Health and Healing in the Early Modern Iberian World: A Gendered Perspective. Margaret E. Boyle and Sarah E. Owens, eds. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021. xii + 268 pp. $65.

Abstract

Proponents, mostly philologists, became known as "restorers of ancient mechanics"-Niccolò Tartaglia and Guidobaldo dal Monte, among others. The obsession with geometrical principles and imaginary machines is pronounced in the so-called Theaters of Machines, lavishly illustrated treatises depicting intricate, excessively complicated mechanical devices. The Theaters of Machines promoted the image of the engineer as a magus, a maker of wondrous, almost miraculous mechanical devices. The humanist restorers of ancient mechanics dreamed of machines but never built machines; they were only interested in the geometrical principles of mechanics. It was a radical shift away from Leonardo's way of thinking about machines, and it was the pathway that culminated in Galileo's compelling treatises on mechanics.Some of the material in The Italian Renaissance of Machines has been recycled from Galluzzi's previous publications, but many of these earlier studies (including a surfeit of exhibition catalogues) are difficult to find or out of print. This handsome volume, printed on sturdy paper and amply illustrated with high-quality images, makes readily available the central thesis of the foremost historian of Italian Renaissances mechanics.