civil War years has been digitized and posted online in both searchable text and image formats. It's only natural to expect that the contents will be rather depressing but I didn't anticipate that this would be the first article I would read (April 1, 1861):

Terrible skirt Accident

"The Bath Times states that on Monday forenoon Mrs. Elizabeth F. Haines was fatally burnt. She swung the back part of her dress against the glowing coal grate, and was immediately enveloped in flames. Her screams brought immediate aid. Floor rugs and pieces of carpet were used to extinguish the fire, but her spring skirt prevented the desired effect."

Bee Books

"Bees, it is said, are the most studied creatures on the planet after man."

The above images are from: 'Leben und Zucht der Honigbiene -
ein gemeinverständliches Lehrbuch über Behandlung der Bienen und
über Tätigkeit, Nutzen und Anatomie der Biene' 1922 by Oskar Krancher.

'Mémoires Pour Servir à l'Histoire des Insectes' by
entomologist René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, 1735.

'Kurze und leichtfaßliche Anleitung zur Bienenzucht und
Bienenpflege' by A. Niemandsfreund; F. Huber, 1831.

'Der praktische Bienenvater oder Anleitung zu einer
zweckmäßigen Bienenzucht - mit besonderer Hinsicht auf
kältere Gegenden' by Samuel Ruffiny, 1832.

'Klaus, der Bienenvater aus Böhmen' by Johann Nepomuk Oettl, 1857.

'Melisselogia. Or, the female monarchy. Being an enquiry into the nature, order, and government of bees, those admirable, instructive and useful insects. With a new, easy, and effectual method to preserve them, not only in colonies, but common hives, from that cruel death, to which their ignorant, injurious, and most ingrateful owners so commonly condemn them. A Secret uknown to past ages and now published for the benefit of Mankind. Written upon forty years observation and experience by the Reverend Mr John Thorley of Oxon.' 1744
[the above plate is obviously copied from the groundbreaking work that included the first sketches of bees using a microscope: Melissographia by Francesco Stelluti in ~1624]

'A Further Discovery of Bees' by Moses Rusden, 1679.

'Die Honigbiene und die Vermehrung der Bienenvölker nach
den Gesetzen der Wahlzucht' by Friedrich Wilhelm Vogel, 1880.

'The Feminine Monarchie' by the polymath, Charles Butler, 1609.

This is arguably the single most influential or at least important apiculture book ever released in the english language. Butler conclusively overturned the prevailing myth of bee patriarchy (note the 'Rex' in the Rusden illustration above) by identifying the Queen as female ruler and the drones as male. [the theory was more fully elucidated later by Jan Swammerdam]

The background to this music sheet image is quite extraordinary. Butler was attempting to transcribe bee sounds in musical notation. What began as a simple triplicate metre representation of rival queen bee sounds in the first edition was augmented later to become a madrigal [multi-voice unaccompanied by music] for 4 singers with the music appearing in such a way (click to enlarge) that a soprano and tenor on one side of the page could read the music at the same time as the countertenor and bassus on the opposite side. {The enigmatic Butler also included original grammatical inventions in his books (that are annoying to some)}.

'Oeconomische Encyclopädie' by Johann Georg Krünitz, 1774 .

This is one of four sketches [touched up] produced by EJ Detmold as an
accompaniment to the first childrens' version of Maurice Maeterlinck's
philosophical treatise about bees 'La Vie des Abeilles" (The Life of Bees).
[There is a later version called 'News of Spring' - or it's a compilation -
with about 20 - what looks like - gorgeous Detmold illustrations
{addit: more Detmold insect illustrations here}]

'Naturgeschichte der gemeinen Honig - oder Hausbiene,
(Apis mellifica L., Abeille domestique, Hive-bee) als Grundlage
einer rationellen Bienenzucht' by August Menzel, 1855.

These are simply a selection of images from historical books on apiculture and aren't intended to represent the most important works necessarily. As is always the case in a subject review here, finding suitable images is the first priority and obviously the most significant books aren't always filled with the greatest artwork. There is a relative overabundance of german works for no other reason than as a rationalisation to myself for having blindly downloaded somewhere north of 1/2 gigabyte of pdf books.

• Mann Library at Cornell University is said to house the largest and most valuable collection of bee/apiculture literature in the world -- 'The Hive and the Honeybee' digital collection of apiculture books are all unfortunately in photocopy format. 'A Buzz about Bees' is an exhibition site featuring bee literature from the last 400 years.
• 'Apiculture and Culture: Books on Bees and Beekeeping' exhibition at the University of Massachussets.
• The Moir Rare Book Collection at the National Library of Scotland.
• The majority of the german works above were found at the Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main edocs site ('Bienen- und Imkerliteratur') which has 54 pdf historical books on apiculture. [inadvertently via NetBib - who are thus to blame for this post]
• 'What's the Buzz About?' by GS Robinson from the Times Literary Supplement 2005.
• 'Our hives, Ourselves - Why we've never been able to resist finding human-sized meanings in bee-sized hives' by J Glenn from The Boston Globe 2005.
• There are a million sites online if apiary, beekeeping, bees, apiculture and honey are your pleasure - EAS have an ordered array of links.