The Innovators Behind Leonardo (eBook)

Plinio Innocenzi is a full professor of Materials Science and Materials Technology at the University of Sassari and has a special interest in science popularization at different levels.  He has a doctorate in physics but attended a Classic Lyceum dedicated to Humanities, Art, Latin, and Greek, which is why he has always maintained a multidisciplinary vision and developed a special passion for the connections between science and art. He has dedicated particular attention in recent years to Leonardo’s scientific work and has participated in numerous conferences and festivals on the topic. This book is the result of Prof. Innocenzi's desire to make general readers more aware of the multifaceted origins of scientific and technological knowledge.

Dedication 5
Foreword 6
Preface 9
Note to the Readers 16
Acknowledgements 17
Contents 18
About the Author 22
Abbreviations 23
1: Leonardo and the “Others”: Engineers and Inventors of the Early Italian Renaissance 24
The “Sienese Archimedes”: Mariano di Jacopo–Called Taccola 25
The Notebooks of Leonardo and the Siena Engineers 31
War Machines and Techniques 33
Working Methods of Leonardo and the “Others” 34
Francesco di Giorgio Martini 37
The Sangallo Family 42
Bonaccorso Ghiberti 43
Vannoccio Biringuccio 46
2: Cupolas and Machines 49
The Cupola 49
The Machines of Brunelleschi 52
The Lantern 57
The Missing Ball 60
A Secret Machine 61
The Fate of Brunelleschi’s Machines 62
A Man of Great Genius 65
3: A Codex Atlanticus: A Book Thief, Jokes, and Fake Bicycles 67
Collectors and Scissors 68
The Book Thief Guglielmo Libri 75
Bad Jokes and Bicycles 77
Bicycles Through History 82
4: Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines 85
The Later History of the Parachute 88
Brave Parachutists 91
Other Flying Machines 93
A Flying Monk 93
Leonardo’s Glider 96
Necessary Sacrifices 98
Lost Codices 100
Leonardo and the Flight of Birds 101
The Great Kite 102
Ornithopters and Other Strange Flying Machines 105
Leonardo Was Right After All 109
The Flying Ball 112
5: Flotation, Walking on Water, and Diving Under the Sea 114
Devices for Flotation 114
Walking on Water 119
Divers: Maritime Sabotage from Below 120
The Surface-Supplied Diver 125
Scuba Diving: Beyond Surface-Based Air Supply 135
Machines of Marine Sabotage and Warfare 136
6: Paddle Boats, Submarines, and Other Sea Vessels 140
Paddle Boats 140
Further Innovations After Leonardo: Captain Francesco Ramelli and the Amphibious Armored Tank 151
Steamboats and Paddle Wheels 152
Submarines 156
The Amphibious Ship 163
The Mud Dredge 163
7: Wind Chariots and “Automobiles” 166
The First Wind Chariots 167
Wind-Driven Amphibious Vehicles 168
The First “Cars” 172
Francesco di Giorgio’s “Automobile” 175
Self-Propelled Work Machines 177
The Treadwheel-Powered Car 178
Leonardo’s Car 181
8: Perpetuum Mobile 185
Early Designs 187
Perpetual Motion Machines of the Renaissance 191
9: Homo ad Circulum 201
A Forgotten Manuscript: Vitruvius’s De Architectura 202
The Human Figure of Villard de Honnecourt 204
Taccola’s Vitruvian Man 205
Francesco di Giorgio: The Man is the Measure of all Things 206
The Other Man 209
The Vitruvian Man of a Friar Architect 212
Cesare Cesariano, the Other Man 213
Leonardo, Homo ad Quadratum and ad Circulum 216
Homo ad Circulum 219
Yet Another Man 220
A Geometrical Comparison 221
The Legacy of Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man 223
A Mystic Vision 224
10: A Friend, an Enigmatic Portrait, and Two Duchesses 226
A Copycat Mathematician 227
An Enigmatic Portrait 229
Precipitating Events 238
Portraits and Lost Books 239
Another Isabella 243
The Lost Schifanoia 245
11: The Divine Proportion 249
The Golden Ratio2 250
The God’s Eye 255
Divina Proportione 257
The Platonic Solids 259
The Platonic Solids Before Pacioli and Leonardo 262
Leonardo’s Illustrations for the Divina Proportione 263
Who Is the Author of the Rhombicuboctahedron? 270
Studies of the Platonic and Archimedean Solids After Leonardo 270
The Perspectiva Corporum Regularium 274
Salvador Dalí and Maurits Cornelis Escher 276
12: The Geometry of Shapes and Unfashionable Headgear 279
The Strange Story of the Mazzocchio 280
The Perfect Description of the Mazzocchio 287
The Gentleman Lorenzo Sirigatti 289
Beyond the Mazzocchio 290
More Mazzocchios 293
13: The Measure of Time 295
The Clocks in Villard de Honnecourt 296
A Brief History of the Escapement and Clocks 297
The Astrarium 298
Another Wonder 301
The Chiaravalle Clock Tower 303
The Sienese Engineers’ Clocks 305
An Unexpected Clockmaker 307
Leonardo’s Studies of Clocks 309
From Clocks to Mechanics of Motion 321
How the Story of Clocks Ends 322
14: Mission Impossible: Squaring the Circle 325
The Origin of the Squaring the Circle Problem 325
The First Lunula of Hippocrates 326
Leonardo’s Interest in the Squaring the Circle Problem 327
Leonardo’s Lunula 328
Leonardo’s Ludo Geometrico 330
The Geometry of Transformations 334
Really Impossible? 337
15: A Lost Industrial Revolution and Leonardo’s Gun 339
The “Architronito” or Steam Cannon 339
More Steam 342
The Sufflator 345
Steam Power After the Renaissance 348
16: Beyond Leonardo 351
Appendix I: Notable Personages 361
Appendix II: A Short Biography of Leonardo da Vinci 366