| Renaissance |
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 The Birth of Venus (c. 1484–1486) byBotticelli |
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| History and study |
Renaissance technology was the set of European artifacts and inventions which spread through theRenaissance period, roughly the 14th century through the 16th century. The era is marked by profound technical advancements such as theprinting press,linear perspective in drawing,patent law,double shell domes andbastion fortresses. Sketchbooks from artisans of the period (Taccola andLeonardo da Vinci, for example) give a deep insight into the mechanical technology then known and applied.
Renaissance science spawned theScientific Revolution; science and technology began a cycle of mutual advancement.
Some important Renaissance technologies, including both innovations and improvements on existing techniques:
Some of the technologies were thearquebus and themusket.
The technologies that developed in Europe during the second half of the 15th century were commonly associated by authorities of the time with a key theme in Renaissance thought: the rivalry of the Moderns and the Ancients. Three inventions in particular — theprinting press,firearms, and the nauticalcompass — were indeed seen as evidence that the Moderns could not only compete with the Ancients, but had surpassed them, for these three inventions allowed modern people to communicate, exercise power, and finally travel at distances unimaginable in earlier times.[1]
Crank and connecting rod
Thecrank andconnecting rod mechanism which converts circular into reciprocal motion is of utmost importance for the mechanization of work processes; it is first attested forRoman water-powered sawmills.[2] During the Renaissance, its use is greatly diversified and mechanically refined; now connecting-rods are also applied to double compound cranks, while theflywheel is employed to get these cranks over the 'dead-spot'.[3] Early evidence of such machines appears, among other things, in the works of the 15th-century engineersAnonymous of the Hussite Wars andTaccola.[4] From then on, cranks and connecting rods become an integral part of machine design and are applied in ever more elaborate ways:Agostino Ramelli'sThe Diverse and Artifactitious Machines of 1588 depicts eighteen different applications, a number which rises in the 17th-centuryTheatrum Machinarum Novum byGeorg Andreas Böckler to forty-five.[5]
Printing press
The introduction of the mechanicalmovable typeprinting press by the German goldsmithJohannes Gutenberg (1398–1468) is widely regarded as the single most important event of the second millennium,[7] and is one of the defining moments of the Renaissance. ThePrinting Revolution which it sparks throughout Europe works as a modern "agent of change" in the transformation of medieval society.
The mechanical device consists of ascrew press modified for printing purposes which can produce 3,600 pages per workday,[6] allowing the mass production of printed books on a proto-industrial scale. By the start of the 16th century, printing presses are operating in over 200 cities in a dozen European countries, producing more than twenty million volumes.[8] By 1600, their output had risen tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies, while Gutenberg book printingspread from Europe further afield.[8]
The relatively free flow of information transcends borders and induced a sharp rise in Renaissance literacy, learning and education; the circulation of (revolutionary) ideas among the rising middle classes, but also the peasants, threatens the traditional power monopoly of the ruling nobility and is a key factor in the rapid spread of theProtestant Reformation. The dawn of theGutenberg Galaxy, the era of mass communication, is instrumental in fostering the gradualdemocratization of knowledge which sees for the first time modern media phenomena such as thepress orbestsellers emerging.[9] The prizedincunables, which are testimony to the aesthetic taste and high proficient competence of Renaissance book printers, are one lasting legacy of the 15th century.
Parachute
The earliest knownparachute design appears in an anonymous manuscript from 1470sRenaissance Italy;[10] it depicts a free-hanging man clutching a crossbar frame attached to a conical canopy.[11] As a safety measure, four straps run from the ends of the rods to a waist belt. Around 1485, a more advanced parachute was sketched by the polymathLeonardo da Vinci in hisCodex Atlanticus (fol. 381v), which he scales in a more favorable proportion to the weight of the jumper.[11] Leonardo's canopy was held open by a square wooden frame, altering the shape of the parachute from conical to pyramidal.[12] The Venetian inventorFausto Veranzio (1551–1617) modifies da Vinci's parachute sketch by keeping the square frame, but replacing the canopy with a bulging sail-like piece of cloth. This he realized decelerates the fall more effectively.[12] Claims[13] that Veranzio successfully tested his parachute design in 1617 by jumping from a tower in Venice cannot be substantiated; since he was around 65 years old at the time.
Mariner's astrolabe
The earliest recorded uses of theastrolabe for navigational purposes are by the Portuguese explorersDiogo de Azambuja (1481),Bartholomew Diaz (1487/88) andVasco da Gama (1497–98) during theirsea voyages around Africa.[14]
Dry dock
Whiledry docks were already known inHellenistic shipbuilding,[15] these facilities were reintroduced in 1495/96, whenHenry VII of England ordered one to be built at thePortsmouth navy base.[16]
Floating dock
The earliest known description of afloating dock comes from a small Italian book printed in Venice in 1560, titledDescrittione dell'artifitiosa machina. In the booklet, an unknown author asks for the privilege of using a new method for the salvaging of a grounded ship and then proceeds to describe and illustrate his approach. The includedwoodcut shows a ship flanked by two large floating trestles, forming a roof above the vessel. The ship is pulled in an upright position by a number of ropes attached to the superstructure.[17]
Lifting tower
Alifting tower was used to great effect byDomenico Fontana to relocate the monolithicVatican obelisk in Rome.[18] Its weight of 361 t was far greater than any of the blocks the Romans are known to have lifted by cranes.[18][A 1]
Mining, machinery and chemistryA standard reference for the state of mechanical arts during the Renaissance is given in the mining engineering treatiseDe re metallica (1556), which also contains sections on geology, mining and chemistry.De re metallica was the standard chemistry reference for the next 180 years.
