Juanelo Turriano

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Juanelo Turriano
Pompeo Leoni, Bust of Juanelo Turriano. Toledo, Museum of Santa Cruz. On the pedestal, the inscription «IANELLVS./ TVRRIAN :/ CREMON : HOR / OLOG : ARCHITECT».[1]
Born
Janello Torriani[2]

c. 1500
Cremona (Milanese territory)
Died1585 (aged 85)
Toledo (Spain)
OccupationsMathematics
Civil engineering
Horology
Known forJuanelo's Artifice

Juanelo Turriano or Janello Torriani (Cremona, Milanese territory, c. 1500 – Toledo, Spain, June 13, 1585)[3] was a Milanese engineer and inventor in the service of the Spanish court.

Juanelo worked as an engineer and clockmaker at the court of Emperor Charles V and his son Philip II in Spain. He is credited with building various ingenious mechanisms, including tower clocks, astronomical clocks and other precision mechanical devices that earned him recognition and admiration in his time, leaving a lasting legacy in the field of mechanical engineering.[4]

Biography

Born in Cremona around 1500, very little is known about his early years. He came to Spain in 1556 at the call of Charles I and, now as Juanelo Turriano, was appointed Court Clockmaker and built for this King two famous astronomical clocks, the Microcosmo[2] and the Cristalino,[3] which made him famous in his time, because they were able to indicate the position of the heavenly bodies at any moment, for the purpose of making astrological interpretations.

Jacopo da Trezzo, medal of Turriano with the inscription «ianellus . turrian . cremon . horolog . architect» (Juanelo Turriano of Cremona, clockmaker and architect). Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art

At the end of the life of Charles I, he built part of the King's palace at Yuste. In one of the ponds built by Turriano, stagnant water accumulated and led to a proliferation of mosquitoes, which bit the King and caused his death after a month of agony and malarial fevers.[5]

Philip II appointed him Chief Mathematician. Summoned by Pope Gregory XIII, he took part in the reform of the calendar.[6] Back in Spain, Juan de Herrera commissioned him to design the bells of the Monastery of El Escorial.[3]

Numerous testimonies describe Juanelo Turriano as a rough and unpleasant personality, although all agree in recognizing his exceptional worth as an inventor. In 1550 Marco Girolamo, Bishop of Alba and a prominent humanist of Cremona, wrote of him:

"It is incredibly repulsive to see him always with that face, that hair and that beard covered and blackened, full of ash and disgusting pitch. His hands and his thick, enormous fingers are always dirty with rust. He is dirty, always dresses badly and in an eccentric manner. However, if anyone thinks that an excellent master of mathematics has prepared for him the calculations of the orbits, the movement of the stars, tell him that he creates it all himself. He is at once an outstanding inventor and creator. Moreover, he often, with aplomb and wisdom, contradicts eminent authorities."

Turriano was a contemporary of the likewise celebrated scientist and inventor Blasco de Garay. Although there is no evidence of a friendship between the two men, it is highly probable that they knew each other, since both lived in Toledo and were likewise in the service of the Emperor.[7]

Juanelo worked and lived in Toledo from 1534 until June 13, 1585, where he died in poverty, owing to the non-payment for his hydraulic works, which he himself had financed. His last attempt to collect alms using an automaton known as the Hombre de Palo ("Wooden Man"), so as to at least support his family, also ended unfortunately, when it was burned for unknown reasons.

Inventions

Juanelo's Artifice

Main article: Juanelo's Artifice
Diagram of Juanelo's Artifice
Ruins of Juanelo's artifice in Toledo.
Painting by El Greco with a view of Toledo in which Juanelo's artifice can be seen.
The automaton monk exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2020.

Juanelo's Artifice was a hydraulic structure built under his direction, which served to raise water from the Tagus River to the upper part of Toledo. There are still controversies over how it worked, more or less clarified from the classic work of the engineer Luis de la Escosura Morrogh (1888)[8] to the more recent Model with Valturio's ladders (2009) (it was even recreated at the Universal Exposition of Seville in 1992 in order to drive a clock, and it was kept in operation throughout the exposition).

What is certain is that the invention succeeded in carrying water from the Tagus River up to the Alcázar, located almost 100 meters above the riverbed. Based on the use of the hydraulic energy of the Tagus River itself, it consisted of a large number of "spoons" or "wooden arms", ingeniously geared together, which passed the water from one to another at increasing heights, in such a way that it could raise a large quantity of water over the difference in level. It apparently remained in operation, with an ever-decreasing output as it aged and deteriorated, until the year 1639. It has been calculated that at its best it could raise around 16–17 cubic meters per day (16–17 thousand liters).[9]

According to the written sources, two similar artifices were built: the first, commissioned by the City Council, was to carry water up to the Alcázar as the highest point of the city, but the army, owner of the Alcázar, refused to share this water with the city. Thus, the City Council commissioned another one, which Juanelo carried out.[3]

