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Wind Chariots and “Automobiles”

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Abstract

The Renaissance engineers devoted special attention to a particular kind of war instrument: the war chariots. The result of their efforts is an impressive list of mobile systems for warfare: scythed chariots, wagons loaded with soldiers, armored vehicles with protection from external attacks, mobile towers built to break through defensive walls, and more. They are all part of an almost inexhaustible catalogue of war tools described in great detail and with extraordinary inventiveness. Despite their wide variety, these systems are still part of the legacy of a distant past and mostly rely on Roman sources still well known in the Middle Ages.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Duyvendak J. J. L (1942) Simon Stevin’s “Sailing-Chariot,” T’oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 36, Livr. 3/5 (1942), pp. 401–407.

  2. 2.

    Battisti E, Saccaro Battisti G (1984) Le macchine cifrate di Giovanni Fontana. Con la riproduzione del Cod. Icon. 242 della Bayerische StaatsBibliothek di Monaco di baviera e la descrizione di esso e del Cod. Lat. Nouv. Acq. 635 della Bibliothèque nationale di Parigi. Arcadia Edizioni Cinisello Balsamo, Milano

  3. 3.

    Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cod. Lat. Nouv. Acq. 635.

  4. 4.

    Rosheim ME (2001) L’automa programmabile di Leonardo. Codex Atlanticus, f. 812 r, ex 296 v-a. XL Lettura Vinciana, 15 aprile 2000, Città di Vinci, Biblioteca Leonardiana, Firenze, Giunti

  5. 5.

    A detailed analysis of Leonardo’s car can be found in the website, together with an exhaustive bibliography on the topic: http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/automobile

  6. 6.

    A computer reconstruction of Leonardo’s “car” is described in: Taddei M, Zanon E, Laurenza D (2013) Le macchine di Leonardo. Segreti ed invenzioni nei Codici da Vinci. Giunti.

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Innocenzi, P. (2019). Wind Chariots and “Automobiles”. In: The Innovators Behind Leonardo. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90449-8_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90449-8_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90448-1

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