Abstract
The reception in the sixteenth century of the mechanical works of Hero of Alexandria offered an intriguing point of contact between humanists, mathematicians, engineers, and artisans. Although Hero’s most important work, the Mechanics, was unknown in the West, Pappus of Alexandria had included Hero’s theory of the five simple machines in his Mathematical Collection, whence it was adopted by Guidobaldo del Monte and Galileo as an organizing principle of theoretical mechanics. But in addition to the Mechanics, Hero wrote three other mechanical works: the Pneumatica, the Automata, and the Belopoiica, all of which were translated from the Greek and printed in the sixteenth century. Historians have suggested that these works generally encouraged experimental techniques and inspired an interest in mechanical technology.
This chapter traces the reception and influence of Hero’ s mechanical works through their manuscripts, their editions and Latin translations, and their wider dissemination among engineers and other practical men. Because the principles that govern pneumatic devices were not easily reconciled with the general principles of the other simple machines, such devices came to be classified as magic-working and thus contributed little to theoretical mechanics. And rather than inspiring the interest in practical machines, Hero’s texts were studied as a result of the already existing interest in mechanical technology.
An earlier version of this paper was read at the conference “The Mechanization of Natural Philosophy,” Grenoble, France, 17–19 November 2005.
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Notes
- 1.
On the Mechanica, see A. G. Drachmann, The Mechanical Technology of Greek and Roman Antiquity (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1963); see also Romano Gatto, “La Meccanica di Erone nel Rinascimento,” in Scienze e rappresentazioni: Saggi in onore di Pierre Souffrin, ed., Pierre Caye, Romano Nanni, and Pier Daniele Napolitani (Florence: Olschki 2015), which appeared too late to be incorporated into this article.
- 2.
On Hero’s life and mechanical works, see A. G. Drachmann, “Hero of Alexandria,” Dictionary of Scientific Biography 6, ed. Charles Coulton Gillespie (New York: Scribner, 1970), 310–314.
- 3.
Marie Boas, “Hero’s Pneumatica. A Study of its Transmission and Influence,” Isis, 40 (1949): 38–48, repr. in Marie Boas Hall, The Mechanical Philosophy (New York: Arno Press, 1981); on Hero’s legacy in the seventeenth century for matter theory, including Galileo, see Boas, 46–48 (page numbers refer to the original article in Isis).
- 4.
A. G. Keller, “Pneumatics, Automata and the Vacuum in the Work of Giambattista Aleotti,” British Journal for the History of Science, 3 (1967): 338.
- 5.
Charles Homer Haskins, Studies in the History of Medieval Science (New York: F. Unger, 1925, rpt. 1960), 181n and 182.
- 6.
Edward Grant, “Henricus Aristippus, William of Moerbeke and Two Alleged Medieval Translations of Hero’s Pneumatica,” Speculum 96 (1971): 659–660.
- 7.
Ibid., 662–669.
- 8.
Rome, Vat. Ott. Lat. 1850; Paul Lawrence Rose, The Italian Renaissance of Mathematics (Geneva: Droz, 1975), 80–81.
- 9.
Boas, “Hero’s Pneumatica,” 40.
- 10.
Rose notes that the library of the kingdom of Naples had in the fifteenth century a manuscript of Hero in Greek (Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 55).
- 11.
Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 35, 45.
- 12.
Ibid., 99.
- 13.
Ibid., 105–107.
- 14.
Rome, ms. Vat. Gr. 1411 (Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 11).
- 15.
Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 46.
- 16.
Ole L. Smith, “On Some Manuscripts of Heron, Pneumatica,” Scriptorium, 27, no. 1 (1973): 96–101.
- 17.
Paul Lawrence Rose and Stillman Drake, “The Pseudo-Aristotelian Questions of Mechanics in Renaissance Culture,” Studies in the Renaissance, 18 (1971):86–88.
- 18.
Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 152.
- 19.
Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 32–35, 47, 63n90.
- 20.
Giorgio Valla, De expetendis de fugiendis rebus opus (Venice: Aldus, 1501), Book XV, fols zvii verso – aaiii verso.
- 21.
Marie Boas Hall, “A Note on the Text and its Accompanying Illustrations,” in Hero of Alexandria, The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria, tr. for and ed. by Bennet Woodcroft (London, 1851); rpt. in facsimile with Introduction and Note by Marie Boas Hall (London: MacDonald, 1971), 119.
- 22.
W. Schmidt, “Leonardo da Vinci und Heron von Alexandria,” Biblioteca Mathematica 3, no.3 (1902), 180–187, cited in Boas, 40–41 and 41n.
