21 Books of engineering and machines of Juanelo Turriano - Introduction by FUNDACIÓN JUANELO TURRIANO

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; JNDACION JUANELO TURRIANO

The Twenty-One Books of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano A traslation of the manuscript The Twenty-One Books of Engineering and Machines of]uanelo Turriano in the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, by ALEXANDER KELLER

with Prologue by PEDRO LAÍN ENTRALGO

and Introduction by JOSÉ A N T O N I O G A R C Í A - D I E G O

Volume I

FUNDACIÓN JUANELO TURRIANO

DOCE CALLES

es FUNDACION JUANELO TURRIANO

Consultative committee BEGOÑA GARCÍA-DIEGO Y ORTÍZ LUIS CERVERA VERA ÁNGEL DEL CAMPO FRANCÉS JAVIER GOICOLEA ZALA IGNACIO GONZÁLEZ TASCÓN

Transcription ROSA GARCÍA CALVO

Introduction: Herederos de José Antonio García-Diego. Transcription: Fundación Juanelo Turriano. Manuscript: Biblioteca Nacional. Madrid. Ministerio de Cultura. Of the present edition: Fundación Juanelo Turriano and Ediciones Doce Calles, S.L. ISBN ISBN ISBN ISBN ISBN ISBN ISBN ISBN

Complete work: 84-87111-97-7. Facsimile. Volume I: 84-87111-92-0. Facsimile. Volume II: 84-87111-93-9. Facsimile. Volume III: 84-87111-94-7. Facsimile. Volume IV: 84-87111-95-5. Facsimile. Volume V: 84-87111-96-3. Transcription. Volume I: 84-87111-90-4. Transcription. Volume II: 84-87111-91-2.

D. L.: M-44.460-1996. Editorial Coordination: Concha Aguilera. Editorial Production: Ediciones Doce Calles, S.L. Photography: Pablo Linés Viñuales.

FUNDACION JUANELO TURRIANO

FUNDACIÓN JUANELO TURRIANO

C O U N C I L OF PATRONS

Begoña García-Diego y Ortiz Bernardo Revuelta García

(President)

(Vicepresident)

María Nieves Vázquez Menéndez

(Secretary)

José Antonio Fernández-Ordóñez

(Member)

José María Aguirre González

(Member)

Francisco Vigueras González

(Member)

Ignacio González Tascón

(Member)

Antonio Quijada Lesmes (Member) Javier Goicolea Zala (Member)

CONSULTATIVE

COMMITTEE

Pedro Lain Entralgo

(President)

Antonio Rumeu de Armas

(Vicepresident)

José Mañas Martínez

(Secretary)

José María de Areilza

(Member)

Manuel Díaz-Marta Pinilla

(Member)

Julio Porres Martín-Cleto

(Member)

Ángel del Campo Francés

(Member)

Luis Cervera Vera

(Member)

David Fernández-Ordóñez Hernández

(Member)

To José Antonio García-Diego (1919 - 1994)

The Fundación Juanelo Turriano dedicates this work to the memory of its founder. He was one of those who initiated research into the history of science and technology in Spain, and to that end created this Foundation. His contribution to this task was immense, not only in our country but specially abroad. He was President of the Sociedad Española de la Historia de la Ciencia y de la Técnica (the Spanish Society for the History of Science and Technology, SEHCYT), of the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC), member of the International Academy of the History of Science, member of the Council of the International Molinological Society (TIMS), of the British Sundial Society, of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes y Ciencias Históricas de Toledo, among many others. He was first Vice-President of the XIX International Congress of the History of Science. He wrote several books and numerous monographs. His contribution to our knowledge of such great Spanish figures as Agustín de Betancourt, Juanelo Turriano, José Maria de Lanz, etc. has been important. Equally valuable have been his works on hydraulic engineering, particularly on Spanish dams, and his project to reconstruct the Engine of Juanelo at Toledo, together with Fernando Chueca and José Manuel González Valcárcel. The publication of the The Twenty-One Books of Engineering and Machines of ]uanelo Turriano is the homage of us all to his memory, to his ideas and to his work; in which we have put our enthusiasm and our efforts.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Fundación Juanelo Turriano thanks the persons cited below for their collaboration; without their efforts and their interest this edition would not have been possible. The Advisory Committee of the work, comprised of Dña. Begoña García-Diego y Ortiz, D. Ángel del Campo Francés, D. Luis Cervera Vera, D. Javier Goicolea Zala, and D. Ignacio González Tascón. Dña. Araceli Sánchez Pinol, Head of the Service of Diffusion of the Biblioteca Nacional, who has given every facility for the production of the facsimile. D. Alberto Porlan, philologist, who has supervised the definition of numerous terms of the glossary. D. Juan Armada Diez de Rivera, conservator of the Royal Botanic Garden of Madrid, for his work on the terms of the glossary referring to his speciality. D. Joaquín Fernández Pérez, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Biology of the Complutense University of Madrid, for his help in elucidating the definitions of the glossary. D. García Rueda Muñoz de San Pedro and Dña. Esther Carmona Ayuso, who have participated respectively in research on the codex, and in the secretarial task.

PRESENTATION

In 1964, following the suggestions of Lynn White jr. and Alexander Keller, Ladislao Reti came across the manuscript of the Twenty-One books of Engineering and Machines ofjuanelo Turriano in the Biblioteca Nacional, the National Library of Spain. José Antonio Garcia-Diego, who considered Ladislao Reti as his master, felt a very great interest in the codex. For two motives principally; the attraction which the figure ofJuanelo Turriano had aroused in him, and his fascination with the history of hydraulic engineering. In fact, Juanelo Turriano was considered the author of the codex, and so it was affirmed on the frontispieces of the five volumes into which it is divided, which were written by command of the famous architect Juan Gómez de Mora However, there were doubts as to the truth of this previous attribution, and José Antonio García-Diego dedicated a great part of his investigative activity to its verification. As a result of his work and that of Luis Cervera Vera, Manuel Díaz-Marta, Ángel del Campo Francés, José Fernández-Ordóñez, Carmen Bernis and David Fernández- Ordóñez, among others, the authorship ofjuanelo Turriano has been rejected. The search for the true author has up to the present not produced any result. Therefore, notwithstanding, the editors have preserved on the title-page the name ofJuanelo Turriano, just as it appears on the frontipieces cited above. The manuscript deals mainly with what was then called hydraulic architecture, which we would now term hydraulic engineering. Given the dates to which its composition is ascribed, it can be said that it is the first systematic treatise m the world on this subject. In 1982 the Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, at the instance ofJosé Antonio García-Diego, published a modernized version of the codex, which is now out of print. The Fundación Juanelo Turriano, which José Antonio Garcia-Diego created, and directed until his demise in January 1994, has proposed to honour his memory by publishing this facsimile edition of the manuscript. We are thus fulfilling two of his great dreams: to acquaint those interested in the history of technology with this important work, which lay unknown for so many years, and to make clear the 13

advanced level of Spanish technology (so unrecognised) of the sixteenth century, specially in the field of civil engineering... In fact during the reign of Philip II important works were constructed, as for example, the Tibi dam, in height 42.70 meteres, near Alicante, also erroneously attributed to Juanelo Turriano. This dam held the record for height for almost three hundred years, excepting only the 14 years that the Puentes dam stood, in the Cuenca del Segura, Murcia, at 50.16 metres. But, completed in 1788, its collapse in 1802 resulted from defects in the foundations. The Fundación Juanelo Turriano has as its purpose the study of the history of science and technology. Since 1987, the date of its creation, we have dedicated ourselves to this field of research. We have brought to fruition numerous studies, specially inthe field of hydraulic engineering, without forgetting mechanical engineering, and have published numerous works, researches and biographies on works and on important persons. Among them we can only point in particular to; «Giovanni Francesco Sitoni, Ingeniero renacentista al servicio de la Corona de España» by José Antonio García-Diego and Alexander Keller; «Breve discurso a Su Majestad el Rey Católico en torno a la reducción del año y reforma del Calendario», by Juanelo Turriano; «El Real Gabinete de Máquinas del Buen Retiro. Una Empresa Técnica de Agustín de Betancourt» by Antonio Rumeu de Armas; «José María de Lanz, Prefecto de Cordoba», by Jorge Demerson; «Pedro Bernardo Villareal de Bérriz (1669-1740). Semblanza de un Vasco Precursor» by Estíbaliz Ruiz de Azúa; «Un Enigma Historico: El Baño de la Cava» by Julio Porres; «Presas Antiguas de Extremadura» by José Antonio García-Diego; and «José Rodríguez de Losada. Vida y Obra», by Roberto Moreno. Our library holds some 3,500 volumes, some of them of great antiquity, rarity and value... Indeed, it is possibly one of the richest of Spanish libraries in the field of science and technology... With this work which we are now publishing our task is extended and brought to a completion. It is the result of the enthusiastic work of many persons over more than a year. It has been our wish to bring out a publication of the highest quality, as was the rule with José Antonio García-Diego, which his Foundation will continue to keep up. The work consists offive facsimile volumes, which correspond to the divisions of the codex, but of two volumes for the transcription, in which reflections which José Antonio García-Diego has written about the manuscript have been included, as well as indices of subjects, names and places, and a glossary of words which are rare or difficult to understand.

Fundación Juanelo Turriano

PROLOGUE

Only strictly personal reasons can justify the fact that I, who am so much a layman in knowledge of contemporary engineering as well as in the investigation of that of the past, am now writing these lines for the edition of the Twenty-One Books of Enfineering and Machines ofJuanelo Turriano, which José Antonio GarcíaDiego prepared with such love and so much learning; only the friendship which bound us, and my gratitude for the honour which he vouchsafed me, in spite of my ignorance, making me Patron of the Fundación Juanelo Turriano, created by him to promote in Spain the study of the history of scienceand technology. The ancients were accustomed in their eulogies of men eminent in some profession to place at the head of their eulogy Vir bonus, a good man. The good doctor was vir bonus medendi peritus, a good man skilled in the art of curing disease, and the good orator vir bonus dicendi peritus, a good man skilled in the art of speaking. A good man in the best sense of the word was in his life José Antonio García-Diego, gentle, cordial, generous, faithfully open to every idea, provided it were honestly professed, without lacking, to be sure, a keen fidelity to his own convictions. Upon this innate and shining goodness his extraordinary skill was founded as on a firm base, in the activities to which he was led jointly by his profession as civil engineer and his vocation, the discovery and study of whatever was related to the history of engineering and technology: documents whether manuscript or printed, the remains of bridges and dams, artefacts of every type, the likenesses and representations of pioneers of technology-with a special fondness if they were Spanish. So much so that he did not want to be content with his personal investigations into several fields of engineering history, but dedicated his fortune and his time to the creation and administration of the Foundation which at his wish bears the name of Juanelo Turriano, the engineer whom he most admired and studied most exhaustively. Although attributed to Juanelo Turriano, it does not seem likely that the great Cremonese was the author of Los Veintiún Libros de los Ingenios y Maquinas, as indeed José Antonio García-Diego affirmed with the requisite critical rigour. But the simple fact of such an early attribution shows clearly 15

