Abstract
Early modern Italian artist-engineers improved their social status continuously during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This cultural process was primarily a consequence of political and economic changes, like the intensifying process of urbanization and the broader distribution of wealth. Indeed, the demand for increasingly specialized artist-engineers increased to such an extent during the early modern period that the training of various specialists was actually taken over by the state. In keeping with the way the system of educating people involved in practical activities changed over time, their specializations, too, differentiated from each other more and more. Artist-engineers were in fact turning into professionals: engineers, architects, practical mathematicians, military engineers, mechanicians, artists, and shipwrights. By the time the duties of these different sorts of artist-engineers became well defined and distinguished from each other, the Italian Renaissance was over. Yet until this happened, the situation was so fluid that a single person, over the course of his life, might be considered not only as an artist but also as a mathematician or as a military engineer, depending upon the subjects to which he dedicated his time.
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Notes
- 1.
Mario Biagioli (Biagioli 1989, 44) determined the starting point of this process to be the shocking invasion of Italy by the King Charles VIII of France between 1492 and 1494.
- 2.
Galileo, in charge of the court engineer, remained involved in this business and was asked to evaluate the proposals by the two engineers. Galileo’s proposals concerning the way to change the bed of the river Bisenzio are interesting because they could testify to the potential efficiency of Galileo’s hydrodynamics (Maffioli 2008).
- 3.
The digital archive The Years of the Cupola collects all of the administrative documentation of the archive of the Opera of Santa Maria del Fiore for the period 1417–1436 when the cupola of Brunelleschi was planned and constructed (Margaret Haines and Jochen Büttner, http://duomo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/Accessed October 2009).
- 4.
Details about the education of the highest political authorities during the sixteenth century are provided at the beginning of Chapter 4.
- 5.
For the history of the garden of Pratolino, see Zangheri (1987), Valleriani (2007, 2009b, 2010, Forthcoming a).
- 6.
Not just any sort of foremen completed their apprenticeships at the artist workshop. In order to become a shipwright, for example, the apprenticeship could only take place in a shipyard, where no future artist was generally employed. Even in this case, however, the boundaries remained blurry, since in some cases it is possible to find civil architects who had their apprenticeships in shipyards, as happened in Venice. This is reminiscent of the similarities between naval and civil architecture stated by Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) back in 1454 and published in his De re aedificatoria of 1485.
- 7.
Cennino Cennini described these processes in detail (Cennini 1437).
- 8.
“Ali scultori bastano le seste o le squadre a ritrovare e riportare tutte le proporzioni e misure che egli hanno di bisogno; a' pittori è necessario, oltre al sapere bene adoperare i sopradetti strumenti, una accurata cognizione di prospettiva, per avere a porre mille altre cose che paesi o casamenti; oltra che bisogna aver maggior giudicio per la quantità delle figure in una storia dove può nascer piú errori che in una sola statua” (Vasari 1568, 19).
- 9.
“[...] la scultura e la pittura per il vero sono sorelle, nate di un padre, che è il disegno [...]” (Vasari 1568, 26).
- 10.
On the life and work of Bernardo Buontalenti, see Fara (1988, 1995, 1998). For a detailed discussion about Ludovico Cardi da Cigoli, see the introduction of Cardi da Cigoli and Profumo (1992).
- 11.
Cigoli’s treatise obtained the imprimatur twice in 1628 and 1629, at his relatives’ request, but was not published until 1992.
- 12.
The Abaco schools were sometimes also called Abaco workshops (botteghe dell’Abaco), probably because of the similarities between their didactical program and that of the artist workshops.
- 13.
The first—unsuccessful—attempt to introduce the Arabic system was actually the work of Pope Sylvester II about 200 years earlier.
- 14.
a : b = c : x.
- 15.
The contract is published in its entirety in Goldthwaite (1972). An entire didactical program for mathematics at the Abaco school dating back to the first half of the fifteenth century is published in Arrighi (1965–1967).
- 16.
Published upon his death.
- 17.
Galileo integrated the quadrant for bombardiers into his military compass. These instruments are discussed in detail in the next chapter on pp. 27ff.
- 18.
On the relevance of the Accademia del disegno as a cultural institution in Florence, and on the subjects taught there for the education of artist-engineers, see also Olschki (1919–1927, II:187–194).
- 19.
The chair for mathematics, a required subject for the students of the Accademia del disegno, was located at the Studio Fiorentino until 1639, when the Accademia finally obtained its own chair (Adorno and Zangheri 1998, 71).
- 20.
