If, as his admirers believe, Filippo Brunelleschi singlehandedly achieved the Renaissance in Tuscan architecture, the authors of this book inquire by what human powers and in what historic way he managed to accomplish this feat, and to what extent such attribution is valid. In tackling such a controversial figure, Prager and Scaglia try to determine on a comprehensive basis authentic facts about Filippo and his work: his position in technology, art, economy, and history. The book examines Brunelleschi's work as builder of Santa Maria del Fiore—his answers to questions left open by Italian cathedral builders of the preceding century. It explores, so far as the record allows, what instruction he received from Gothic masters of the Trecento and from Classic masters of Rome. Brunelleschi's Cupola work, the authors observe, synthesized elements from both styles, solved the static problems he inherited, and foreshadowed modern principles of construction.  The first part of the book considers Brunelleschi's "masonry" inventions (the masonry model, the invention of vaulting without armature, inventions relating to the Cupola structure, Filippo as structural engineer). The second part deals with Brunelleschi's mechanical inventions (the history of his machinery concepts, Filippo as patentee and contractor, his comments on problems of inventors and builders). The authors discover Brunelleschi's building achievements to be more creative and his personality more corrosive than his critics have indicated. They find him a remarkable engineer who worked outstandingly in one architectural style while laying the foundations for another and who devised mechanical systems for delivery, hoisting, and placing building materials, which allowed him to build with speed and with safety.  The book also notes such sidelights as Brunelleschi's reactions to Ghiberti the sculptor, Acquettino the writer, and Cosimo de'Medici the statesman, how he dealt with numerous stonemasons, carpenters, blacksmiths, cartwrights, ox drivers, and boatmen, and how he appeared to contemporaries: the guild consuls for whom he worked, Toscanelli the mathematician, Taccola the notary-artist-engineer of Siena, Alberti the architect-philosopher, and Francesco de Giorgio, painter of madonnas and builder of fortresses in a subsequent generation.  Frank D. Prager is a patent attorney whose interest in patents and patent history led him to examine patents for construction techniques, construction machinery, and hauling and transporting machinery, granted to Brunelleschi when he built the Florentine cathedral dome. Prager's extensive analysis of these patents in connection with extant drawings greatly illumines early Renaissance architectural practice and construction, while Gustina Scaglia's studies of manuscript illustrations allows us to see which mechanical inventions were repeatedly redrawn and transferred from architect to architect. Their study is a fruitful union of work in the history of science and technology and in the history of artists and art that should provide unusual insights for architects, engineers, historians, and students of the Renaissance.

Brunelleschi: Studies of his Technology and Inventions

Science & Math

Prager, Frank D.

Gustina Scaglia

History & Philosophy

MIT Press]

On Engines, dated 1433, is an early and previously unknown treatise on engineering which was prepared for King Sigismund's arrival in Siena as he traveled to Rome for rites of coronation. Mariano Taccola has been described as a designer of military devices, but the drawings and texts of De ingeneis show his interest in the field of technology to encompass far more than the machines of attack and defense. He deals actively, at times creatively, with bridges and their foundations, with harbors, harbor equipment for the loading of freight, aqueducts both above and below ground, equipment for operating the wells at the end of an aqueduct, mill houses, and the machines and power plants associated with them. The numerous figures and landscapes that accompany his texts also reveal Taccola to be an interesting and original Sienese artist. He portrays human figures in situations that seldom appear in the major arts, and the nature studies among the vignettes beside his texts are distinctive to his art. As in a previous study of Brunelleschi's technology and inventions (MIT Press 1970), the authors represent different viewpoints in their analysis—Frank Prager, the history of technology, and Gustina Scaglia, the history of art. Together they have transcribed and translated the Latin texts and indicated the original form of De ingeneis from manuscripts in two libraries. They have summarized as much as is known about Taccola, whose work earned him the name of "the Sienese Archimedes," and have evaluated his achievements as writer, graphic artist, and engineer. The drawings and descriptions of the four books of De ingeneis are presented clearly and concisely, to inform and to teach. For it was about Taccola's time, and with his help, that the long stagnation of many technical practices of the Middle Ages came to an end, and De ingeneis became the starting point for a long line of copybooks. Taccola, unlike his predecessors, was particularly interested in describing or suggesting classes of machines, their common parts and basic functions or general rules. He was moved to experiment with different forms of cross-reference between chapters and to develop various means of illustration, using at times a distinct and original method of balancing drawings, texts, and the marginal vignettes used to identify each illustration. Although Mariano Taccola's work was soon surpassed, his manuscripts were copied throughout the fifteenth century as textbooks, and their rediscovery provides invaluable source material for studying the early, transitional history of mechanical technology and adds a new dimension to the history of Quattrocento art.

Mariano Taccola and His Book De Ingeneis

Scaglia, Gustina

Mit Pr

A pioneer of Italian Renaissance architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) is most famous for his daring and original ideas, among them the magnificent dome of Florence's famed cathedral — Santa Maria del Fiore. For the project, which was started in 1420 and substantially completed by 1434, Brunelleschi designed a huge dome without supporting framework. The construction took place during much of his lifetime and formed the basis of Italian architecture of the period. Complemented by 28 photographs and 18 line illustrations, this comprehensive narrative describes Brunelleschi's many remarkable achievements, among them masonry techniques for building the cupola; construction concepts, including the use of stone and wood chains; machines he devised and built (a reversible hoist and elevated cranes); and other inventions. Of value to students of architecture and engineering, this volume will appeal to anyone with an interest in Renaissance studies.

Brunelleschi: Studies of His Technology and Inventions (Dover Architecture)

Dover Publications

Autobiography of John Fitch (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society)

Biographies & Memoirs

Memoirs

Amer Philosophical Society

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