how his contemporaries saw in Juanelo- and many others continued to see in him- one of the most eminent and representative figures of the technology of the Renaissance. With the emotion which that fact and that attribution must awaken in every man of sensibility, I have contemplated myself the pages of Los Veintiún Libros and I have read what García-Diego has devoted to the man to whom they were attributed. I will say why. Everyone knows, however narrow their culture, that Italy was the cradle of that formidable and yet captivating achievement which since Michelet and Burckhardt we have called the Renaissance. Younger than Juanelo by ten years, the Italianised Belgian Andreas Vesalius, recalling with emotion his years in Padua, will call Italy vera ingeniorum altrix, true nurse of talent. Mother of those who there were born during the fifteenth and sixteenth centurieshumanists, painters, sculptors, architects, physicians, merchants; nurse of those who in the course of those two hundred years resorted there to perfect their knowledge, and of those who, without actually going to Italy, learnt from the Italians of the Renaissance how to bring their professions up to date. In the particular case with which we have to do here, the Spaniards in the Spain of Charles V and Philip II learnt what the Italian Juanelo brought to them; the beginnings of a technology based not only on an inventive empiricism but also, and indeed even primarily, on a rational and mathematical vision of Nature. When Juanelo worked in Spain, almost a century was to pass before Galileo, Descartes, Huygens, Boyle, Newton and Leibniz built the foundations of modern science and technology. However, it is not hard to notice how in the technologies of a mechanical character, and among them hydraulics, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries those principles had already begun to operate, which Galileo explicitly considered the key to his method: the vision of Nature and of our artefacts as compounded of geometrical forms, and the concept of mechanical forces as composites of vectors of variable direction and quantifiable intensity. With this intuition, still in its beginnings but already usable those who constructed the Duomo of Florence and the cupola of St Peter's were to proceed, as did the projectors of the Rialto Bridge, and the engineers of the arsenals of Genoa and Venice. I catch a glimpse of this in the Historia de la Composición del Cuerpo Humano written and printed in Italy but composed in Spain (1556) of Juan Valverde de Hamusco of Palencia, but scarcely diffused there, the Los Veintiún Libros de los Ingenios y Maquinas came about in the same way, and so not by chance attributed to the Cremonese Juanelo Turriano. Precisely that is the cause of the emotion of which I spoke before; an emotion which becomes melancholy when I think of the regrettable destiny which as so many years went by was the destiny of the promising innovative spirit borne by that Historia and these Veintiún Libros. For the Fundación Juanelo Turriano, nothing was a greater obligation or a greater honour than to promote the publication of a manuscript so competently and so lovingly studied by him who created it. He, it is only right to say, did not examine and value the remains of the past as a laudator temporis acti, as one of those who praise bygone times to compensate the pain produced in them by what has been; but as one who laboured for a Spain «healthy, with backbone, standing firmly on its own feet», as Ortega proposed at the outset of the century to the people of Spain. Pedro Lain Entralgo 16

PREFACE OF THE TRANSLATOR

These Twenty-One Books should no doubt have been translated by a contemporary, just as the classic handbooks on navigation by Pedro de Medina and Martin Cortes were given an English dress by Elisabethan writers. Some words and concepts had then their English equivalents, which are now obsolete, so that the modern translator has to steer carefully between the Scylla of artificial archaism and the Charybdian whirlpool of anachronism and false modernity, in this encyclopaedic work the author uses a number of recondite and obscure words; but he writes as presumably he spoke, in a colloquial fashion, which sometimes rambles; or he may repeat himself to make sure the reader has understood. He may turn aside for afterthoughts and digressions. Indeed he was conscious of his failings, for he quite often apologises for straying from his main theme, or for being so long-winded. Such problems occur with other technical literature of those times (as Martha Teach Gnudi points out, in respect of her celebrated translation of Biringuccio's Pirotechnia)- before brevity had become a virtue, and engineering an objective science. So I have tried to reproduce the author's tone, his oral rhythms, his manner of writing as if he were leaning over and talking to you. However, some superfluities have been trimmed in the hope of producing a crisper, more readable narrative. Then, no more than now, could one man compile such an encyclopaedic work without recourse to others, and many of the sources used in the Twenty-One Books can be identified. From time to time, turning to a source can help to explain a difficult word or passage. In the earlier books, there are a few gaps in thetext, indicated in the translation by square brackets [ ]. Where the word can be found in the relevant source, which the author presumably could not translate, that word is supplied here, also in square brackets. Besides the author's own misunderstandings, copyists may have introduced others. Where feasible these are commented in the notes. There are bound to be many obsolete and dialect terms in such a work, besides some foreign words. Many of these are explicated in the glossary appended to the Spanish edition to which this version has been published as companion. For others, 17

I must express my thanks to Professor Javier Goicolea Zala for his invaluable help in tracking them down. The translator of a work like this is bound to incur many debts. Above all, I should like to express gratitude and respect to the memory of two men, who were mentors in this task, and whom I was happy to call friends: to their honoured memory these efforts are dedicated. Ladislao Reti first urged me to undertake the task, encouraged, advised- transcribing the third volume of the manuscript- and he oversaw the opening stages. José Antonio García-Diego raised hopes that had been nearly abandoned; his assistance and his enthusiasm pressed me to continue and complete the work, devoted as he was to his aspiration of recovering for Spain this masterpiece of Spanish technical literature, and making it more widely known. Since his much regretted death, Sra. Begoña García-Diego has maintained the enthusiastic support of the Fundación Juanelo Turriano which he founded. Among the institutions which have supported this translation, thanks are due above all to the Fundación Juanelo Turriano and the Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos for their support, without which the edition would not have appeared. Also I should like to thank the University of Leicester, which provided a grant to study the manuscript at the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid. The University also saw to the enlargement of the microfilm of the manuscript, so that translation could proceed. A grant from the British Academy made it possible to produce a workable typescript; while a generous grant from the Dibner Foundation has facilitated the transition to computerised copy. In this context, I should like to express my gratitude to Dorothy Brydges for the typescript, wrestling with a difficult and untidy original draught; and most especially to Norma Corby for her heroic achievement in getting such a huge document on the pc. Over the years I have enquired of many people for help with particular words and peculiar technologies, most notably to those already mentioned, Ladislao Reti, José Antonio García-Diego and Javier Goicolea. In matters geological Trevor Ford and David Siveter at the Department of Geology at Leicester University, Martyn Owen and John Thackray then at the Museum of Geology in South Kensington, guided an amateur's uncertain footsteps. On problems relating to dams and aqueducts Norman Smith could be relied on for good advice; he has made the subject very much his own. Given the length of time during which this project has gestated, there may be others consulted in earlier stages., if here omitted, let me thank them anyway. One advisor at least shall not remain anonymous; my wife Hannah has followed with a little bemusement perhaps, but keen backing and sympathetic favour an obsession with the work of an unknown Spanish engineer, who lived four centuries ago. We have been able through that obsession to visit his native land but it is my hope that seeing the fruition of this longstanding work will be a thank you for all her support.

Alex Keller

REFLECTIONS ON T H E TWENTY-ONE BOOKS OF E N G I N E E R I N G AND MACHINES

A GENERAL INTRODUCTION

José Antonio García-Diego

I already announced in 1982, when I wrote the prologue for the Spanish edition of this codex -unpublished for centuries- that it would produce a world-wide event. It is true that three editions were sold out and that few copies remain of the fourth. Numerous critiques in the Spanish daily press and magazines were to endorse it, even if there were not as many as could be expected outside of Spain. It deals with the first Architectura Hidraulica. As such, mysterious and unknown until now, nevertheless, it turns out to be the first of a great series of important books in the development of sciences and crafts, which have so positively served the welfare of the peoples; such as are still being written nowadays, with various titles, and will continue in the future. Well before the dates when the codex was presumably written the phenomenon we call technology appears in history. In English, this is the only word that is normally applied in historical studies, even though it co-exists, of course, with the word ÂŤtechniqueÂť. In French the distinction between technologie and techniques is recognised. As the great historian Maurice Daumas -whom I had the honour of knowing- very aptly indicates, the first meaning of technology places it between science and technique, characterised by their mutual interaction. When I write in my own language, I follow his criterion and I sometimes use tecnologia and other times tecnicas; of course, other Spanish speakers may not do the same. The above is not an unnecessary digression, because I believe that technology is among the impulses for the appearance of the first monographic treatises. Until now, only two of them have been famous: The first treatise, De la pyrotechnia (1540), appeared in Italian after the death of its author, Vanoccio Biringuccio, native of Siena; in it the applications employing fire are presented, especially metallurgy. 21

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

In 1556, the Saxon George Bauer published in Latin De Re Metallica, under the Latinized name of Georgius Agrícola, by which he will pass into posterity; here mining is added to metallurgy. Fire, earth, water and air. Our codex may be said to add the third of the four classic elements. Some readers may think that the history of technology is a matter for specialists or, at all events, for those whom a North American historian has called «sentimental engineers». But this cannot be considered the complete truth; it affects all of us whether or not we are specialists, engineers, or amateurs somewhat given to tenderness. At present, even when coming from very different political philosophies, we conceive that the history of a people does not make sense unless it deals in depth with the jobsof its workers, using the term «workers» in its broadest sense. In the text of our manuscript, the protagonists are architects, builders of mills, ordinary workmen, engineers or hydraulic architects, and in addition their works are explained. I have examples of how, to my way of seeing things, technology has been a determining factor in the human condition in different historical periods: The first relates to Spanish decadence, about which modern historiography is modifying its opinions and even questioning the supposed periods in which it took place. Traditionally the conquests and attaining the position of the first world power were considered to be glorious achievements: and what followed was decadent. But today, by studying successively and sociologically in each reign the standard of living of the people we arrive at unexpected results. From the time of the Catholic Kings, the country possessed relatively important natural resources; to which were added those proceeding from America, which were capable, in addition, of providing the necessary finance. In spite of that, Spain was for centuries an exporter of raw materials and an importer of manufactured products, which made it impossible, until not long ago, for the majority of the population to enjoy a sufficient standard of living. This clearly shows the little attention given to technology on the part of the rulers, together with the dominant class, which must have been an important factor in such regrettable consequences, although not alone evidently, but combined with others such as poor administration, the class system, the unnecessary wars, the wretched religious policy, etc. In recent years important works on the history of technology and science have been published in Spain. In the former -which holds special interest for m e - even though we had illustrious predecessors, I feel satisfied that its development has been initiated by people of my generation. I had in my opinion, two paths to follow in order to write this general introduction, relying on the appropriate historical framework. The first, to place the manuscript in context, comparing it with the most significant works of the two branches cited, and with others that were being published during the sixteenth century, or manuscripts that have been preserved,

José Antonio García-Diego

some of which also enjoy a just fame; taking into account, evidently what was known then of hydraulic constructions as much as about hydraulic theory. But I have preferred to leave this to others and, instead, to follow the second path that I judged to be more rigorous, presenting the codex with critical objectivity and as a valuable work to study, providing some keys, as much in order to reflect as to investigate the multiple problems that it presents as an important historical piece in the Spanish technological bibliography. In the first two parts, which refer to the description and history of the manuscript, I followed the order of the commentary from Ladislao Reti to the manuscripts of Leonardo that are also in the National Library of Madrid. This required a certain patience and the decoding some obscure points. But the latter, related to the authorship, presented a problem of incredible difficulty, to which I have dedicated much time, and to which I have given much thought. I have not found the solution. But I do believe that I have progressed a great deal and I even offer useful hints, not only my own but also those of specialised authors. Some have helped disinterestedly. But also, since I created the Juanelo Turriano Foundation, we have commissioned investigations. In the first general introduction, I cited the following people who had helped me: they are, in alphabetical order, all residents of Madrid; Tomás Marín, Alfonso Pérez Sánchez, Antonio Tovar, Virginia Tovar and María de las Nieves Vázquez. Of these, my admired friend Antonio Tovar passed away in 1985, leaving a great void in Spanish science and sadness, I believe, in all of us who had the good fortune to know him. Alex Keller also helped me from Leicester, also in relation to Sitoni, who in this second general introduction has practially disappeared, but about whom I have published a book. As did Bern Dibner, who lived in Norwalk, Conn., and Giuseppe Scarazzini, from Milan. Dibner has also died, in 1988. An admirable scholar and philanthropist (the manuscript of Sitoni, the engineer from Milan was in the Burndy Library, created and financed by him); that also saddened me greatly. The long time that elapsed between the first and the second general introduction makes it necessary to thank other people who have helped with the latter. I will begin with Ángel del Campo. Civil engineer, historian, distinguished expert in Baroque painting, some of whose secrets he has revealed, and besides, a good water-colour painter, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando He has revised the whole text and has supplied me with a summary of his monographs, from which comes the part that refers to the drawings of the codex. Carmen Bernis is the best specialist on ornament and costume in Spain in diverse periods. She has published several books -and is now preparing a very interesting one about the dress of the characters of Don Quixote- and numerous monographs. For the epoch in which the manuscript was written she has writter a work fundamental for its dating: the catalogue of the Exhibition of the painter 23

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

Sánchez Coello, in the Prado Museum. Also, the part relating to her speciality is taken from what she has published on The Twenty-One Books... Julio Porres, besides being an important historian, is the director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and Historical Sciences of Toledo. José A. Fernández Ordóñez is a professor of the History and Aesthetics of Engineering in the School of Engineering of Roads, Canals and Harbours of Madrid; therefore, his opinion is very important in the matter which concerns us: and is aFellow of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. His help has been considerable. His son David contributed to the writing of one of his monographs on the subject. Now I can mention the important part played by the Juanelo Turriano Foundation, which I created in 1987, and which is dedicated mainly to the history of technology and science. María de las Nieves Vázquez, currently a member of its Executive Committee, has effectively collaborated with me, as she has been doing for many years. She figures, therefore, also in the corresponding list of 1982; because her help began when I started to dedicate a small part only of my working day to historical studies. The two works related to the codex entrusted by the foundation to specialists, are cited in the texts. We have others prepared for the near future.