“[...] intervenissero [...] alle cose delle visite de i fiumi, alle fogne della città , alle deliberazioni di fare i ponti, et l’altre cose publiche et private importanti della città , et del dominio, insieme co gl’ufficiali et gl’altri ingegneri diputati alle cose del Disegno et che riferissi tutto al Collegio, il quale fusse obbligato sopra le piante e disegni, di quel che si fusse, disputare et disegnare et scrivere sopra di ciò et informare S.E. [...].” From Chapter XXXVII of the statute: Adorno and Zangheri (1998, 14).
- 21.
The specific rules framing the Accademia’s control of the didactic activity of the workshops in Florence are published in Adorno and Zangheri (1998, 56–58).
- 22.
A comparison between the local situation in the cities of Bologna and Florence was drawn in Dempsey (1980). The situation in Venice, which is more characterized by intellectual circles among patricians of the city, is best described in Olschki (1919–1927, II:195–199).
- 23.
Viviani wrote: “During his leisure time, he usually was trying to construct, by own hand, several sorts of instruments and small machines through imitation, and making small models of technical devices that he saw, like mills, galleys, and also every other kind of machine” (EN, XIX:601; Favaro 1966, I:6).
- 24.
The evidence on this aspect of Galileo’s life is reported in Selmi (1864). Francesco Selmi is the only historian who has been able to view these sources to date. For some discussion on this point, see also Favaro (1966, I:6–7).
- 25.
Details on the traditional study of The sphere are given in Chapter 3.
- 26.
Vincenzo Viviani also related that, during his third year at the university, Galileo discovered, by means of observations, the isochronism of the pendulum, and that he immediately applied this discovery to the construction of an instrument to measure time while a doctor registers the heartbeat. While there is no doubt that Galileo discovered the isochronism of the pendulum at a certain early point in his life, Viviani’s report that he did so in 1584 and thanks to observations of a hanging lamp in the cathedral of Pisa, and that he immediately contrived and constructed that instrument, must evoke skepticism.
- 27.
See in particular, La corte il mare i mercanti 1980, 145.
- 28.
Ricci (ca. 1560–ca. 1590a, b, c, d, e).
- 29.
For more details about the tradition of treatises on military fortifications developed at the Accademia del disegno, see Chapter 3 on pp. 71ff.
- 30.
According to a tradition started by Niccolò Gherardini (1607–1678), one of Galileo’s first biographers, Ostilio Ricci gave Galileo copies of some Archimedes’ works as a gift (EN, XIX:637).
- 31.
Ricci’s manuscript contains the concept of specific weight and it was a subject of his lessons. On the works of Archimedes, see Archimedes (2002a, b). Galileo explicitly quoted the legend of Geron II and complained that Archimedes did not work as handed down by that legend. Galileo therefore reconstructed what he believed Archimedes’ method had been.
- 32.
Galileo’s work on and with the telescope is discussed in Chapter 2, pp. 41ff.
- 33.
Galileo’s activities in the frame of practical optics is discussed in Chapter 2 on pp. 41ff.
- 34.
Galileo himself indicated these dates for the Theoremata in a letter of 1636 to Elia Diodati, Tuscan diplomat in Paris, who also acted as Galileo’s agent to the Elzevir Press House in Holland, which was in charge of printing Galileo’s last work. For more details, see Galileo to E. Diodati in Paris, December 6, 1636, in EN, XVI:523–524.
- 35.
Galileo often prepared sketches and outlines for publications he had in mind but ultimately never realized. An almost complete list of these works of Galileo has been denominated “Galileo’s unpublished treatises.” The paper which initiated this tradition is Büttner et al. (2001).
- 36.
For the correspondence about the Theoremata between Guidobaldo del Monte, Galileo and Christophorus Clavius, see especially Guidobaldo del Monte to Galileo, January 16, 1588, in EN, X:25–26.
- 37.
Commandino’s proposition, which Guidobaldo del Monte did not consider to be universal enough, is the following: “The center of gravity of any frustum is on the axis in such a way that, first, from the square which is formed on the diameter of the larger base, one takes away one third, and two thirds from the square which is formed on the diameter of the smaller base. Then one takes away from the third of the square of the larger base that part, to which the rest of the square of the larger base, together with the mentioned part, has the double proportion of that of the square of the larger base to the square of the smaller base. The center [of gravity] is in that point on the axis where it [the axis] is so divided that the part touching the smaller base has the same proportion to the other part [of the axis], that the rest, once one has taken away two thirds of the square of the larger base from the square of the smaller base, together with the part from which one third of the larger square has been taken away, has to the remaining part of the same third” (“Cuiuslibet frusti à portione rectanguli conoidis abscissi, centrum grauitatis est in axe, ita ut demptis primum à quadrato, quod fit ex diametro maioris basis, tertia ipsius parte, & duabus tertiis quadrati, quod fit ex diametro basis minoris: deinde à tertia parte quadrati maioris basis rursus dempta portione, ad quam reliquum quadrati basis maioris unà cum dicta portione duplam proportionem habeat eius, quae est quadrati maioris basis ad quadratum minoris: centrum sit in eo axis puncto, quo ita diuiditur ut pars, quæ minorem basim attingit ad alteram partem eandem proportionem habeat, quam dempto quadrato minoris basis à duabus tertiis quadrati maioris, habet id, quod reliquum est unà cum portione à tertia quadrati maioris parte dempta, ad reliquam eiusdem tertiae portionem”) (Commandino 1565, 46–47).
