Artisanal Processes and Epistemological Debate in the Works of Leonardo. . .
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Fig. 3 Leonardo, Technological application of the element of fire, Codex Atlanticus, fol. 87r, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan (Image taken from Codex Atlanticus, Hoepli edition, Milan, 1894– 1904)
Furnaces become Leonardo’s instrument for studying and observing fire. A drawing on a folio in the Codex Arundel representing a tower furnace, used in the Middle Ages by alchemists for distillation, assumes a very important epistemological value (Fig. 5). The drawing presents an apparently accurate copy of this furnace’s vertical section and, when we read the note below, we understand that his interest is not in the technological device but the transformation of the elements involved in the combustion process inside it. The note below the furnace helps us understand that once you have dealt with the motion of heavy solids, deal with heavy liquids and with air and with the motion of fire. Compare the motion of fire with the whirls of air and water and