REPORT OF BENITO BAILS ON THE JOANELO TURRIANO CODEX

In order to give information on the writing of Juanelo that would suffice to form an opinion of its utility, I will consider the two points which should be understood in the whole work. Namely: the substance and the form. As far as the substance is concerned, there is no doubt that its author shows that he was well informed on what pertained to the practice of his art: he was inventive and extremely sound in his instruction. But in order to better understand how complete his work is and how he accomplishes each of the matters that he undertakes, I will place here an extract from each one of the volumes of which it is composed.

Volume I «The Twenty-One Books of the Devices and Machines ofjoanelo1, which the Catholic King Philip II, King of the Spains and the New World commanded him to write and demonstrate». «Dedicated to the Serene Don Juan of Austria, son of the Catholic King Philip IV, King of the Spains»2. It contains the first five books, which comprise this first volume; all that pertains to seeking, sampling, and conducting water from one site to another; and even though in some of these matters it includes, without a doubt, much chaff, he shows in them as much diligence as would be needed to leave the reader fully instructed. The two most rambling books, in which there are long, involved stories are the first and the third, which to tell the truth, seem more suited for a book on medicine than for a treatise onhydraulic works. It would have been enough for him to restrict himself to the signs by which we know if the water is of good or bad quality, the same as we read in modern texts. The second book does not leave anything to be desired nor does any of it have to be cast aside. The experiments or tests that it proposes in order to ascertain whether water can be found are simple and very sure, or at least we do not have any others, different or better, m the modern authors of these days, when the natural sciences have advanced so much by means of experiment. In as much as it matters for the right placing and direction of the conduits to know how much the location where we want the water to go is or should be lower than the source or origin where it is taken, that makes it necessary to carry out levelling, which subject is expounded in book IV, proposing first the method which the moderns also advise m order to combine in an irrigation ditch the different veins of waters which may have spread out m the site where they try to take the water. This book seems more like a treatise to describe levelling instruments, to go by the prolixity with which it treats these instruments, with more information than the purpose required. Finally book V is a compilation of as many bitumens or cements as he could obtain knowledge of, because it is necessary to make use of some of them m order to coat with pitch the joints of the pipes which serve as conduits for water, as those pipes cannot be all of one piece; and it proposes different types at the end of the volume. The bitumens proposed number more than forty and he himself confesses there are too many. 1

More often, Juanelo. »It can easily be noticed that the dedication could not be Juanelo's, because when he died, this Maecenas was not yet born For tMs reason and another observed by Bails in the manuscripts, it can be known that they are copies.

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

Volume II In the first book, which is the sixth of the whole work, different types of aqueducts, which the author calls «aguaductos» are described. It has various drawings of this type of construction, very useful for the multitude of cases that are covered; and because he spares many words. Book VII contains a great many points, the first being the aqueducts or subterranean tunnels for the conveying of water, about which he speculates on various ways of making them, according to the quality of the land through which they must pass: how the direction must be set, and is retaken when it has been left perforce due to some impediment, and how they must be executed when the ground is loose. 2nd Gives the method to dig the tunnel. 3rd Shows how tunnels are made -through which the water is taken from some river to water lands and supply fountains. 4th Proposes various means of making the water of the river enter the irrigation ditch that is made for irrigation. 5th Speaks, though with great brevity, of the irrigation ditches or «posas», as he calls them, that are taken from rivers for navigation. 6th Declares what is necessary to make a river narrower when navigation calls for it: and here he speaks about the earth dikes, calling them land mounds. 7th Gives rules to direct water to a height when it is necessary to cross a valley; and to make one stream of water pass under another, and a conduit at the bank of a river. 8th Deals with what must be carried out in order to dry swamp land. 9th Lastly tells how the fisheries or fish ponds must be made. The intention of Juanelo in book VIII is to declare how the water should be led in order to make a fountain, or for a town that lacks water. He explains an ingenious method for guiding the conduit, cutting through a mountain or live rock; and to this purpose it includes a very precise description of the capstan and of the winch. Book IX has different ways of making dikes, dams, or mill dams, as he calls them, his precepts also including what belongs to the dikes. One sees in everything, and particularly here, that his construction was sound, and that he wishes to appear prudent rather than daring. In all these structures, stability and strength must be the essential elements, but above all in those made to offset the violence of a current of water. Finally, the matter of book X deals with cisterns and reservoirs, explaining it with the usual excessive detail; it also deals with baths, of cold as well as hot water.

Volume III This third volume deals with: 1st Mills to grind wheat and other seeds and it particularises everything by drawings. It has all the different structures of this type; and it indicates the proportions of the component parts. 2nd Book XII shows how the mills must be made to sieve flour, and the fulling hammers. 3rd Book XIII includes an infinity of points. Namely: 1st How oil mills are made. 2nd How starch is made.

JosĂŠ Antonio GarcĂa-Diego

3rd Sugar mills. 4th The device to polish weapons. 5th To wash wool. 6th For dyed cloths. 7th To extract alum and saltpetre. 8 ft To make salt. 9th Lastly, various methods for drawing water, elevating it to a certain height.

Volume IV This volume includes five books, which are the XIV, XV, XVI, XVII and XVIII; with all the theory that pertains to the methods of crossing the rivers, and to the different devices, which have been contrived for this purpose, such as barges, ferries, woodenand stone bridges, wineskins, etc. There is an abundance of examples, more than in any of the authors that I have read because neither in Palladio, nor in Serlio, nor in Alberti, nor in Scamozzi, nor in Belidor are to be found so many types of bridges, either in wood or in stone, as Joanelo shows in this volume. To distinguish these two types of structures, he deals with wood, and stone, specifying with the greatest prolixity and detail the different species of trees whose wood can serve as much in the building of bridges, as in other constructions such as floors or flooring of houses, ceilings, etc. He then indicates the time and means which must be taken advantage of to cut trees so that the wood has as much strength and durability as possible. Even though there is some chaff in dealing with this, we see that he has read as much as the old philosophers and naturalists had written on the matter, and his precepts are in substantial agreement with those of the most accredited moderns. The same is done, although not so extensively, with regard to stone; in dealing with both he describes, with their names and sketches, the tools used to cut trees and carve stone. It also shows how brick, tile, lime and plaster are made, detailing the different tasks required and the tools which may be used. In everything it coincides with what the authors of these days teach, except for an idea that it includes concerning plaster, which contradicts whatever the other writers I have had in my hands say about this item. Juanelo says that plaster, after having been used in building, can be baked again, and it will serve as before, when all the authors state unanimously that plaster cannot be baked again and has no use except as plaster rubble. Finally, the instructions on stone bridges conclude by putting forward his own thoughts for making a broken bridge when the river supports navigation by ships of great capacity whose rigging could not pass through if the entire arch of the bridge were all one piece This broken bridge device is so much more estimable, in as much as it turns out substantially the same as what occurred to the French in the last century, to enlarge the dikes along the river Seine in the city of Paris without narrowing the river bed: which idea has been celebrated and very rightly so.

Volume V Of all the volumes, this, in my view, is the poorest, because it does not include as many matters as modern treatises, and even for those that it does handle it does not go into as much depth as the others. Its concerns are maritime works and it shows: I s ' How a wave retention wall is to be built so as to hold back the waves. 2nd Determines the scarp the walls should have.

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

3rtl Specifies the seven circumstances that should coincide in a sea port, and how it must be suitable and strong in its site, form and the material of which it is made. Book XX proposes how ports should be fortified; it gives no more than general rules without stopping for the details, which are made so precise today when the art of siting and protecting the strongholds has been so refined. The subject of book XXI is to teach how water clocks should be made and how to distribute equably the water for irrigation. On this matter, equally important and difficult, it says what was known at the time; which is stated by modern authors with less words and greater accuracy. Concerning the form, it is necessary to confess that the work is written with very little technique, and among the many proofs that the careful reader will find, and some which have been insinuated in the abstract of the volumes, I will only give one, which is very obvious. After Joanelo states with extreme tediousness in volume I, and with too much credulity as much as he heard and read about the qualities of water, he returns to the same topic without the slightest need, and interrupting the matter at hand, at the end of volume II. The style, besides its astonishing tediousness and extremely tiring repetitions, is barbaric in most of the work; because there are countless clauses which do not form sentences and break the most elementary rules of syntax. This defect, the lack of care with which the punctuation is indicated, the omission of some figures and of some letters in some of them makes the understanding of various passages doubtful for professionals, which for others must be totally unintelligible. If the work had to be given to the public, it would be indispensable to revise the punctuation and spelling, and modernise some words and expressions; and this may be done only by some one familiar with the subject of the work, because when some character of one part of the orthography is in another place than where it should be, the substantial meaning turns out to be very different (and erroneous) from what it seems as it should be, with regard to the grammatical context. The work was not written in Castile either. Only once does it speak of Madrid: no more than once of old Castile: two or three times about Seville, and once he says he has not been there. (I do not note this casually.) But he talks a great deal about Aragon. My proposition is corroborated by the multitude of Catalan words that appear in the work, all of which I have written down, and the following words that are read on the first page of volume III: ÂŤMany are the inventions; information will be given about them all on their mode of construction and their names, although in each province every kind of mill has its own name. But I will take the names that are usual in these kingdoms of Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia, although most of the names will be AragoneseÂť. The manuscript that I have seen seems like a copy because we encounter various spaces which make it evident that the copyist allowed space for the words that he did not know how to read in the original that he copied. Juanelo, speaking in book XIX, volume V, page 401, about the repairs made to holdback the sea by the ancients, and of which no vestige remains, says the following: ÂŤLet builders then take good note, and with reason, if such excellent designs and constructions raised by such sublime judgement we now see levelled to the ground without leaving any trace of them, what then will happen to those which we now presume to erect, so rashly, and in plain madness. Now that it has been shown how valuable these buildings are, and how important it is to leave them secure and in complete perfection, so they will by themselves shake off their opponent, who lies in perpetual ambush for them, and assails them. That would be a good reason why anyone who builds such a structure should think well how to undertake it, what place and site to choose, the stores and materials he should

JosĂŠ Antonio GarcĂa-Diego

employ, and how he may bring his work to its due conclusion. For eventually it will have to be left alone, subjected to the injuries of time and raging storms of the sea, which will beat against it with their continual motion. And there may not happen to be anyone in charge who knows how to repair the damage it has received. Let each man then consider that although he is prudent and experienced and very self-confident, it can happen to him as to the wisest: for he is in conflict with an element so powerful that it is going to harass and undo his handiwork with its sudden and continual attacks. Although he on his part may have done whatever was possible, nevertheless there will be something for which he may be blamed: yet he had finished the work properly and set it up right; then let them say what they will, if there should be something, it will not be his fault, but due to the carelessness of the inhabitants or the landowners who took no care to inspect and repair the structure which was so important for them. For the engineer has already made good account of his talent by leaving the work in a suitable state; it is not his business to make it perpetual. So let them keep the structure in good repair, nor spare their purses, for the materials which these gentlemen gave the engineer were what he used: and they are perishable, not eternal, and so must come to an end. Let them mend it every day, and so preserve it without ever seeing it a ruin. Considering all this, let whoever is in charge see if his talent and cleverness are really so great that he can achieve his enterprise alone, and need not consult learned engineers, and submit to their opinion, without ever relying on himself alone, otherwise there will be nothing that looks right and is useful. Let him observe too, who has ordered the work to be carried out, and in what place, let him ask freely for whatever is necessary, and not accept any scrimping. But let the material be good and perfect, with good and intelligent men overseeing the workers -let him not rely on them, but keep looking at what they are doing all the time, and make sure of his work until it is left in a condition that satisfies him. If he does all this well, he can undertake any job whatsoever, as he resolved to make a beginning of his construction with so much discretion and sagacity, and at a measured paceÂť.

