1 The Birth of Science - MSRI

296 11. The Age-Long Recovery
In the same period was made what is probably the first translation of a
work of science in a modern European language: the Italian version of
Philo’s Pneumatics that opens the anonymous manuscript Hydraulic and
war machines. 27 The second half of the century saw the appearance of the
Treatise on architecture, engineering and the art of war by the sculptor, architect
and engineer Francesco di Giorgio Martini, also from Siena, which has
drawings of water wheels fed by pressure pipes, vacuum and pressure
pumps, endless worms, rack-and-gear mechanisms, many other elements
from Hellenistic technology and even a vehicle with a steering wheel. 28
Whereas Taccola and Francesco di Giorgio focused mainly on Philo and
Vitruvius, Leonardo, like other engineers of his time, was also very interested
in Heron. Often in the past the same critics who pooh-poohed
Heron’s “useless toys” fawned on the Leonardo’s “futuristic” technical
drawings, many of which turn out to have been either copied from or page 366
closely inspired by Heron: screws, demultiplier gears, screw threaders, automatic
pounders, wind wheels, syphons, “Heronian” fountains, devices
moved by rising hot air, water levels. . . 29 For other things, such as the flatmesh
conveyor belt and the repeating crossbow, Leonardo follows Philo
of Byzantium. In numerous other notes, he clearly shows himself in debt
to ancient sources: in his observations on optics, or on the origin of sea fossils
found far inland; or yet in drawings of wheel boats, burning mirrors,
crossbows, hydraulic saws, ball bearings. . . . The list goes on.
The oft-heard comment that Leonardo’s genius managed to transcend
the culture of his time 30 is amply justified. But it was not a matter of a
science-fiction voyage into the future, but an attempt to plunge into a distant
past. Leonardo’s drawings often show objects that could not have
been built in his time because the relevant technology did not exist. This
situation is not due to a special genius for divining the future, but to the
mundane fact that behind those drawings (and likewise behind Francesco
di Giorgio’s drawings) there were older drawings from a time when technology
was far more advanced.
27 Macchine idrauliche, di guerra, etc. The manuscript continues with extracts from Vitruvius and
compilations of various kinds, including one on incendiary substances, and concludes with the
transcription of Taccola’s De ingeniis, which is based on Philo’s writings and deals with pneumatics
and military technology. The contents of the manuscript (preserved in the British Library as
Additional Manuscript 34113) is described in [Philo/Prager], pp. 112–113.
28 On Taccola and Francesco di Giorgio see [Galluzzi], for example.
29 It is enough to compare the respective drawings to reach this conclusion. Not many have done
so, because of the limited availability of Heron’s books.
30 The Encyclopaedia Britannica says: “his notebooks reveal. . . a mechanical inventiveness that was
centuries ahead of his time” (15th edition, Micropaedia, sub “Leonardo da Vinci”).
Revision: 1.11 Date: 2003/01/06 07:48:20