- 38.
Guidobaldo del Monte to Galileo, August 3, 1589, in EN, X:41.
- 39.
For a detailed description of this period of Galileo’s life, which was characterized on the one hand, by the dramatic attempt to improve his demonstrations about the centers of gravity, which had been criticized in part by Clavius, and on the other hand, by the even more dramatic search for a chair, supporting his applications with reference to his Theoremata, see Camerota (2004, 44–55).
- 40.
Copies of bureaucratic acts and administrative documents concerning Galileo’s employment in Pisa between 1589 and 1592 are in EN, XIX:37–43.
- 41.
For a description of the manuscripts of these early texts and their dating, see Camerota (1992, 49–101).
- 42.
For an extensive work on Harriot’s mechanics, see Schemmel (2008).
- 43.
This argument is in Damerow et al. (2004, 141–147).
- 44.
The work of identifying the so-called “early writings” by Galileo carried out by Adriano Caruso and Alistar Crombie has since been shown to be wrong with regard to one text and corrected in Wallace (1984a, b, 1986b, 1990). See also Galilei and Edwards (1988). For an overview of the quarrel between Wallace on the one side and Caruso and Crombie on the other, see Camerota (1992).
- 45.
Clavius’s work was used by Galileo to give private lessons, until Galileo himself wrote his own commentary on The Sphere for the same purpose. For more details, see Chapter 3, pp. 89ff.
- 46.
The manuscript was completely transcribed, translated and presented to the press by William F. Edwards and William A. Wallace in Galilei and Edwards (1988).
- 47.
Paolo della Valle did not publish his work until 1622 (Valle 1622). The debate which resulted in the identification of Galileo’s manuscript is reported in great detail in Camerota (1992, 83–101).
- 48.
Guidobaldo del Monte to Galileo, December 8, 1590, in EN, X:45. For Galileo’s activity as a pupil of the philosopher Jacopo Mazzoni, see Galileo to Vincenzo Galilei, November 15, 1590, in EN, X:44–45. In 1597 Galileo wrote a public letter, addressed to Jacopo Mazzoni, in which he recalls those years when they worked together in Pisa. For more details, see Galileo to Jacopo Mazzoni, May 30, 1597, in EN, II:193–202.
- 49.
Guidobaldo del Monte to Galileo, December 8, 1590, in EN, X:45.
- 50.
For a detailed analysis of the physical assumptions in Galileo’s De motu antiquiora, see Damerow et al. (2004, 135–286). See also Fredette (1970).
- 51.
Galileo’s complaining about his salary as well as his attempt to obtain the chair at the University of Padova are documented by the following epistolary sources: B. Zorzi to B. Valori, December 2, 1589, in EN, X:42; Guidobaldo del Monte to Galileo, April 10, 1590, in EN, X:42–43; Guidobaldo del Monte to Galileo, February 21, 1592, in EN, X:46–47; G. V. Pinelli to Galileo, September 3, 1592, in EN, X:47–48; G. V. Pinelli to Galileo, September 9, 1592, in EN, X:48–49; G. Uguccioni to B. Vinta, September 21, 1592, in EN, X:49; G. V. Pinelli to Galileo, September 25, 1592, EN, X:49–50; G. Uguccioni to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, September 26, 1592, in EN, X:50.
- 52.
Guidobaldo del Monte to Galileo, February 21, 1592, in EN, X:46–47.
- 53.
On the activity of Galileo and his network to obtain the chair at the University of Padova, see Guidobaldo del Monte to Galileo, April 10, 1590. in EN, X:42–43; Guidobaldo del Monte to Galileo, February 21, 1592, in EN, X:46–47; Giovan Vincenzo Pinelli to Galileo, September 25, 1592, in EN, X:49–50; Guidobaldo del Monte to Galileo, January 10, 1593, in EN, X:53–54. See also Favaro (1966, I:37–50).
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Valleriani, M. (2010). Artist-Engineers’ Apprenticeship and Galileo. In: Galileo Engineer. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 269. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8645-7_1
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