FUNDACION JUANELO TURRIANO

FIRST P A R T

Description of the Codex I It is in the Manuscript section in the National Library in Madrid. The five volumes carry the successive catalogue numbers from 3372 to 3376.

II It is mentioned for the first time in volume II of the manuscript index written between 1821 and 1833 by the then director of the Royal Library, Francisco Antonio González. «Juanelo Turriano, the twenty one books of his devices and machines, which Philip II commanded him to write (volume Vis missing because it remained in the possession of the Count of Floridablanca). L. 136, 7, 8, 9 and 40». «And immediately below, with a different hand and ink, "The Royal Acad, of Hist, returned it in May of 1888"»

The first paragraph also appears in the second volume of Gallardo. 3.

III Passing to the approximate size, that of the covers is 21 x 31 cm; and the pages are 21 x 30. The dimensions of the text are variable, as is usually the case with manuscripts and also through having more than one copyist, even though they do not change much. A minimum of approximately 11.5 x 26 centimetres in the first volume and maximum of 12 x 27 in the fourth. In some cases the drawings have a larger horizontal dimension, up to the order of 20 centimetres. 31

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

There are two seals, the old one and the current one of the National Library. The binding is certainly from the 19th century and, in the first volume there is a label with the name of the man who made it written there: A. Menard. There is also another one that seems to correspond to a signature number that would be in a previous binding: «n. 13 works of Juanelo/manuscript 2.200»

IV Here, in my first general introduction, I referred to the watermarks of the paper. I have eliminated this part. In fact, it was included in order to help with the dating. But they are not useful, because some of them were used from the beginning of the 16th century up to the 17th. Nevertheless, if someone is interested in them, they may be found in the cited text and, partly also, in the palaeographic study to which I will refer later.

V As far as the disordered pagination is concerned, it has been an unfavourable factor which perhaps influenced the failure of the manuscript to be published, and to a certain extent discredits the expository coherence of the text. Thus, for example, Bails writes: «Concerning the form, it is necessary to confess that the work is written with a very little method, and among the many evidences that the careful reader will find ... I will give a very obvious one. After Juanelo states ... in volume I, as much as he heard and read about the qualities of water, he returns to the same without the slightest need and interrupting the matter he is dealing with, at the end of volume II».

Before analysing this concrete example, I will say that nobody thought, before my first introduction to check the numbering of the pages, which certainly does not present any difficulty, the writing being so clear. The first to discover it was Reti. But it does not appear that he managed to re-order the manuscript, something I consider to be fundamental. I do so in the chart that follows. But first it is necessary to refer to the title. The codex was always known as: The Twenty-One Books ...» But the sections or chapters called books, are more than 21. Why this number? I believe it is only because the donor flattering Don Juan of Austria used the prestige of the figures 7 and 3, which they have had since the writing of the Bible, or perhaps before, and until that time; and for those who believe in esoteric doctrines, the belief continues. Indeed, until a few years ago the age of majority in all countries was twentyone years (7 x 3), without any reason that would justify this number.

José Antonio García-Diego

Volume

Book

Folio lOv

Chapter title Qualities of water and of its properties and its generation (or origin).

10 v

Effects of water and what it does within the earth.

19 v

Fattiness of the water.

19 v

Indicators to find water which is hidden within the earth.

Indicators in order to find water and which are most

reliable. 1

Experiments that must be done in order to find water.

28 v

How can we know if the water is good or not.

45 v

Levels and their forms (for these structures).

6/7

118 v

Carrying water in different ways and [the means necessary to make an] aqueduct (sic). Tunnels such as those which should be made and how the irrigation channels are made in order to carry water in different ways. To carry waters which pass beneath others.

139

Of the differences there are in conveyance from the

92 v

sources. II

153 v

Of the diverse types of weirs.

180

Of cisterns (Cisternas y Aljibes). How they are made in different ways.

204

Ferries that serve in place of bridges. And of [other] bridges.

212 v

Bridges made of wood only.

233 v

Of wood and stone and {when} they are cut and how the stones are extracted and how mortar, plaster and bricks are made in different ways.

243 v

Of trees in short.

249

Stones in general and at what time they should be quarried and at which point and time they should be placed in construction and which are easier to break and which are most durable in the construction.

252 v

Of the quality of the stones and the way to make «rejolas» (bricks) and tiles and other earthenware objects to adorn buildings.

256 v

What quality of stone is better in order to make mortar.

274

Of bitumens (cements) of diverse materials

288

Of various types of mills (and flour mills).

III

328 330 v

Different ways of sifting the flour. Fulling mills and oil mills and diverse kinds of artifices of the same quality to draw water in order to make alums and saltpetres and to wash wools and cloths.

360

How the piers of stone bridges should be made in different manners.

394

Of buildings in the sea and how they should be made and arranged in diverse ways.

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

V As far as the disordered pagination is concerned, it has been an unfavourable factor which perhaps influenced the failure of the manuscript to be published, and to a certain extent discredits the expository coherence of the text. Thus, for example, Bails writes: «Concerning the form, it is necessary to confess that the work is written with a very little method, and among the many evidences that the careful reader will find... I will give a very obvious one. After Juanelo states ... in volume I, as much as he heard and read about the qualities of water, he returns to the same without the slightest need and interrupting the matter he is dealing with, at the end of volume II».

José Antonio García-Diego

Volume

Book 11

Folio 10v

Chapter title Qualities of water and of its properties and its generation (or origin).

10 v

Effects of water and what it does within the earth.

19 v

Fattiness of the water.

1 1

19 v 22

Indicators to find water which is hidden within the earth. Indicators in order to find water and which are most reliable.

Experiments that must be done in order to find water.

28 v

How can we know if the water is good or not.

45 v

Levels and their forms (for these structures).

Carrying water in different ways and [the means necessary to make an] aqueduct (sic).

92 v

Tunnels such as those which should be made and how the irrigation channels are made in order to carry water in different ways.

118 v

To carry waters which pass beneath others.

139

Of the differences there are in conveyance from the sources.

153 v

Of the diverse types of weirs.

180

Of cisterns (Cisternas y Aljibes). How they are made in different ways.

204

Ferries that serve in place of bridges. And of [other] bridges.

212 v

Bridges made of wood only.

233 v

Of wood and stone and {when} they are cut and how the stones are extracted and how mortar, plaster and bricks are made in different ways.

243 v

Of trees in short.

249

252 v

Of the quality of the stones and the way to make «rejolas» (bricks) and tiles and other earthenware objects to adorn buildings.

256 v

What quality of stone is better in order to make mortar.

274

Of bitumens (cements) of diverse materials

III

288

Of various types of mills (and flour mills).

III

328 330 v

Different ways of sifting the flour. Fulling mills and oil mills and diverse kinds of artifices of the same quality to draw water in order to make alums and saltpetres and to wash wools and cloths.

360

How the piers of stone bridges should be made in different manners.

394

Of buildings in the sea and how they should be made and arranged in diverse ways.

6/7

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

Volume

Book

204

V V

Folio

Chapter title

Of making protection for ports so that fleets cannot enter.

459 v

Of divisions of water as much of islands, as of other things concerning water.

473

End of the codex.

In this order and with the titles in modern spelling the manuscript turns out to be very different. It does not differ much from what rationally should be a general hydraulics treatise: that is, adding bridges (because they cross rivers or conduits) and ports (because he did not consider sea water essentially different). We would have then, although only to a certain extent: Folio 1 19 v. 28 v. 45 v. 72 92 v 118 v 139 153 v 180 204 212 v 233 243 249 252 256 274 288 328 360 394 428 473

v v v v

1. 1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 2. 33.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 4 5 6 6.1 6.2 7 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 8 8.1 8.2 8.3 9 10 10.1 10.2 11

HYDROLOGY

Hydrological cycle. Properties Prospecting Quality TOPOGRAPHICAL INSTRUMENTS (of necessary use for that which follows) HYDRAULIC CONVEYANCE

Reservoirs Open-air canals: aqueducts Underground conduits Crossings on a different level. Siphons Transportation from sources. Supply. Auxiliary machinery MILL WEIRS CISTERNS AND WATER RESERVOIRS BRIDGES

Of barges Of wood MATERIALS

Wood, stone, brick, binding materials Trees Stones: extraction and cut Stones: quality, bricks and tiles Best materials for making cement Bitumens ENERGY AND ITS USE

Mills Water elevation systems Use of energy (industrial and agricultural uses) S T O N E BRIDGES AND THEIR FOUNDATIONS HARBOURS

Maritime works Fortification and equipment VARIOUS

Of course observations must be made concerning this presumed good ordering. It is correct until section 5. After that, in dealing with bridges (6), those of stone are separate (9); surely because of having a different constructive concept and needing another method for laying the foundations; the latter very 34

JosĂŠ Antonio GarcĂa-Diego

closely resembles that of the maritime works which are referred to immediately. It continues with a relatively normal order with the materials and the mills. The use of energy comes after, and the harbours, because the contents of the last book are insignificant. But until now I have limited myself to the index. I am not going to enter into special details proper to a critical edition or to specialised partial studies, but I will point out that within each section anomalies can also be detected. Some of them proceed from the fact that if the division in books is arbitrary, the titles within each one of them are sometimes not entirely logical or -with or without indicating the reason- one subject follows a different one. Thus for example in the case to which Bails makes a reference, it is correct that beginning from folio 187 it goes back to deal extensively with the qualities of the water. The reasoning is linked -in a way which is, for us, strange- beginning with the precautions that should be adopted in order to preserve the good condition of the liquid inside the cisterns. But it may be stated that nowadays our conscious thought follows, sometimes without knowing it, a system which may be qualified (though only to a certain extent) as Cartesian. But, during the Renaissance the former statement did not hold and it was especially noticeable in dealing with technology and even more, with hydraulic technology, since now the latter comes to us through French scientists of the 18th century. Their minds, utterly rationalist, are not comparable; even though, on the other hand, part of the initial impulse for their creations came from the Renaissance.