Newspaper
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Thenewspaper is an application of the printing press from which thepress derives its name.[20] The 16th century sees a rising demand for up-to-date information which can not be covered effectively by the circulatinghand-written newssheets. For "gaining time" from the slow copying process,Johann Carolus of Strassburg is the first to publish his German-languageRelation by using a printing press (1605).[21] In rapid succession, further German newspapers are established in Wolfenbüttel (Avisa Relation oder Zeitung), Basel, Frankfurt and Berlin.[21] From 1618 onwards, enterprising Dutch printers take up the practice and begin to provide the English and French market with translated news.[21] By the mid-17th century it is estimated that political newspapers which enjoyed the widest popularity reach up to 250,000 readers in the Holy Roman Empire, around one quarter of the literate population.[22]
Air-gun
In 1607 Bartolomeo Crescentio described anair gun equipped with a powerful spiral spring, a device so complex that it must have had predecessors.[original research?] In 1610 Mersenne spoke in detail of "sclopeti pneumatici constructio", and four years laterWilkins wrote enthusiastically of "that late ingenious invention the wind-gun" as being "almost equall to our powder-guns". In the 1650s Otto von Guericke, famed for his experiments with vacua and pressures, built theMadeburger Windbuchse, one of the technical wonders of its time.[citation needed]
Cranked Archimedes' screw
The German engineerKonrad Kyeser equips in hisBellifortis (1405) theArchimedes' screw with a crank mechanism which soon replaces the ancient practice of working the pipe by treading.[23]
Cranked reel
In the textile industry, crankedreels for winding skeins of yarn were introduced in the early 15th century.[24]
Brace
The earliest carpenter'sbraces equipped with a U-shaped grip, that is with acompound crank, appears between 1420 and 1430 inFlanders.[3]
Cranked well-hoist
The earliest evidence for the fitting of a well-hoist with cranks is found in a miniature of c. 1425 in the GermanHausbuch of the Mendel Foundation.[25]
Paddle wheel boat powered by crank and connecting rod mechanism
Whilepaddle wheel boats powered by manually turnedcrankshafts were already conceived of by earlier writers such asGuido da Vigevano and theAnonymous Author of the Hussite Wars,[26] the ItalianRoberto Valturio much improves on the design in 1463 by devising a boat with five sets of parallel cranks which are all joined to a single power source by oneconnecting rod; the idea is also taken up by his compatriotFrancesco di Giorgio.[27]
Rotary grindstone with treadle
Evidence for rotarygrindstones operated by a crank handle goes back to theCarolingianUtrecht Psalter.[28] Around 1480, the crank mechanism is further mechanized by adding atreadle.[29]
Geared hand-mill
The geared hand-mill, operated either with one or two cranks, appears in the 15th century.[24]
Grenade musket
Two 16th-century Germangrenade muskets working with awheellock mechanism are on display in theBayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich.[30]
The revived scientific spirit of the age can perhaps be best exemplified by the voluminous corpus oftechnical drawings which the artist-engineers left behind, reflecting the wide variety of interests the Renaissancehomo universalis pursued. The establishment of the laws of linear perspective byBrunelleschi gave his successors, such asTaccola,Francesco di Giorgio Martini andLeonardo da Vinci, a powerful instrument to depict mechanical devices for the first time in a realistic manner. The extant sketch books give modern historians of science invaluable insights into the standards of technology of the time. Renaissance engineers showed a strong proclivity to experimental study, drawing a variety of technical devices, many of which appeared for the first time in history on paper.
However, these designs were not always intended to be put into practice, and often practical limitations impeded the application of the revolutionary designs. For example, da Vinci's ideas on the conicalparachute or the winged flying machine were only applied much later. While earlier scholars showed a tendency to attribute inventions based on their first pictorial appearance to individual Renaissance engineers, modern scholarship is more prone to view the devices as products of a technical evolution which often went back to the Middle Ages.
| Technology | Date | Author | Treatise | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pile driver | 1475[31] | Francesco di Giorgio Martini | Trattato di Architectura | Drawing of such a device whose principle must be according to the Brazilian historian of technology Ladislao Reti "considered original with Franceso".[32] |
| Centrifugal pump | 1475[31] | Francesco di Giorgio Martini | Trattato di Architectura | Water or mud-lifting machine "that must be characterized as the prototype of the centrifugal pump".[31] |
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