Juanelo's problem, which practically brought him to the grave, was that no one wanted to pay for the first of the artifices: the City Council because it did not receive the water, and the army because it had not signed any contract. Between the two, Juanelo was ruined and was buried modestly in a Toledo convent.[10]

The Hombre de Palo

There are doubts about its nature and function, but the most reliable sources of the City of Toledo stated that it consisted of an anthropomorphic wooden device, built for the purpose of collecting alms, and capable of moving its legs and arms. A record has also survived of the street where it operated, which was the old Calle de las Asaderías of Toledo, now called "Calle del Hombre de Palo".[3]

The automaton was able to move by itself to attract the charity of passersby, something that was entirely possible, since Juanelo had already built automata that moved autonomously by means of mechanisms similar to those of clockwork, as the automaton monk did, for example. The Hombre de Palo was even able to bow in a reverence when it received a coin.[11]

Unfortunately there are not many historical documents about the nature of the automaton, since it was burned while Turriano was still alive. The chronicler Sebastián de Horozco described it as follows:

"A wooden man armed with a shield on the left side and on the right arm a sack, fixed on a post, and it went round and round, and when the shield was touched it turned and struck whoever was passing with the sack of sand, and hit him"

There is a curious theory according to which Doménico Teotocopulos, El Greco, in his work "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz" reveals who hid the framework of the automaton. To support this, it relies on the scenes that adorn the vestments of the heavenly apparitions, on the mysterious monk in a gray habit, and on the page who, in the foreground, clearly points to the Rosicrucian symbol on one of the tunics.

Others

Juanelo also made for Emperor Charles I of Spain a chiming watch set in a ring, which is a forerunner of Blaise Pascal's wristwatch. He wore it fastened to a glove, and it was inherited by his son Philip II.

As for automata, he made several. Besides the Hombre de Palo, La Tamborilera (the Drummer Girl) was famous, and is considered a forerunner by two hundred years of Vaucanson's Drummer. Others were the automaton of Saint Albert, the mechanical fly of Regiomontanus, the musical automaton of a lady of the Spanish court with a lute, which is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and the automaton monk that was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Driven by a wind-up mechanism, this automaton closely resembled the friar Saint Didacus of Alcalá and was able to walk while beating its chest with its right arm in the "mea culpa" gesture of the Latin Catholic Mass, while raising and lowering its other hand holding a small wooden cross and a rosary. Meanwhile, it turned and moved its head, opening and closing its mouth as if silently praying funeral rites or litanies for a deceased person. At intervals the automaton also brought the cross to its lips and kissed it.

He is also credited with a statue of the Constable that rose and prayed in the Toledo Cathedral, a bronze figure that by means of certain springs stood up and knelt when Mass was said.

Another of his inventions, very advanced for the time, was the construction of two planetaria following the Copernican system. He made one for the Habsburg court and another for the University of Salamanca, where the theologians devoted to astronomy accepted the teachings of Copernicus, who, it is said, in the moments of greatest danger to his life "turned his eyes to Spain".

He also invented a kind of rudimentary machine gun and some flying machines, designed and also built by him.[12]

Juanelo was credited with being the author of the Twenty-One Books of Devices and Machines, a work published in its entirety by the Fundación Juanelo. Lexical analysis has ruled out its attribution to the engineer from Cremona.[12] He apparently also wrote many other books and treatises, although since they dealt with military subjects they were considered secret in the period in which he lived and did not see the light at the time, being published many years later.

  • In 2000 a biographical approach to the figure of Juanelo Turriano was published. This is the novel Las Grullas del otoño volaron sobre el Tajo (Un ingenio para el César) by the writer Ricardo Sánchez Candelas, a book that narrates the last years of Turriano's life.[13]
  • In the same year, the writer Jesús Ferrero published Juanelo o el hombre nuevo, whose protagonist is Turriano's creation.[14]
  • In 2002 the journalist Baltasar Magro wrote El círculo de Juanelo, a novel about a study of the life of Juanelo Turriano carried out by a group of friends during the Franco era.[15]
  • In the novel by José Vicente Pascual entitled El ingeniero y el rey, Juanelo appears as a detective at Yuste, days before the death of Emperor Charles I.[16]
  • The novel Memorias de un Hombre de Palo by Antonio Lázaro revolves around the figure of Juanelo during his time in Toledo.[17]
  • He also appears in the novel La llave maestra by Agustín Sánchez Vidal[18] and is mentioned in the novel Los tiempos del odio by Rosa Montero.[19]
  • The Spanish music group La Broma Negra dedicated the song Hombre de palo[20] to Juanelo Turriano and his automaton, with which he supposedly begged for alms in the streets of Toledo.