VI The number of figures is 440. And they are distributed within the volumes in the following manner: I

114

III -

IV -

104

The illustrations of the codex constituted its most prized attraction and the most important reason for its being, since ancient times, highly valued. They are inserted throughout the entire text, representing the structures, operations, and machinery which are described in it. By working characteristics or peculiarities, the different drawings may be studied, grouping them according to common traits which denote different authorships by revealing differences in style and artistic qualities. It may be concluded that there were at least three draughtsmen and 35

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

maybe one more, a true artist, taking into account that a certain drawing stands out from the rest, because of its exceptional quality and because it is not completely necessary for the text. This feature of not being necessary is also present in a few other illustrations for which the author himself in the description asks to be excused by the reader. The same thing happens in some cases, when he warns about the error in the location of the corresponding figure, using a prominent asterisk. These details are related to the questionable order of insertion of the drawings and the text on the pages of the codex, since it may be deduced from it that he left space for the draughtsman, in many other cases the writing invades and cuts into the spaces that surround the drawing, denoting the previous insertion of the latter. Also, and exceptionally, the case is given of an omitted figure which is later stuck to the bottom of the page on which it should have been placed. All this, together with the palaeographic knowledge that the scribes were various and that the initial book3 was constituted by booklets4, confirms that his difficult task had to be extended to the distribution and joining of the sheets among scribes and artists, directing a production team of more than six people. If from the technique of the drawing, by pen, it is right to deduce that the author of the manuscript destined it for printing, it may also be presumed that the direction of the work required, given the full knowledge of the work, would be in his care, since it could not turn out in presentable form in his own hand, neither in calligraphy nor in drawing (not at all strange in those times). Nevertheless, it is not rash to identify him with the works of the illustration draughtsmen since it would not be logical, on his part, to contract mediocrities who would ingenuously repeat the details of the landscape (and how good it would be to identify places), or would find themselves compelled to cross out some mishap. Many drawings by Gomez de Mora, executed with different techniques, are conserved. But those of our manuscript cannot, in any way, be attributed to him.

VII Other important data are those provided by the costumes worn by some of the characters that appear in the drawings, specially in order to date the manuscript approximately, which is of the utmost importance, in order to elucidate some of the questions that its study and publication have brought up. The study of costumes and fashion, applied to the dating of works from the past, can lead us to results which are impossible to obtain by other means, but on condition that it be done meticulously and with a sufficiently rich documental base. Only in this way, small details that go unnoticed by those who have a superficial knowledge of the subject, can turn out to be surprisingly significant. And such is our case. 3

Before being separated.

Requiring a coordinator.

José Antonio García-Diego

For any art expert of the 16th century, it is easy to see in them the Spanish fashion of the period of Philip II. What is not so easy is knowing how to capture the small details cited, the more so when dealing with an epoch in which Spanish dress maintained the same style during an unusually long period, since it hardly experienced changes throughout more than half a century. The creators of the drawings have represented some characters dressed as humble workmen, and others who reflect through their clothing the style of those who dressed (using an expression of the time) in courtly manner. The dress of the court was imitated by those who were concerned with their exterior appearance, and the cult of appearance was a true obsession at the time. Even the tradesmen, and those whom the legislators against luxury call performers of mechanical works, made efforts to imitate the costumes of the noblemen; to judge by the criticism of their contemporaries, they achieved it quite often, coming to compete with the nobles; it was said «in pride as in dress». Among the characters represented in the codex, the one who most closely follows the courtly fashion is one that appears in the fourth book, of levels and their shapes. Although by his dress it may be presumed that he belongs to a superior class to the others, he does not necessarily represent a character that is dressed in the latest fashion, as if he were a nobleman or a rich hidalgo. The nobles of the time, who disdained those who lived by manual labour, did not bother themselves with topographical instruments. The character in question dresses in a doublet, breeches with bulky «thighs» formed by strips or slits and a short cape arranged in such a way that it covers his back and leaves his shoulders exposed. He wears a small ruffled collar and can be distinguished in this from the way nobles and gentlemen are distinguished, since it is small and frilly, not starched and open with a shape like those we see in the court portraits. In this reference to his dress I use the terminology of the epoch, which is why I do not call the breeches, greguescos, nor the collar ruff or gorget, as today is often erroneously done. Let us see which is that small detail, apparently insignificant, which makes it possible to place the costumes of the codex in the 1590s or the first years of the 1600s and rules out the possibility of an earlier date. This detail is that the breeches do not have a codpiece, something that may go unnoticed by an observer today, but that would have been unimaginable and more than striking before the 1580s. From the first half of this century, with the influence of the daring dress of the German soldier, the codpiece had been converted into one of the most showy and characteristic elements of masculine European clothing. No fashionable man overlooked that symbol of triumphant virility. Its size came to be so big that m one text dated in 1573, we are told of a page that hid a partridge in his codpiece, and only one leg stuck out. Parallel to the drastic reduction of the codpiece, to the point of making it disappear from sight, other transformations were made in the breeches reflected equally in the character of the figure on which we comment. In the 1570s (which are therefore rejected as a possible date for the drawings of the codex) the breeches with prominent codpieces had been shortened to a maximum, leaving 37

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

the thighs totally uncovered; by then they were of rounded-off contours and they allowed the lining to show between the slits. The modifications introduced, not much before 1590, consisted in this, that the breeches were again elongated to the point of covering half the thigh or a little more; so that the slits, very close to each other, did not now allow the cloth of the lining to show; and in the manner of arranging the padding that made them bulky in a way in which they reached their maximum volume at the bottom, where they ended on a horizontal surface. We can follow the changes in fashion step by step throughout the second half of the 16th century by means of the court portraits. Many of them are dated works; for others the date can be guessed with adequate approximation. In support of the conclusions expounded, I will now cite some examples of secure dates. Many others exist, in which they are estimated with a good basis and they perfectly coincide with the cited examples. Very short, rounded-off. breeches with flies that allow the lining to show among the slits appear in the following portraits: 1573

Archduke Alberto, copy by Sánchez Coello, Innsbriick, Portrátgalerie Schloss Ambras.

1574

Archduke Wenzel, by Sánchez Coello, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.

1577

Prince Fernando, by Sánchez Coello, Madrid, Convent of Descalzas Reales.

1583

Prince Philip III, with the Empress Maria, by Blas de Prado, Toledo, Museum of Santa Cruz.

Breeches in which the codpiece hardly appears or does not show at all, longer than theformer, with the slits close together and stretched in a way in which they do not allow the lining to be seen, appear in the following portraits: 1590-92

Prince Philip II, by Pantoja de la Cruz, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.

1594

Prince Philip III, by Pantoja de la Cruz, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.

1599

Archduke Alberto, Madrid, Convent of Descalzas Reales.

1600

Archduke Alberto, by Pantoja de la Cruz, Munich. Artistic Collections of the State of Bavaria.

The remaining examples dated by this style of breeches are all from the 17th century. Going back to the character represented in «The Twenty-One Books ...», the following conclusions may be drawn. He dresses in the courtly style, but not exactly as a character of elevated social rank would, since his ruffled collar is not large nor starched nor are the thighs of his breeches as stretched and straight in their profile as we see in portraits of princes and nobles. The touches of the 38

José Antonio García-Diego

courtly manner in his costume correspond to fashions which make their first appearance in the court between 1583 and 1590. It is possible that a certain fashion would be imitated outside of the courtly circle years after its first appearance, and also that it would persist after it had passed away in that circle, but it makes no sense that the character with whom we are concerned, probably a «performer of mechanical works» would be ahead of noble men and kings dressing in a fashion which appeared for the first time in the court ten years after. We may place them in the 1590s or in the first years of the following century, because the style which took root in the nineties persisted during the reign of Philip m . I am not referring to the costumes of the workman, though important, since there are not many examples in other manuscripts. They shall be mentioned in the book which Carmen Bernis is preparing, which I have already cited.

VIII Very important are the dates provided by palaeography. For the first general introduction, I gave a sample composed of a not very numerous series of pages taken at random, to Tomás Marín, Professor of Palaeography and Diplomatics at the Complutense University in Madrid. This good friend had helped me disinterestedly in several other works of mine. But, naturally, a more complete investigation is now necessary. And, within the program that is being carried out by the Juanelo Turriano Foundation, Maria Isabel Ostolaza y Elizondo, who was Professor of Palaeography and Diplomatics in the Department of Historiographic Sciences and Techniques of the same University, although recently she has transferred to the Public University of Navarra, was put in charge of the detailed study. I will give a short summary of this. The current version of «The Twenty-One Books » is owed to professional amanuenses who copied a model and not from dictation It is evident that this existed, since the copy was completed following the planning of such a model and for this purpose, sometimes, blank pages were left or letters were stretched to avoid the empty spaces that could rum the aesthetics of the page. The work of these copyists was done m a fluid manner, alternating three different scripts, not only at the change of the page, but also m the middle of the page. The activity of two organisers -proof readers- may be detected. The task of the first of them refers especially to the correlation between the text and the drawings while that of the second was to draw the headline captions of the books 19 20 and 21 just like the capital letters that begin the text of these books; he also writes the word FINIS at the end of books 15, 17, 18, 19 and 20. The script of the codex corresponds to the general characteristics of Renaissance handwriting that derives from the humanism of the 15th century It is the work of expert calligraphers. The typology of the letters corresponds to models which became fashionable in the second half of the 16th century, 39

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

therefore it may be affirmed that the copy and the first arrangement occurred in the last third of the 16th century or the first years of the 17th. While the second was produced in the first half of the 17th century, it was at this moment that the title pages were introduced, which belong to the same hand that retouched the numbering of the books. These title pages use a round, humanistic script which is repeated in the inscriptions that enunciate the different books, according to the current order.

IX I am going to dedicate only a small space to the characteristics of the text from a philological point of view. And this brevity is explained because Juan A. Frago Gracia and I published a book whose title may be translated ÂŤAn Aragonese Author for the Twenty-One Books of Devices and MachinesÂť. Well now, its first 93 pages constitute an excellent and detailed philological study by Frago, Professor at the University of Zaragoza, and considered to be the best specialist in Aragonese dialects, as much in Spain as outside of the country. As such, he was recommended to me by an illustrious member of the Royal Spanish Academy, certainly Aragonese, though not Aragonist. Those interested in this material should read, in its entirety and carefully, this part of our work. It affirms and reasons, in an exhaustive manner, that the author was from Aragon, as I already indicated in my first general introduction -they helped me with it, of course. But also I am corrected in something important, since I affirmed then, mistakenly, that the codex was not uniform, which would certainly lead us to suppose that it had been a collective work, although I never believed that. He has justified the unity of the text, demonstrating that the internal differences depend on the treated subject and on the sources used in each case. The lexical Aragonism is constant; it may be scarce in some cases, but it is never missing. Now, I will say for myself that the author knew Italian, and in the codex there are some Italicisms. But he did not know Latin; in the manuscript, of some 950 pages, there are only, in this language, two phrases and the scholarly name of a plant. For so little hecould have asked a friend or a priest, for they were numerous at the time. This is very important since not knowing Latin was a certain sign of not having had a university education, and even of not belonging to a higher enlightened class. It is well known that, although it seems incredible, not knowing Latin was one of the things that embittered the life of Leonardo da Vinci, producing in him a feeling of inferiority. In summary, the codex is written in Castilian Spanish, but full of Aragonism. It is so much like that, that the book of mills, especially important, has some things that I have not managed to understand; in spite of the fact that the study of mills is a matter which has occupied me quite a deal. 40

JosĂŠ Antonio GarcĂa-Diego

Also owing to Frago is the map of a part of the province of Huesca, precisely one of those which were then more rural and less touched by modernity. It proceeds from a patient localisation, at my request, of the significant Aragonisms. The three numbers correspond, in his opinion, to the higher or lower probability of the zones. I consider this work to be of great value, since it may be supposed that the author was born, or at least spent the first years of his life in one of these zones. I hope the map, with other facts to which I will later refer, will be useful in the search for the author. I certainly do not know if this system has been used before with this objective; I, at least, do not know of another case.

