<i>Ars Tornandi</i>: Baroque Architecture and the Lathe

Connors, Joseph

doi:10.2307/751348

Cited by 14 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…1401-1495) to Peter the Great sought recreation in the art of turning. Courtly collections of wonders from Dresden to the Palazzo Vecchio of Florence included fine pieces of ornamental turnery (Klaus 1985(Klaus , 2004Connors 1990). In 1565 Samuel Quiccheberg (1529-1567) recommended that such collections devote an entire room to such tools and their artefacts.…”

Section: The Materials Sphaeramentioning

confidence: 99%

A Lathe and the Material Sphaera: Astronomical Technique at the Origins of the Cosmographical Handbook

Oosterhoff

2020

De Sphaera of Johannes De Sacrobosco in the Early Modern Period

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Even though cosmographers loved to drape their discipline in the ancient dignity of Ptolemy, actual manuals of cosmography often depended on Johannes de Sacrobosco's medieval introduction to spherical astronomy. In fact, certain strains of cosmography shared organization, principles, and even visual apparatus with Sacrobosco's Sphaera and its growing commentary tradition, to the extent that these cosmographies can be seen as themselves commenting on the Sphaera. This paper traces the origins of certain Renaissance cosmographical handbooks to the commentary on the Sphaera by Lefèvre d'Étaples and his colleagues at Paris around 1495. By focusing on the visual elements of this commentary, its instructions for calculating techniques, and the emergence of the "lathe" model of the "material sphere," this chapter argues that one of the mixed mathematical genres now seen as most characteristic of the Renaissance-cosmography-in fact was based on a medieval textbook. 1 I wish to thank Matteo Valleriani for helpful comments, the other contributors to this volume for stimulating conversation, and an anonymous reviewer for a useful suggestion.

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Section: The Materials Sphaeramentioning

confidence: 99%

A Lathe and the Material Sphaera: Astronomical Technique at the Origins of the Cosmographical Handbook

Oosterhoff

2020

De Sphaera of Johannes De Sacrobosco in the Early Modern Period

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“…They appear throughout the Val di Noto, but are particularly prevalent in the city of Catania, where they were frequently cut from the massive igneous deposits that the 1669 eruption of Mount Etna left behind (Andreozzi, 2003). The use of igneous rocks in constructing buildings, which were typically constructed with sedimentary (limestone) or metamorphic (marble) forms, after the quake caused the introduction of one element into another, a common practice that provided another path to Baroque complexity (Connors, 2008).…”

Section: Shapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sicilian Baroque: Reconciling Postquake Tensions

Puleo

2014

Environ Plan A

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Building upon discourses on trauma, art, and architecture, this work examines how the design and construction of buildings mediate the cultural, social, and political changes that occur after a catastrophe. It takes as its case study the reconstruction of Sicily's Val di Noto following an earthquake in 1693 and the role that the Baroque architectural style played in it. In this study, Sicilian Baroque building decoration emerges as a medium that facilitated the reconciliation of tensions that inhered among survivors of the earthquake and their social and material milieus.

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“…Other crafts, such as turning, rose through the ranks of social class in similar ways. 23 However, the profession or craft of producing scientific glass instruments, such as microscopes and telescopes, began emerging on a larger scale in the 1660s and 1670s. 24 While guild trades like painting, glass-making, printing and embroidery flourished during the first three quarters of the seventeenth century, there were very few instrument makers.…”

Section: Microscopy In the Dutch Republic And Beyondmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Natural Philosopher and the Microscope: Nicolas Hartsoeker Unravels Nature's “Admirable Œconomy”

Abou-Nemeh

2013

Hist Sci

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In a 1685 letter to his younger brother Christiaan, Constantijn Huygens wrote, "How can a garçon like him who hardly knows any mathematics and hasn't had a masterteacher [maistre] set himself up as the first master of everybody?" 1 The 'boy' in question was the twenty-nine-year-old Nicolas Hartsoeker 2 (1656-1727). Constantijn seemed indignant at the news that "the same Hartsoecker who taught us how to make the small bead lenses for microscopes" had now mastered the art of making very large telescope lenses. 3 There was more to Constantijn's sarcastic tone, however. From the letter exchange between the Huygens brothers, we learn that the young lens maker had been missing in action for a long time. Since September 1679, the brothers had not heard anything from him directly. And this after Huygens played a crucial role in taking Hartsoeker with him to Paris and introducing his younger compatriot to the French Academy of Sciences. 4 Aware of his brother's help in launching Hartsoeker's career, Constantijn seemed indignant about Hartsoeker's silence. "I beg you to write to Paris as soon as possible to find out all the details. You could even write to Hartsoeker himself, provided that he doesn't disdain corresponding with poor people like us", harrumphed Constantijn. "If his lenses are as perfect as they should be", he continued, "you will see that this man will soon be sought after by some great patron…". But how could a garçon like Hartsoeker have become "such a great [lens grinding] master on the sly"? 5 This is a striking remark from Constantijn, who in a letter to his brother Christiaan once called Hartsoeker "the inventor of our microscopes". 6 This episode reveals yet another key element here. Both Christiaan and Constantijn Huygens were avid lens grinders, who much of the time discussed techniques, instruments and new strategies in applied optics. Therefore, both were interested in lens-related novelties and gifted lens makers who were few and far between. Hartsoeker was one of these young and skilled lens makers.In this article, I explore Nicolas Hartsoeker's role as instrument maker and his use of materials and tools in launching his own natural philosophical programme. His lens grinding talents got the attention of Christiaan Huygens (1629-95) and Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625-1712) at the Académie who invited him to work there. At the Parisian Academy, Hartsoeker supervised the production of glassware for all the scientific instruments destined for the Jesuit missionaries in Siam and India. 7 His skills earned him a job at the Academy's Observatory, for which he made telescopic lenses. 8 He ground lenses, invented new lens-making machines, conducted chymical experiments with burning mirrors, magnetized needles and metal bars, dissected

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Ars Tornandi: Baroque Architecture and the Lathe

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

A Lathe and the Material Sphaera: Astronomical Technique at the Origins of the Cosmographical Handbook

A Lathe and the Material Sphaera: Astronomical Technique at the Origins of the Cosmographical Handbook

The Sicilian Baroque: Reconciling Postquake Tensions

The Natural Philosopher and the Microscope: Nicolas Hartsoeker Unravels Nature's “Admirable Œconomy”

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