Bibliography

  • Luis de la Escosura y Morrogh, El artificio de Juanelo y el puente de Julio César, Memorias de la Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, físicas y Naturales de Madrid (volume XIII, part 2, 1888)
  • Juan Antonio Frago Gracia and José Antonio García-Diego, Un autor aragonés para los Veintiún libros de los ingenios y de las máquinas, Zaragoza, Diputación General de Aragón, 1988.
  • Francesc Xavier Jufre García, El artificio de Juanelo Turriano para elevar agua al Alcázar de Toledo (s. XVI). Modelo con escaleras de Valturio, Editorial Milenio (2008).
  • Antonio Lázaro, Memorias de un Hombre de Palo, Suma de Letras, 2009.
  • Brief discourse to His Majesty the Catholic King concerning the reduction of the year for the reform of the calendar: with the explanation of the instruments invented to teach its use in practice, with an introduction by José Antonio García-Diego and an analysis of the codex by José María Gonzales Aboin, as well as the unpublished manuscript, in its original language and with a translation into Castilian. Madrid, Fundación Juanelo Turriano, Castalia, 1990.

References

  1. ↑ «Busto de Juanelo Turriano», catalog entry for the work in Ceres, the digital network of museum collections of Spain. An old attribution to Alonso Berruguete has been discarded because of its Italianate features and clear similarities with the work of Leoni, who was a friend of Turriano.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 di Cristiano Zanetti - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 96 (2019). "TORRIANI, Janello". Enciclopedia Treccani (in italiano). Retrieved July 12, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "Biografía de Juanelo Turriano". IES Juanelo Turriano (in español).
  4. ↑ Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (2008). Una visita al Monasterio de Yuste (in español). Editorial MAXTOR. pp. 59 of 75. ISBN 9788497614559. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  5. ↑ José Ignacio Ortega Cervigón (2018). Breve historia de Carlos V (in español). Nowtilus. p. 288. ISBN 9788499678641. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  6. ↑ Angel Fernández Collado (1991). Gregorio XIII y Felipe II en la nunciatura de Felipe Sega (1577-1581): aspectos político, jurisdiccional y de reforma (in español). I.T. San Ildefonso. pp. 243 of 371. ISBN 9788440490506. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  7. ↑ Gerardo Bolado Ochoa, Fernando Hermida de Blas, Pedro Ribas Ribas, José Luis Mora García, Carlos Nieto Blanco, José Luis Abellán, Francisco José Martín, Eudaldo Forment, Alfredo Alonso García, Yvan Lissorgues, Alberto Gomis, Teófilo González Vila, Víctor Navarro Brotons, Salvador Ordóñez, J. Fernando Val-Bernal, Juan José Fernández Teijeiro, F. Vázquez de Quevedo, Benito Madariaga de la Campa (2019). «La Ciencia Española». Estudios (in español). Ed. Universidad de Cantabria. pp. 297 of 350. ISBN 9788481027020. Retrieved July 12, 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ Luis de la Escosura y Morrogh (2012). El artificio de Juanelo y el puente de Julio César (in español). Editorial MAXTOR. p. 116. ISBN 9788490012246. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  9. ↑ Antonio Pulido (2006). Momentos estelares de Econolandia (in español). ECOBOOK. pp. 167 of 285. ISBN 9788493480707. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  10. ↑ Calvo, Mariano (1992). « El artificio de Juanelo. Ruta de Cervantes», en Rutas literarias de Toledo (in español). Toledo: Cuarto Centenario, pp. 116-117. ISBN 978-84-940811-2-5.. "Juanelo Turriano – 'second Archimedes', as Sebastián de Covarrubias called him – died at the age of eighty-five, sunk in poverty, after forty years in the service of Charles I of Spain and Philip II of Spain. He arranged to be buried in the Convent of Carmen Calzado (Toledo), very close to the hydraulic device of which he felt so proud. His remains were lost with the disappearance of that convent, but not so his memory, whose portrait we know thanks to the marble bust attributed to Pompeo Leoni, which is preserved in the Museum of Santa Cruz".
  11. ↑ Joaquín Valverde Sepúlveda (2001). Juanelo Turriano: el relojero del emperador (in español). Rubiños 1860. p. 401. ISBN 9788480411233. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Javier Martínez - Pinna (2022). Lo que hicimos por el mundo: Aportaciones que los grandes pensadores, científicos, artistas y literatos españoles nos legaron (in español). EDAF. p. 224. ISBN 9788441441750. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  13. ↑ Las grullas del otoño volaron sobre el Tajo, un ingenio para el César; SÁNCHEZ CANDELAS, RICARDO; ISBN 978-84-607-1164-3
  14. ↑ Juanelo o El Hombre Nuevo by Jesús Ferrero (Alfaguara Literaturas) (2000) ISBN 978-8420441719
  15. ↑ El círculo de Juanelo by Baltasar Magro. ISBN 9788484509561
  16. ↑ El ingeniero y el rey by José Vicente Pascual. ISBN 9788493287955
  17. ↑ Memorias de un Hombre de Palo by Antonio Lázaro. ISBN 9788483656952
  18. ↑ La llave maestra by Agustín Sánchez Vidal. ISBN 9788466307208
  19. ↑ Los tiempos del odio by Rosa Montero. ISBN 9788432236457
  20. ↑ Hombre de palo by La Broma Negra. ISRC ES5301866946
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