Innocenzi Plinio. The Innovators Behind Leonardo: The True Story of the Scientific and Technological Renaissance

Springer, 2018. — 351 p.This engaging book places Leonardo da Vinci’s scientific achievements within the wider context of the rapid development that occurred during the Renaissance. It demonstrates how his contributions were not in fact born of isolated genius, but rather part of a rich period of collective advancement in science and technology, which began at least 50 years prior to his birth.
Readers will discover a very special moment in history, when creativity and imagination were changing the future?shaping our present. They will be amazed to discover how many technological inventions had already been conceived or even designed by the engineers and inventors who preceded Leonardo, such as Francesco di Giorgio and Taccola, the so-called Siena engineers. This engaging volume features a wealth of illustrations from a variety of original sources, such as manuscripts and codices, enabling the reader to see and judge for him or herself the influence that other Renaissance engineers and inventors had on Leonardo.Leonardo and the “Others”: Engineers and Inventors of the Early Italian Renaissance
The “Sienese Archimedes": Mariano di Jacopo-Called Taccola
The Notebooks of Leonardo and the Siena Engineers
War Machines and Techniques
Working Methods of Leonardo and the “Others"
Francesco di Giorgio Martini The Sangallo Family Bonaccorso Ghiberti Vannoccio Biringuccio
Cupolas and Machines
The Cupola
The Machines of Brunelleschi
The Lantern
The Missing Ball
A Secret Machine
The Fate of Brunelleschi’s Machines
A Man of Great Genius
A Codex Atlanticus: A Book Thief, Jokes, and Fake Bicycles
Collectors and Scissors
The Book Thief Guglielmo Libri
Bad Jokes and Bicycles
Bicycles Through History
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
The Later History of the Parachute
Brave Parachutists
Other Flying Machines
A Flying Monk
Leonardo’s Glider
Necessary Sacrifices
Lost Codices
Leonardo and the Flight of Birds
The Great Kite
Ornithopters and Other Strange Flying Machines
Leonardo Was Right After All
The Flying Ball
Flotation, Walking on Water, and Diving Under the Sea
Devices for Flotation Walking on Water
Divers: Maritime Sabotage from Below
The Surface-Supplied Diver
Scuba Diving: Beyond Surface-Based Air Supply
Machines of Marine Sabotage and Warfare
Paddle Boats, Submarines, and Other Sea Vessels
Paddle Boats
Further Innovations After Leonardo: Captain Francesco
Ramelli and the Amphibious Armored Tank
Steamboats and Paddle Wheels
Submarines
The Amphibious Ship
The Mud Dredge
Wind Chariots and “Automobiles”
The First Wind Chariots
Wind-Driven Amphibious Vehicles
The First “Cars"
Francesco di Giorgio’s “Automobile"
Self-Propelled Work Machines
The Treadwheel-Powered Car
Leonardo’s Car
Perpetuum Mobile
Early Designs
Perpetual Motion Machines of the Renaissance
Homo ad Circulum
A Forgotten Manuscript: Vitruvius’s De Architectura
The Human Figure of Villard de Honnecourt Taccolas Vitruvian Man
Francesco di Giorgio: The Man is the Measure of all Things
The Other Man
The Vitruvian Man of a Friar Architect
Cesare Cesariano, the Other Man
Leonardo, Homo ad Quadratum and ad Circulum
Homo ad Circulum
Yet Another Man
A Geometrical Comparison
The Legacy of Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man
A Mystic Vision
A Friend, an Enigmatic Portrait, and Two Duchesses
A Copycat Mathematician
An Enigmatic Portrait
Precipitating Events Portraits and Lost Books
Another Isabella
The Lost Schifanoia
The Divine Proportion
The Golden Ratio
The God’s Eye
Divina Proportione
The Platonic Solids
The Platonic Solids Before Pacioli and Leonardo
Leonardo’s Illustrations for the Divina Proportione
Who Is the Author of the Rhombicuboctahedron?
Studies of the Platonic and Archimedean Solids
After Leonardo
The Perspectiva Corporum Regularium
Salvador Dali and Maurits Cornelis Escher
The Geometry of Shapes and Unfashionable Headgear
The Strange Story of the Mazzocchio
The Perfect Description of the Mazzocchio
The Gentleman Lorenzo Sirigatti
Beyond the Mazzocchio
More Mazzocchios
The Measure of Time
The Clocks in Villard de Honnecourt
A Brief History of the Escapement and Clocks
The Astrarium
Another Wonder
The Chiaravalle Clock Tower
The Sienese Engineers’ Clocks
An Unexpected Clockmaker
Leonardo’s Studies of Clocks
From Clocks to Mechanics of Motion
How the Story of Clocks Ends
Mission Impossible: Squaring the Circle
The Origin of the Squaring the Circle Problem
The First Lunula of Hippocrates
Leonardo’s Interest in the Squaring the Circle Problem
Leonardo’s Lunula
Leonardo’s Ludo Geometrico
The Geometry of Transformations
Really Impossible?
A Lost Industrial Revolution and Leonardo’s Gun
The “Architronito” or Steam Cannon
More Steam
The Sufflator
Steam Power After the Renaissance
Beyond Leonardo
Appendix I: Notable Personages
Appendix II: A Short Biography of Leonardo da Vinci