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¡1 FUNDACIÓN JUANELO TURRIANO

SECOND PART

History of the Codex I In the 17th century a long manuscript was separated into five parts of similar size. And at the beginning of each one of them individual title pages were placed. These are of totally different script, as I have already indicated. The title page of the first volume says: «The Twenty-One/Books of the Devices and Machines of/Juanelo Which were sent him to write/and demonstrate by the Catholic King Philip the Second, King/of the Spains/ and New World».

A shield follows and later: «Dedicated to the Serene Lord Don/Juan of Austria son of the Catholic/King Philip the Fourth king of the Spains». And on the following page, and preceding the index of the chapters (books, this denomination which was then common and has continued, though not used often, until the Spanish literature of the twentieth century)». «The First Five Books of the Devices/ofJuanelo Chief Engineer of the /Majesty of the King D. Philip II/King of the Spains/and New World. Consecrated to the same Lord/King D. Philip the Second his/Lord, by the hand ofJuan Gomez de Mora/his favourite».

In the dedications of the third, fourth and fifth volumes there is a variant: «And they are consecrated to his Catholic Majesty by Hand of his servant Juan Gomez de Mora».

In this way begins the history, if not the existence, of the codex.

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

II It is convenient to initiate the analysis of these texts with the figure of Juan Gómez de Mora, A very important character in the courts of Philip III and Philip IV, in which with the title of Designer and Chief Master of His Majesty he enjoyed the highest honour as Architect of the Crown. He was born in the city of Cuenca in the year 1586, in the bosom of a family of artists, when his uncle Francisco de Mora had already achieved fame with the same titles after having been called by King Philip II to act as assistant to Juan de Herrera, in the construction of the Monastery of El Escorial. Protected and educated by him, he attended in Madrid the Studium of Mathematics, was trained in architecture and began to serve as assistant to his uncle to the satisfaction of the king himself, who granted him, at twenty-four years of age, for his merits, the succession of his uncle in all professional services and honours. He was distinguished in addition with the duties of Usher and Aid to the Quartermaster through which he was given responsibilities in matters of ceremonies and administration of the palace. He was a very important architect not only since he worked for the Crown, but also because of his work for the nobility, the church, distinguished individuals and especially as Chief Architect of the municipal government of Madrid. Among his works related to the technique to which the codex is dedicated, his part in the urbanisation of the capital and its water supply with the conduit from the Amaniel may be noted. In 1613, at the beginning of his career, he already occupied himself with examining the irrigation system of Murcia. In the period from 1622-1624 he restored the ports of Cádiz and Gibraltar, which were in a poor condition due mainly to the wars. In 1636 he returned to the hydraulic works in Murcia. He was, without a doubt, what we would call today an intellectual reared in the shadow of his uncle who left him, besides knowledge and titles, a large library and a similar anxiety to enlarge it with treatises and translations into Castilian Spanish from Italian authors mainly, who would elucidate the Art of Architecture and what was necessary for good construction. All of it with the vigour and spirit conveyed by Juan de Herrera to the Academy of Mathematics, whose direction was the task of the Designers and Chief Masters of the King, in whose house he had his residence. His library was appraised twice. In 1613 he had 70 books and they were worth between 400 and 500 reales: upon his death in 1648, the number of volumes is not indicated, but their price had risen to between 3,500 and 4,500 reales, a large and uncommon figure at the time. The books were inherited by a stepson, Juan Caja, who was very rich but becameruined. He sold them in 1651.

III And now Juan José of Austria (1629-1679), whose life I will summarise briefly. Illegitimate son of Philip IV, destined to serve him in the front line of his armies, he brilliantly initiated his military career in 1642 with an important

José Antonio García-Diego

repressive action in the Spanish viceroyalty of Naples, and he directed the campaign of Catalonia, achieving the surrender of Barcelona in 1652. He also intervened militarily in Flanders with different fortune, being named Governor in 1656; he failed in the campaigns for the recovery of Portugal (1658). His political life began properly upon the death of Philip IV in 1665. In opposition to the government of the queen because of the minority of the heir Charles II, he brought about a frustrated attempt to take over power, for which he was exiled to Aragon with the title of viceroy, where he resided until in 1677, his stepbrother Charles already reigning, he managed to get back into the government until 1697, when he died. A complex character; for me maybe almost a great man. He can be identified with the interests of the rising bourgeoisie as opposed to those of the aristocracy, whose members never considered him to be one of their own. One facet of his frame of mind -which anachronistically could be deemed progressive- was his interest in the sciences and in those who cultivated them, something uncommon in his contemporaries of high status. In his place he held meetings with outstanding men in varied disciplines, making a kind of an incipient academy of Sciences and Letters. His library with more than 1,300 volumes, gathered together books and even mechanical models, therefore the manuscript would have been very well received; nevertheless, recent investigations into the archives where the inventory of his goods is found, at his death in 1679, invalidate this assumption, although he could have given it away or sold it; the latter because at his death, he left many debts. It must be born in mind that what is said about this character, may be only one of the lies which appear in the title pages.

IV If it were true that Philip II had commanded Juanelo Turriano to write the text, it would have been in a royal library; probably in El Escorial. The following stage of its history proves that such a thing did not happen. I am going to consider what use the work could have had. Its very good preservation indicates that this use was slight, only related to modest jobs and principally for construction. For the latter I rely upon some annotations which are to be noticed, which differ in hand writing and nature. At the beginning of one of them there is a note that says: «This book is written in a more orderly way than the two preceding it, therefore nothing was omitted, correcting only its script and the numbers and the l e t t e r s of the signs». This may be important inorder to come to understand, even though it only be m part, the elaboration of the total work. Related possibly with technology, there is another series of writings, sometimes difficult to read but which may be dated to the 17th century. Once it deals with making water spout from a well by the firing of a harquebus. Also there is a collection of sketches in pencil; in some, a material 45

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

(possibly wax) is manually pressed with hot water. Others are diagrams of the mechanism of a mill with a horizontal hydraulic wheel; and, what seems to me to be more interesting, notations on a concrete work, although it does not say from where, including the names of the craftsmen, the number of unskilled labourers and other things related to it. Then the codex was used by technicians of no great standing, and not by scholars or men of the court; which may be of importance as an additional proof when I concern myself with the authorship. There are also two pieces of writing that could be called domestic. The strange recipe of a balsam that contains lily oil, puppies, worms and turpentine. And two more (crossed out): one of sweet blood sausage and the other of hard salami «chorizos». All these notes are at the beginning or at the end of the volumes. They come, therefore, after the division of the manuscript, thus late.

V The title pages present the first of the problems which must be confronted. In my opinion, but without affirming anything, Gómez de Mora was able to acquire the work under circumstances which are unknown. It would remain in his library until it was sold. And then someone bought it, with the intention of giving it away -gaining some benefit, surely- or selling it to Juan José of Austria. Of the buyer it is only known that he was incapable of clearly expressing even simple concepts (for example, the allusions to Philip II and Philip IV are not entirely clear) and that, even though he utilised the name of the great architect to give value to his gift, he knew only roughly the titles of the latter. It is true that although the word favoured (valido) is commonly used nowadays with the meaning of the first minister named by an absolute king, its meaning, according to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy is, «he who has the first place in the friendship and grace of a prince or personage». But on the other hand it is a sign of ignorance to give him the title of servant, of fairly lower standing than he who had the position of Aid to the Quartermaster. As to the shield, it is of Castile and Leon, united by the cross of San Juan of Jerusalem or of Malta (order of which Juan José of Austria was prior) and with a royal crown. Proof of flattery since he could not use it, even though it is also certain that it is in other documents which refer to him. I will end with something that may have importance: why did the author of the title pages say that the text dealt with devices and machines? Precisely when he is little concerned about these and with more mistakes then than in the rest. To me, because it is more attractive than, for example «Treatise of hydraulic works of water» and even more if it was the first in the world. There were, in contrast, quite a lot of manuscripts about machinery in Spain. And now it continues to happen: I saw the name of Juanelo Turriano for the first time, in a book to popularise the history of machines entitled «The Iron Angels», translated

José Antonio García-Diego

from German and which is now sold out. I do not believe there is a similar book popularising the history of hydraulics.

VI In 1651 he sold his library. In 1679 Juan of Austria died. He could have, therefore, received the gift during the whole period that covers the second part of his career and, if it did not appear among the books of his new library, it would be because he had given it away or sold it. I, although without proof, through the total connection of the codex with Aragón to which I will later make reference, have an inclination to the time during which he was governor there, that is between 1669 and 1677. Of course it could have been later. And also that it would have been within this kingdom when he who was going to sell it, would have bought it. From the testament of Don Juan, at least in its incomplete version, but in principle enough that I could consult, it may be deduced that he only left debts; and it does not mention his library.

VII It is now necessary to go on to the first quarter of the 18th century; nothing is known of the intermediate interval. The first news of the codex appears in the book of Juan Román Teodoro Ardemans «Flow of the land and subterranean course of the waters», published in 1724. Ardemans (1664-1726) was a very distinguished architect, painter and sculptor in the service of Philip V. Among the various offices he possessed is the one he calls «with the key of the Quartermaster», that is the same one as I cited for Gómez de Mora; in the lives of both there are other coincidences. He was architect and chief fountain-maker of the royal works. He directed the construction of the new palace in Aranjuez and projected and built part of the one in La Granja. He was surely interested in technology since he wrote «Description of the mines of Almadén» (1718), and a «Treatise of Construction» (1719). His book is curious -perhaps it would merit re-editing. In it is cited the manuscript attributed to Juanelo Turriano, sometimes a single reference, other times uniting his opinion with that of other classic authors. It contains figures which are, in a certain way, inspired by those of the codex. Therefore his reading by Ardemans can be considered a link between the utilisation by some obscure builders and the acquisition by the personage Santander, which I will talk about later. There is no hint about where he managed to read the codex since it does not figure in the inventory of his library. The following very important reference is in the notable work of Llaguno y Cean Bermúdez, already mentioned, and from which I copy the part which is of interest. 47

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

«News of a work on hydraulic engineering which Juanelo Turriano wrote. The head librarian D. Juan de Santander in the year 1777 was thinking of printing the manuscripts of this work, which he had found, I do not know where, and bought for the royal library, where they exist; but first he wanted to assure himself of their utility, and for that reason he asked for a report from Benito Bails, and also on the way in which to correct some errors that were noted in the manuscripts. Bails returned them with his opinions on the 1st of December of the said year, and Santander wrote to thank him, notifying him of their receipt with date 16th of the same month and year».