- 23.
Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 47.
- 24.
Cervini also possessed a copy of Hero’s De ponderibus et mensuris (since Colocci asked to borrow it) and a copy of Hero’s De geometria, which is listed in an inventory of his manuscripts (in Rome, Vat. Lat. 8185); Cardinal Sirleto had a copy of Hero’s De geometria made for Cervini in 1546–47 from a manuscript in Perugia—all this is from correspondence in Rome, Vat. Lat. 6177, fols 30, 32, 119, 320, and Vat. Lat. 6178, fols 150, 130 (Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 190–191).
- 25.
The first is listed in Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum, (London; Leiden, 1965–67), II: 444 — see Elio Nenci, ed., Girolamo Cardano, De subtilitate Vol. I: Books I-VII (Milan, 2004), 61n-62n; for the second, see Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 50.
- 26.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Fonds Latin ms. 10261, and Rome, Biblioteca Lancisiana ms. 249, are listed by Kristeller in Iter Italicum II, 118b; Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana mss. J 38 inf. and G 78 inf. by Nenci, Cardano, 61n. Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana ms. N 237 sup. also contains what appear to be an Italian version or derivitive of the Pneumatica – Degli effetti de’ venti ed invenzioni curiose di meccanica, getti di acqua e fontane, ecc. (fols 1–50r)—and an Italian translation of the Automata – Trattato delle cose che si muovono (beginning on f. 56)—as listed in Astrik L. Gabriel, A Summary Catalogue of Microfilms of One Thousand Scientific Manuscripts in the Ambrosiana Library, Milan (Notre Dame, Ind.: The Mediaeval Institute, 1968), no. 686, and Paolo Revelli, I codici Ambrosiani di contenuto geografica (Milan: Luigi Alfieri, 1929), no. 267, 102.
- 27.
Nenci also argues that the title Cardano gives (“Spiritualibus”) suggests the version by Giovanni Battista Gabio rather than that by Burana (Nenci, Cardano, 61n).
- 28.
Cardano, De subtilitate, ed. Nenci, 61–63; the bellows were often cited in the sixteenth century as disproving the void. See Charles B. Schmitt, “Experimental Evidence for and against a Void: The Sixteenth-Century Arguments,” Isis 58 (1967): 352–366, repr. in Charles B. Schmitt, Studies in Renaissance Philosophy and Science (London: Variorum Reprints, 1981).
- 29.
Cardano, De subtilitate, ed. Nenci, 66–73.
- 30.
Ibid., 75.
- 31.
Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 163–164.
- 32.
Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele, ms. S. Pantaleo 115, fols 45-46v, according to Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 161; San Pant. 115/32, fols 43r-44v, 46r-47v, according to Pier Daniele Napolitani, “Mechanicae artes,” in Francisci Maurolyci Opera Mathematica, eds. Veronica Gavagna and Pier Daniele Napolitani (Pisa: Dipartimento di Mathematica dell‘Università di Pisa, 2002), 91. On these fragments and their sources, see W.R. Laird, “The Sources of Francesco Maurolico’s Ex Heronis et aliorum spiritalibus,” Bollettino di Storia delle Scienze matematiche 30, no. 1 (2010): 9–21.
- 33.
Rosario Moscheo, Francesco Maurolico tra Rinascimento e scienza galileiana (Messina: Societa messinese di storia patria, 1988), 544.
- 34.
Giuseppe Moletti, Discorso che cosa sia matematica, Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana ms. S 103 sup., fols 122r–175v.
- 35.
Moletti, Discorso, fol. 156r–v.; Moletti also mentions the two principles in a letter to Pinelli dated at Venice 18 June 1568, calling the principle of the circle mathematical, the principle of the vacuum natural (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana ms. D 191 inf., fols. 52r–53v, on 52v).
- 36.
Moletti, Discorso, fol. 162r–v.
- 37.
Ibid., fols. 165v–167r.
- 38.
Giuseppe Moletti, In librum Mechanicorum Aristotelis expositio, Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana ms. S 100 sup., fols154r–210v, on fol. 172r.
- 39.
“ipse fuit contentus demonstratione et inventione, relinquens ea. quae ad materialem constructionem attinebant artificibus” (Moletti, Expositio, fol. 184r).
- 40.
Moletti, Expositio, fol. 184r–v.
- 41.
Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 186.
- 42.
Ibid., 205, 208.
- 43.
Ibid., 210–13; Marcella Grendler, “A Greek Collection in Padua: The Library of Gian Vincenzo Pinelli (1535–1601),” Renaissance Quarterly, 33 (1980): 402–405.
- 44.
Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 224.
- 45.
Di Herone Alessandrino degli Automati, overo Machine se moventi Libri due tradotti dal greco (Venice, 1589; rpt. 1601, 1661, and reportedly 1647; rpt. Milan: Restampe Anastatiche, 1962); the autograph of the translation is in Florence, Laurenziana, ms. Ashburnham 1525 (Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 246); Baldi mentions the Greek texts and his sources for them in his Preface, fols 3r–4v.
- 46.
Baldi, Di Herone Alessandrino degli Automati, fols 4r-16r; for a paraphrase of this Introduction, see Alessandra Fiocca, “Giambattista Aleotti e la ‘Scienza et arte delle acque,’“ in Giambattista Aleotti e gli ingegneri del Rinascimento, ed. Alessandra Fiocca (Florence: Olschki, 1998), 53; see also Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 247, and Enrico Gamba and Vico Montebelli, Le scienze a Urbino nel Tardo Rinascimento (Urbino: Quattro Venti, 1988), 20n–21n.
- 47.
Hero of Alexandria, Heronis Ctesibii Belopoeeca, hoc est Telifactiva, tr. Bernardino Baldi (Augsburg, 1616); the autograph is in Paris, BN, Lat. 10280, fols 2-30v (Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 247).
- 48.
Bernardino Baldi, Heronis vita eodem auctore, in Heronis Ctesibii Belopoeeca, hoc est Telifactiva (Augsburg, 1616), 74–76.
- 49.
Baldi’s autograph of Book VIII is in B.N.P. ms. Lat. 10280, fols 183ff, signed and dated 7 April 1578 on fol. 202 (Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 213, 247).
- 50.
Siena, Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, ms. L.VI.44 (Daniela Lamberini, “Cultura Ingegneristica nel Granducato di Toscana ai tempi dell’ Aleotti,” in Giambattista Aleotti, ed. Fiocca, 306–307 and 307n).
- 51.
Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, B. R. 223 (ex Palatino 1166, E.B.5.1.9), fols 1–8 (Lamberini, “Cultura Ingegneristica,” 307 & n; and Boas, “Hero’s Pneumatica,” 41).
- 52.
Gli artificiosi et curiosi moti spirituali di Herone, Italian tr. Giambattista Aleotti (Ferrara: Baldini, 1589) (Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 247; and Fiocca, “Giambattista Aleotti,” 51–52).
- 53.
Fiocca, “Giambattista Aleotti,” 54–56; see also 59–61 for other citations of Hero.
- 54.
Vittorio Marchis and Luisa Dolza, “L’Acqua, i numeri, le macchine: al sorgere dell’ ingegneria idraulica moderna,” in Giambattista Aleotti, ed. Fiocca, 210–211.
- 55.
Spirituali di Herone Alessandrino ridotti in lingua volgare, tr. Alessandro Giorgi (Urbino, 1592; rpt. Venice, 1595) (Boas, “Hero’s Pneumatica,” 42; Gamba and Montebelli, Le scienze a Urbino, 23).
- 56.
Boas, “Hero’s Pneumatica,” 48; Rose, Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, 281; on Galileo’s library see Antonio Favaro, “La libreria di Galileo Galilei,” in Bullettino di Bibliografia e di Storia delle Scienze Mathematiche e Fisiche, 19 (1886), 219–290.
- 57.
Boas, “Hero’s Pneumatica,” 43.
- 58.
Hero of Alexandria, Heronis Ctesibii Belopoeeca, hoc est. Telifactiva, tr. Bernardino Baldi (Augsburg, 1616), fol. A2; thanks to Roland Jeffreys for help with this translation.
- 59.
Baldi, Heronis vita, in Belopoeeca , 73; a version of Baldi’s “Life of Hero,” in Italian, thought to be the autograph, is in Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana ms. D 332 inf., fols 103r–108v.
- 60.
Galileo, Discourse on Bodies in Water, theorem IV, corollary II, tr. Thomas Salusbury (London, 1663), rpt. in facsimile, ed. Stillman Drake (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1960), 17–18.
- 61.
Galileo, Discorsi, First Day, tr. Stillman Drake, Discourses on Two New Sciences (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1974); see A. Mark Smith, “Galileo’s Theory of Indivisibles: Revolution or Compromise?” Journal of the History of Ideas, 37 (1976): 571–588.
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Laird, W.R. (2017). Hero of Alexandria and Renaissance Mechanics. In: Cormack, L., Walton, S., Schuster, J. (eds) Mathematical Practitioners and the Transformation of Natural Knowledge in Early Modern Europe. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol 45. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49430-2_8
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