From Brunelleschi to Leonardo

Abstract

The wide production of texts and pictures of machines and mechanical devices characterizing the Italian cultural scene beginning at the end of the fourteenth century has been overshadowed by Leonardo da Vinci’s personality. But however it is, in fact, not correct to say that Leonardo’s notebooks marked the beginning of the modern concept of machine drawing. Rather, they should be regarded as the conclusion of the development of techniques of visual expression of machines that took place throughout the fifteenth century. Artists and scholars at the end of the fourteenth century found themselves with very little “visual” evidence of classical and medieval technical knowledge at their disposal. The works of some of the eminent Greek and Roman technical experts had no illustrations. The few extremely old codices containing drawings of machines brought from the Middle East by humanists immediately kindled the curiosity and imagination of artist-engineers. Scholars and artists rallied to consult a valuable manuscript containing the so-called Raccolta dei Matematici Greci (some texts on military engineering by Ateneo, Bitone, Filone, Erone etc.), attracted by the fact that the code contained dozens of illustrations of machines. For the same reason, the De rebus bellicis (third century A.D.) enjoyed great success, especially for the illuminations depicting military devices (mainly scythed chariots).