The cleric Juan Manuel Santander was born in 1712 and taught at the University of Alcalá. In 1741 he went to France to acquire books destined for the College of San Ildefonso and for his own library. He enjoyed different sinecures and, in 1751, Ferdinand VI named him Head Librarian. He found the state of the library unsatisfactory since, as he indicated «... with the exception of the volumes from its original foundation all the others do not exceed the limits of the very common, one could give it the name of Conventual Library more appropriately than that of Royal Library». He tried to improve it proposing, among other things, that people knowledgeable in foreign languages should work there. But he only managed -something is better than nothing- to increase its resources. I did not find the date of his death. As for Benito Bails (1730-1797), he was one of the most important scientists of his time, especially as a mathematician. His principal contribution was that of having introduced didactically in Spain, infinitesimal calculus and analytical geometry. He studied in France and knew many languages. But what is more interesting in this case is that he taught these scientific subjects applied to architecture, in the Royal. Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando which then had, in addition to its own functions, those, no less important, of education. It is also of interest that in his fundamental work «Mathematical Elements» (which in spite of its modest title is composed of ten volumes), he deals as much with hydrodynamics and hydraulic works as with civil engineering. It was, therefore, very wise to choose him to make the report. The Institute of Gijón, founded by Jovellanos, later entrusted him with similar works. I include the report, which appears in Llaguno's book, in the appendix, first in Spanish and then in English, suppressing only, except in the first book, the text of the title pages. I did not do this in my first general introduction, but now I consider it to benecessary, since although a good part of it is outdated, it can help to place the work and to continue the search for its author. Nevertheless, later I will repeat some of its parts. Bails and Santander were men of the Enlightenment, which explains why Llaguno, defender of the same spiritual values, even if he belongs to another generation, writes: «The pity is that the Royal Library does not bring it (the work) to light, following the intention of Mr. Santander, who had already calculated how much it would cost including the illustrations which it would be necessary to engrave». With this the public would be able to obtain a work in Castilian Spanish with priority over the many that foreigners have written on the same matters, and they would see that the knowledge of natural and exact sciences was not exotic in Spain in the 16th century». This was a very just

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observation since little was known then, and even later, about Spanish technology of the epoch. Such comments induce me to think that an attempt was made to do something then. In my first general introduction, I was more sure of it because I presumed wrongly that the inserted note beginning «This book is written ...» belonged to Bails. But the recent palaeographic study that has been done places it, with the others, in the 17th century. And this is because we find it hard to make that end of an enlightened century responsible for a lamentable passivity towards this valuable manuscript. But also to the Enlightenment belongs the inexplicable fact that links one of its main figures, the Count of Floridablanca, with the codex. As we have already indicated, he had the fifth volume in his power; it is not known for how long, but it was returned in 1885, seventy-seven years after his death, to the Library -which was then called National. The Royal Academy of History returned it. I have discussed this enigma with my friend the illustrious historian Antonio Rumeu de Armas who, until very recently was Director of the aforementioned Academy, who believes that it is most probable that it was this very entity which would have tried to publish the codex, which remains, therefore, to be investigated in its archives. It may be of interest that, curiously, the date of the document signed by Bails coincides with that in which Floridablanca came to power (1776).

VIII Again the manuscript is buried in the National Library. Leaving aside authors or references which are of little relevance, we find Menendez Pelayo who only mentions its title, commenting with this brief paragraph: «... Juanelo Turriano, if not Spanish by birth, in the Castilian tongue wrote his book and in Spam and for Spain made its plans and designs». During the time in which he was director of the National Library it seems that he had occupied himself as little with this codex as with the two by Leonardo. The same must be said of various other very important people who followed him in the task.

IX I come to our times. In 1964, Alex Keller, teaching at the University of Leicester, upon reading the text of Picatoste, realised the importance and rarity of the manuscript. He then was thirty-two years of age, well-occupied since, besides serving for almost three in the army, he had studied in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and had taught at Jerusalem University. He did not then have available resources in order to study it; thus he informed Lynn White Jr., an important historian of technology in the Middle Age and the Renaissance, among other things; already passed away, he was a very good friend

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

of mine. He put him in touch with a person who had much influence in Keller's life and in mine: Ladislao Reti. I consider him my teacher, besides having for me an affection that, although the difference in age would not allow, could yet be called paternal. Then retired from research in chemistry and from business, he wanted to be able to dedicate himself entirely to his other activity, which was what he really liked: the history of Renaissance technology and, more specifically the work of Leonardo da Vinci. For this, he was already famous, despite the fact that his works were achieved when he was over sixty, with many problems and bad health. A terrible family tragedy made him leave America and spend the rest of his life in the Italian city of Monza. He immediately gained enthusiasm for the life and work of Turriano and for the codex which was then attributed to him. He and Keller spoke of this for the first time in the last of the old stagecoach inns of Leicester. One year later they resumed the conversation visiting another monument of old engineering, this time in the very interior of the earth, the salt mine of Wieliczka, in Poland. The cooperation which they had planned, had to be carried out across the ocean, with few personal encounters. He hoped to see the codex «The Twenty-One Books ...» published in Spanish and English which has now been achieved. And anxious to see the printing of this rich collection of information, which according to him, had to contribute as much to our knowledge as to our understanding of the material life which underlies the traces of the culture of the past. And the investigation began which -although with many interruptions- was prolonged until 1966. From it I can reconstruct the following stages. First he copied by hand the text of various books, adding annotations. He was then able to make two microfilms of all of them. And finally, his work was made easier upon acquiring in Madrid, from a person who sold books and other things, a complete copy, typewritten and with all the figures well reproduced mechanically. The script and class of the copies (in negative) clearly indicate its age. It is not entirely exact in its spelling and punctuation, even though the text is evidently copied with great care. His widow gave it to me and it was amply sufficient for a primary study. Today it is in the library of the Juanelo Turriano Foundation. Another mystery: who was this very patient scholar? But an unexpected event prevented him from continuing his work and made me, fortunately or not, inherit it. In the winter of 1964-65, two codices of Leonardo da Vinci were rediscovered in the National Library to which later were assigned the names of Madrid I and II. In 1967 the Spanish State authorised the publication of two facsimile editions, one in Spanish and another in English, designating Ladislao Reti as responsible for each; and here I want to remember the person unknown to me, minister or high official, that made this magnificent decision. Taking into account that my friend was a foreigner and although politically a liberal conservative, he did not believe in the principles of the then ruling Regime. Great is the value of «The Twenty-One Books ...» but one must recognise that the appearance of two new codices from Vinci, among his most important, 50

JosĂŠ Antonio GarcĂa-Diego

constituted for the history of science -and not only for it- a world-wide event of very prime importance. It is not surprising, then, that Reti would abandon his previous work. Nevertheless, coming to Madrid frequently, although busy with his studies on Leonardo, he always found time to help me. As a second appendix I will transcribe the obituary which I dedicated to him, summarising the life of this extraordinary man.

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THIRD PART

The Attribution The terms of the problem I Until very recently, it was the unanimous opinion that Juanelo Turriano was the author, based only on the title pages, without any documentary support nor testimony from those who knew the great engineer and Renaissance clockmaker. Sometimes it was indicated that it was a copy from the 17th century. That demonstrates that almost no one read the codex. In our epoch, Keller, Reti and I were the exceptions, at least until the two volumes were printed.

II In June of 1973 I went to Monza and I saw, for the last time, my friend Ladislao Reti. I told him that I had arrived at the conclusion that the attribution was erroneous. He had little time left to live, and he knew it. I point this out now because I believe it is the best explanation of why, besides saying he was m agreement, he showed so much interest in my leaving proof of the matter m the name of both of us, in order to establish priority. I carried out his wish in an article for the review «Technology and Culture», of Chicago. The staff even included behind the title of the article, the words «a question of authorship». Those who have read up to this point know that the problem of authorship for now has not been resolved. Only a detailed and profound investigation, already initiated, would perhaps succeed. I only dare to propose keys that can delimit in time, in space, and even in the mental scheme, the person in charge of it. 53

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

Signs of identity

I Ruling out Juanelo then, I believe that in this section I should summarise a series of aspects of the codex. The conclusions which are derived from them are, in my understanding, those which should be fulfilled -more or less- by the author.

II I will first concern myself with the way in which the manuscript is written, citing Bails: «The style, besides its wonderful tediousness and extremely tiring repetitions, is terrible in most of the work; because there are countless clauses which do not form sentences and that break the most elementary rules of syntax».

This is, in a large part, inaccurate. The work is difficult to read, although it has parts more pleasant than a modern hydraulic treatise. The part about repetition is true. Reti also gives an unfavourable opinion: «A curious peculiarity of the manuscript of Juanelo Turriano is the insufficiency of its language ...Why is the work of Juanelo so poorly written?» It is explained for him by his slight knowledge of Castilian Spanish to which Garibay attests. He continues: «Characteristic of the coarse style of Juanelo is his strange obligation to say everything not two, but three times. These repetitions, paired with the interminable length of the phrases and the absence of punctuation makes the reading and interpretation of the writing of Juanelo both a gratifying and difficult task (a painful labour of love)... The true language ofJuanelo is drawing».

With the greatest of respect for the intelligence and knowledge of Reti, so superior to mine, I do not agree with a great deal of this. He knew perfectly contemporary Spanish for family reasons -his wife was Spanish- and for professional reasons, since he lived quite a few years in Argentina. But he knew less that of the 16th century because, as I already said, he knew the codex thanks to Keller and his previous works did not deal with Spanish technology. For me the repetitions come from the fact that it is a rough copy cleaned up by the writers and to which they added, in order, the drawings, but not at all ready for printing. Of course the reason for this preparation «puesta a punto» of the codex is not known to us. But writers commonly have the experience that the rough draft is longer and more repetitive than the final text. It happens to me in this way, for example. And for the style, I will give a few examples, taken at random, of good Castilian prose:

José Antonio García-Diego

«... For geographers and those who have travelled and gone about the world have like us tasted and tried all these waters ... (Book 1). «... When water is taken from a river, it is firstly for drinking, secondly for trades which can, not be carried on to any great extent without water; as, dyers, leather dressers, fulling wool and other trades; also to irrigate kitchen gardens, and . various other such things which states may have, like pleasure gardens and parks». «... these irrigation channels we may call a river asleep or becalmed...» «... Let no critic or libellous satirist snap at me; whoever wants to make use of me may learn, and the wise may praise my labours and my zeal».

ILL In the corresponding section of the first general introduction, the cited authors were enumerated, or those who, it could be indirectly supposed, knew the author of this book. During the time elapsed since, Alex Keller has studied the matter with great detail and knowledge about the science and technology of the Renaissance. The reader will find the results in his text, which follows this.

IV And now the places cited. In relation to those which appear in my first introduction, one of my current collaborators has revised them, finding some (not many) new ones, as much in Aragon as in what is today Italy. But the principal difficulties, already observed then, continue to be of two classes. The first, to separate the names in three categories: those placed where it seems clear to me that he has been, those in which such thing is only possible and, lastly those that are taken from books; a difficult task. Among other things because then, and now, people do not express themselves in a very different way if they have visited a place or only know it because of what has been told to them about it. The second problem is the spelling. Quite correct given the epoch, and this is due to the fact that is the work of copyists: as it is known, there were no strict rules, and in texts written by the authors themselves -even great figures like Montaigne- committed many grave mistakes. But, unfortunately, in this the only exceptions are the names of the towns, since the copyists knew nothing of these. Of course I have not been able to resolve a series of enigmas. Also the punctuation is sometimes important, since a geographical name is not the same followed by «in Catalonia», as it is if we separate it putting a comma in the middle. The greater part of the places named correspond to the kingdom of Aragon. And to the future Italy, principally Lombardy and then the Papal States and the 55

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

Republic of Florence. The references to Greece, Egypt, etc., are without a doubt bookish. In Spain there are three principal series of names which I consider interesting. The first refers to aqueducts. Six are Roman: Carmona, Segovia, Sadava, Monviedro (Sagunto) and Tarragona. To my understanding he must have only been in Sadava because of its situation and because it was, and is, little known. The rest must have come from references. Since, for example, Seville is cited twice, but it is easily deduced that he was never there, and I will refer to this fact later; which I think makes it possible to eliminate Carmona. About the aqueduct of Teruel it is said that it is modern; actually, it was built between 1552 and 1554 by the French master Pierre Bedel; for this one it may well be possible that at least he saw it. A list of rivers in which rafts can be floated follows. Above all, to give an idea of his way of taking facts and reasoning them, I will copy it with a summary of the commentary in each case. Chucar (Jucar)

No complete wooden beams only thin pieces of pine four spans in length.

Tagus

Poor in water at its source. Short wooden beams and not every year.

Segre

No thick wooden beams of more than a span.

Guadalaviar y Gabriel

Cannot be long because of the bends they make.

Gallego

Do not bring either long nor very thick and very few square wooden beams.

The river of Pamplona (Arga)

Only thin pieces to burn and make barrels.

Anca (?) (Cinca)?

Wooden beams quite grown up in thickness and length.

Isavena

Neither thick nor long.

Mijares

Neither large nor small because of not having mountains nearby.

