Janello Torriani and the Spanish Empire

A Vitruvian Artisan at the Dawn of the Scientific Revolution
Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-90-04-32089-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 2, 450 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 771 g

Reihe: Nuncius Series

Janello Torriani, known in the Spanish-speaking world as Juanelo Turriano (Cremona, Italy ca. 1500 – Toledo, Spain 1585), is the greatest among Renaissance inventors and constructors of machines. Contemporary literates and mathematicians celebrated Janello Torriani and his creations in their writings. It is striking how such fame turned into nearly complete oblivion, leaving only a few clues of a blurred and distorted memory dispersed here and there. This book wishes to show the central role that artisans formed in the Vitruvian tradition played in demonstrating through practical mathematics an increasing and positive control over Nature, a step rooted in humanist culture and foundational for the understanding of those historical processes known as the Scientific and the Industrial Revolutions.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Zanetti, Cristiano

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Introduction

PART 1. A CENTRE OF EDUCATION FOR THE VITRUVIAN ARTISAN AT THE PERIPHERY OF THE EMPIRE

1. Janello Torriani's First Education

Cremona, the Italian Wars and the Desire for a Better Life

Fashioning the Aura of the Genius

Family, Social Status, Education

Humanist Pedagogy in Cremona

2. The Theoretical Clock

The Science of the Stars

Renaissance Scientific Instruments

A Physician as a Mentor: Giorgio Fondulo (Cremona 1473-1545)

3. The practical Clock

The Guild

Janello Torriani the Blacksmith

Between Public Clock and Private Workshop

PART 2. THE EMPEROR’S CLOCKMAKER (1540-1558)

4. The Artisan Courtier

The Grand Tour in Reverse

A Broth of Clocks for the Emperor

Climbing The Social Ladder

5. Networks and Technology in Habsburg Europe

From Commoner to Courtier

The Artisan’s Apotheosis

The Ambassadors from Mantua and their Brokerage of Janello’s Inventions

Janello Entrepreneur

6. The Microcosm

The First Machine-Tool to Cut Gears

Anatomy of the Microcosm

PART 3. HYDRAULIC METAMORPHOSIS OF A CLOCKMAKER AT THE COURT OF THE NEVER-SETTING SUN

7. Mechanics: From Micro to Macro

Automata, Watches And Great Machines

Models and the Problems of Scale

From Clockmaking to Hydraulic Engineering

8. Janello in Spain as a Royal Hydraulic Engineer (1563-1585)

Hydraulic Engineering in the Habsburg Empire

Toledo: a Paradigmatic Stage for Renaissance Water-Technology

9. The First Global Empire Produces the First Giant Water-Machine

Qui Bono? Janello caught between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Invention and the Practice of Secrecy

Conclusions

Bibliography

Manuscript Sources

Printed Sources

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Cristiano Zanetti received his Ph.D. in History of Science and Technology at the History and Civilization Department of the European University Institute of Fiesole (2012). He has published monographs and articles on Medieval Archaeology and Renaissance Science and Technology, and is active in Public History projects and organizing exhibitions to disseminate the results of his research.