The Twenty-One Books of Devices and Machines

From Hispanopedia
Los veintiún libros de los ingenios y de las máquinas
Title page of Los veintiún libros de los ingenios y de las máquinas (1570)
AuthorPedro Juan de Lastanosa
CountrySpain
GenreMechanical engineering
ISBNISBN 9788475060620

Los veintiún libros de los ingenios y de las máquinas (The Twenty-One Books of Devices and Machines) constitute the world's first systematic treatise on what in the 16th century was known as Hydraulic Architecture. The work discusses water as the main source of energy during the Renaissance, and as a route for transport and trade along rivers and navigable canals.

The original text was not published in its time because it contained information about materials and works obtained with the royal consent of Philip II. It is therefore the only written source for knowledge of the mechanical arts known and practiced in the 16th century.

The work contains numerous pen drawings interspersed with the text. The title pages of each book are done in ink, framed and polychromed in wash. The initials are decorated with the same techniques.

Contents

The manuscript is divided into five Volumes and includes four hundred and forty highly detailed drawings of excellent quality that complement the precise description of the technical processes. In addition, the machines and devices are accompanied by their exploded views, which make it possible to appreciate the details of how they work.

The "Treatise on Hydraulics" covers 2 Volumes and books 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. The "Treatise on Mills" covers 1 Volume and books 11, 12 and 13. The "Treatise on Bridges" covers 1 Volume and books 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. And the "Treatise on Ports" covers the last volume and books 19, 20 and 21.

Tables of contents

VOLUME I
FIRST BOOK
On the qualities of waters and their properties and their generation or springs. On the effects of waters and the things they do within the earth. On the signs there are for finding water, that which is hidden within the earth. On the signs there are for finding water and which ones are very reliable.
SECOND BOOK
On the experiments that must be made to find water.
THIRD BOOK
How we can know whether water is good or not.
FOURTH BOOK
On levels and their forms.
FIFTH BOOK
On bitumens of various kinds, which is the fifth book. Book that teaches how lead pipes or fistulae and metal trumpets are made. It is of the fourth book (sic).
Diagram of a Rustic Aqueduct
VOLUME II
SIXTH BOOK
On conveying waters in various ways and on aqueducts.
SEVENTH BOOK
For conveying waters so that some pass beneath others.
EIGHTH BOOK
On the differences there are in the conveying of fountains.
NINTH BOOK
Which deals with various kinds of weirs or river dams.
TENTH BOOK
On cisterns and water tanks, how they are made in various ways.
VOLUME III
ELEVENTH BOOK
Deals with various kinds of mills.
BOOK TWELVE
Various kinds of sifting flour.
BOOK THIRTEEN
BOOK of fulling mills and oil mills, and of various kinds of contrivances of the same quality, for drawing water, for making alums and saltpeters, and for washing wool and cloth.
VOLUME IV
BOOK FOURTEEN
BOOK of boats that serve in place of a bridge for crossing rivers, and of bridges.
BOOK FIFTEEN
On bridges of wood alone.
BOOK SIXTEEN
On woods and stones and how they are cut and how stones are quarried and how lime and plaster and bricks are made, in various ways. On the remedies that must be applied so that woods are preserved after they have been cut. On trees in summary.
BOOK SEVENTEEN
Chapter on stones in general and at what time they should be quarried and at what season and time they should be put to work and which are easiest to break and which are most durable in the work. Book on the quality of stones and the way of making bricks and roof tiles and other things of clay to adorn buildings. What quality of stone is best for making lime. At what time the earth should be dug to make bricks and at what time the bricks should be shaped and fired.
BOOK EIGHTEEN
On how the piers of stone bridges are to be made in various ways.
VOLUME V
BOOK NINETEEN
BOOK of sea buildings and how they are to be made and arranged in various ways.
BOOK TWENTY
On making defenses for ports so that fleets cannot enter.
BOOK TWENTY-ONE
Which deals with divisions of waters, both of islands and of other water matters, and water clocks.

Controversy over its authorship

Nicolás García Tapia, professor of Fluid mechanics at the School of Industrial Engineering of Valladolid, maintains that Los veintiún libros de los ingenios y de las máquinas were written by Pedro Juan de Lastanosa, who was "machinist of Philip II", and that they have been wrongly attributed to a Hispano-Milanese engineer and inventor named Juanelo Turriano. Its authorship had already been called into question by the first researchers of the manuscript in the 18th century, since the language used contains Aragonese expressions and specific geographical references.

The attribution of the work to Turriano is largely due to the fact that on the half-title pages of the books themselves one can read:

First Books of the Devices of Juanelo,
Chief Engineer of His Majesty King Don Philip the Second,
King of the Spains and the New World

These half-title pages were added later, in the 17th century, for which the first gathering of each manuscript had to be trimmed. Only one of these half-title pages bears a watermark dated by Briquet to the 16th century.

Bibliography

  • Bails, B., Noticias de una obra de arquitectura hidráulica que escribió Juanelo Turriano, in E. LLaguno and J.A. Ceán Bermúdez, Noticias de los arquitectos y arquitectura de España desde su restauración. Madrid, 1977, vol. III, pp. 250–258.
  • Frago García, J. A. and García-Diego, J.A., Un autor aragonés para "Los veintiún libros de los ingenios y de las máquinas". Zaragoza, 1988
  • García, Diego, J.A., El capítulo sobre azudes del códice de Juanelo Turriano, con una referencia a su atribución, in Anales Toledanos XVI (1982), pp. 189–209.
  • García, Diego, J.A., El manuscrito atribuído a Juanelo Turriano de la Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, in El científico español ante su historia. Madrid, 1980
  • García Tapia, N., Ingeniería y arquitectura en el renacimiento español. Valladolid, 1990
  • García Tapia, N., Nuevas investigaciones sobre Pedro Juan de Lastanosa y su manuscrito de ingenios, in Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios Históricos de Monzón 20 (1993), pp. 110 and 113.
  • García Tapia, N., Pedro Juan de Lastanosa, el autor aragonés de "Los veintiún libros de los ingenios". Huesca, 1990
  • Ostazola Elizondo, A., Los veintiún libros de los ingenios y las máquinas: composición, reconstrucción arqueológica, proceso de copia, copista, datación, in Archivo de Filología Aragonesa XLVII–XLIX (1992–1993).
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