The notes at least for the important rivers naturally refer to their headwaters. On construction materials there are eighteen references (plus some repetitions) in book 17. All in Aragon except two on the coast: Montjuich and el Maestrazgo de Montesa. What it says about the mouth of the Ebro, important in my understanding, I will treat later. Another series of references appear for diverse reasons: «Estalactitas», a Roman statue near Pamplona that I have not identified, a spike of iron inside a stone (this is in Monzon). There are quite a few others. Now in the Italian peninsula. Although he cites places in Naples and Sicily, he does not give proofs of knowing these lands. I believed that a chronological key could be when he says that a great earthquake happened in Pozzuoli «these past years»; but it took place on the 26th September, 1538. 56

JosĂŠ Antonio GarcĂa-Diego

It is clear that he worked in what is today Italy, above all in Lombardy; extending himself by mentioning, although now less often, the neighbouring republics, Genoa and Venice. In the territory of Lombardy the abundance of places and geographical accidents in or near its northern border is notable. Surprisingly on the other hand, Milan is missing and as expected, as Turriano faded away, Cremona. In the centre of the peninsula, the part that he knew or heard about goes from Rome to near the Adriatic sea. There are many Italian references to the quality of the water and to the diseases that can derive from it; for example, goiters. The types of stones appear interspersed with the Spanish, as if the author had direct knowledge of both. In some cases, what is said is minimal in contrast to the importance of the place. Thus Venice is only cited for its cisterns and Mantua, assuming -which is not certain- that ferry bridges were invented there. It is strange that although those were moments of supposed national pride, no mention is made of Toledo, Madrid, El Escorial... even if he had not been there. The explanation could be and then it could be necessary to add it to the other clues for the dating that it was written after 1591 when Philip II ordered the execution of the chief justice Juan de Lanuza and the statute of Aragon resulted in very little. Of course I am not insinuating that he was anti-Castilian. But perhaps he left out Castile. This intentional omission is characteristic of periods of repression.

V T H E DATE. Today with the new investigations principally on the dress and palaeography, which are summarised in the first part, the manuscript can be dated between 1585 and 1610. And with greater probability, between 1590 and 1605.

VI T H E LANGUAGE.

Refer to section IV of the first part.

VII Very few are related, if we consider as such when, according to him he did or did not see something, very often not even this is clear. We must remember that we are analysing a hydraulic treatise. But, on the other hand, the exposition was not as dry then as in our days, in which certainly some authors at least leave out mention of the works in which they have been involved. EVENTS.

I will give as evidence two paragraphs of minimal importance. Hundreds of ducats were spent on supplying a town with water and later not even the animals wanted to drink it. 57

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He had a friend that dug a ditch and made a wall, but the water was deeper and it ran out underneath. But to make things even more difficult, there is an evidently personal passage whose sure interpretation I, at least, have not found. It is in Book 19, in the part which is dedicated to the fortification of harbours. «... The engineer will be well-advised -and if he does so highly to be praised- if before he sets hand to the job, he first sees and discusses whether such an edifice can be constructed, for it would be rash to try and undertake things inherently impossible, which would be contrary to their very nature, as that nature would always strive to defeat its opposite rather than be defeated and overcome. But on the contrary we see that men take no account of any of this, but undertake such important works thoughtlessly and on the spur of the moment, with all good counsel set aside, to suittheir own judgement; for we see them revolving and twisting with great ingenuity a little of what is its own proper nature. In that way such men are humiliated, leaving a bad name, and their credit fallen, because they built a work which Nature managed to cast down in a short time, for she has no patience to endure any obstacle before her. And there she exerted all the opposition she could to put her adversary to flight and annihilate him, until she saw him yield ... I do believe I have said a deal too much, as I would not lack examples to prove my purpose: so I shall deliver myselffrom slander and respect the reputation and honour of all engineers without abusing anybody. Nor I think, will I be blamed for having enlarged on this so much, for it was not beside the point to condemn in general without naming anybody, as it is known that there are some people so thoughtless, as that man who wanted to make a bridge of boats that would go right across the sea. Let no critic or libellous satirist snap at me; whoever wants to make use of me may learn, and the wise may praise my labours and my zeal. That all that has been said is the truth, I shall bring examples to illustrate; I have truth in view ...». Some later folios deal with the competence among professionals: «... This profession belonged in ancient times to architects, but nowadays to those who are popidarly called engineers, or better, to those who have called themselves engineers. They have taken over this profession, claiming that the business of war and water works are one and the same thing. In this I see that many are deluded, and they also delude many, specially princes ...». Which is followed by another series of harsh judgements on engineers, how «they defend their own ignorance with a shield of malice», while others are simple masters to whom, important things are entrusted -now Frago cites some who did not know how to read (all this part would merit careful analysis). Finally comes the concrete reference that could be interpreted as the source (or one of the sources) of the violent tirade. Continuing with the difficulty of building in water: «... specially as I understand that some years since His Majesty ordered a castle to be built in the sea below Tortosa -1 was astonished that there should be a man so bold as to venture on a job like that....» Next comes his solution, very intelligent but also designed so that only an architect could execute it. First a wooden model, small and detailed, scaled perfectly and which should be examined -and modified if necessary- by a series 58

José Antonio García-Diego

of experts. The study follows with the possibilities of laying the foundations, the depth of the ground and its quality (the last by means of borings). The Alfaques of Tortosa were fortified from old times because of their strategic importance for defence against the corsairs. But Philip II improved the complex. I do not believe the history of this is well known. But I, relying on plans and documents of Simancas, have arrived at the conclusion that two engineers were involved; Juan Bautista Antonelli, a very great figure, known above all for his projectof making the rivers in Spain navigable, and Cristóbal (Garavelli) Antonelli, military engineer. Both from the same family, originating from Romagna, which gave still other distinguished technicians to the service of the Crown. The towers were at first three (in some plans more) and of course it must have been difficult to lay their foundations. The documents that I have seen, during the little time that I could dedicate to the matter, go from 1575 to 1581; but it seems that in this last year they were not finished. I have extended myself because I consider this to be very important. Even though it is not the only paragraph of the same aspect. In book 6: «... I see that in matters of utility for their kingdoms the Kings of today will not pay out a hundred thousand ducats, so would they spend there hundred thousand on benefits that do not last an hour».

VIII ENGINEERING. I am going to dedicate a little space to something which, as much through my profession as through the contents of my other historical works, it may be assumed that I would know more: what the manuscript indicates about different technologies.

This is very difficult. I already said at the beginning that for Spain, much is new, but even analysing it as a whole, all the modern works that deal with the technology of the period would have to be examined, plus all that was published in the 16th century and even in part of the 17th and the manuscripts even though none remains as important as this. And as descriptions and documents are lacking, to visit works in villages of at least two countries. For me the co-existence of two different traditions is absolutely clear. Intermingled, of course. The first, Spanish, or rather Aragonese-Catalan. A clear example is the maximal importance granted to horizontal hydraulic wheels, adequate in a dry country for taking advantage of the water to the greatest extent. Those which worked inside a vertical cylinder have only been found in our country. The cylinder corresponds to the arubah, of oriental origin, which was brought here by the Arabs. Two magnificent and well-conserved examples are the mills that derived their flow from the dam at Trujillo. Their dates are 1689 and 1690. Until a few years ago there was another in the Company House of the Jesuits of El Escorial, work of Francisco de Mora, with probable involvement by Juan de Herrera. 59

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

Also typically Spanish is the way in which the irrigation is dealt with so that nothing is lost of the precious liquid. He writes: «I say for certain that if the water were bought as the other liquids are bought I am quite certain that wise men would be more careful with it». Or the use of brick by the Moors. But what makes sense only in Italy, and especially in its northern part, is also outstanding. Thus the passage under the lakes or arms of the sea. And the transportation of barges with cable: who can think about such a thing for poor, dry or almost dry rivers, at lowwater, flooded in the winter? Another method which in my opinion is not Spanish and almost always bookish, in spite of the reference to the Alfaques, is that for ports. What is written proceeds either from classic texts or about Italian ports. In order to evaluate what was known before the probable date of the codex, the works of various authors of the 15th and 16th century would have to be consulted. A good initial guide is Bertrand Gille, «Les ingénieurs de la Renaissance».

am going to base myself for this section on the first general introduction, but also on our book, «An Aragonese Author ...», suppressing or at least, cutting down what has already appeared before. PERSONALITY. I

Not only have I written that it is the work of a Renaissance man. With this word it is common to allude to the co-existence of a new rational thought with the Greco-Latin tradition; and then it is exact, but not, on the other hand, according to general history. In the last part of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century, what lived in Spain was the Counter Reformation; although to say the truth I do not see a trace of such a thing in this mysterious text. The ambiguity of reason-tradition appears, among other places, when he occupies himself with the hydrological cycle. Without affirming it in an absolute way, he is inclined to think that the water proceeds from the rain and there is more when it is abundant. And not from the sea (after being purified), as the theologians taught, because his common sense dictated him that it cannot rise to the mountains «... never do we see it now rising on its own». This may seem obvious, but quantitative hydrology had its origin in the 17th century, with Perrault, Mariotte and Halley. The focus is now totally rationalist as far as the water diviners are concerned. There are still people -some not uncultured- who believe in them and many books are issued on this matter. I have one which is illustrated; the difference is in the photographs of the «investigators»(?), Soviet and American, the former more elegantly dressed. But he writes, «... no one will make me believe that the sight of man can penetrate to see things underneath the ground, for I see that only one sheet of paper prevents (it) ... much more so such a large quantity of earth which is a dense and corporeal matter which is above such waters...».

José Antonio García-Diego

By the way, the prospecting methods he proposes seem quite reasonable. On the other hand, he will sometimes mix reason and fantasy. He mentions some hydraulic garden games in which ladies intervene; they are innocent and surely would have been used as much in Italy as in Spain: here the restrictions are centred in other spheres, in spite of what some have supposed. Now more difficult in interpretation is the passage which refers to the baths. He begins by describing theRoman baths boasting -as he does often- of his architectural knowledge. But later he gets on to those of his times, medicinal baths and here things get complicated. In fact: «... and in these baths there are many luxuries like food as well as women ... there are certain people who are in charge of washing and chafing all parts of the body ...» etc. This, although it is not my speciality, seems to me to be more Italian. To end this section, I will say that he was a very good practical engineer. Many examples could be mentioned but I will give only one: he knew the dangers of foundations on plaster. He also worked, and a great deal, at the work site. In the book of mill dams (which certainly is an extensive text on this matter and even today there are not many so detailed) he says about laying the foundations within the river «... But it is necessary to keep changing the workers because no-one can endure this work for a whole day, never mind the night -just the thought of all this is enough to put me in fear and trembling, never mind actually having to do it». He spent days and nights with them. And on the other hand, and this makes him, in my opinion, especially appealing, he was an honest professional, concerned as much with the cost as with the quality of what he did: «Those who take on the burden of making weirs must be very honest in mind: they should not be the kind of people who take account of every interest, for if they do, they will seldom produce the work they ought. For this kind of work has to be rich in material and ingenuity; taking into account that the work is built to last forever». Until this point I am copying, with the necessary alterations, the first general introduction. I now go, as I indicated, to find inspiration in «An Aragonese Author...» For me he was self-taught. His powerful intelligence made him assimilate extensive knowledge, especially about what he had learned through his professional experience or of which he was fond. And it is curious that profound analyses co-exist, some of them surely original, with manifest errors, which I believe sometimes proceed from sheer ignorance, but others from the desire to show off, to make people see that he was a wise man. I will give two examples. At the end of the book on mill dams are included, among its dams of multiple vaults, some which no one would construct and I have called «architectural» structures. And the system to raise water along the slope of a river cannot work. I consider it impossible that the author was a university man or that the codex allows the assumption of a systematic study of the humanities, in spite of the classical authors that it cites. I have already given some reasons. And on the 61

Reflections on The Twenty-One of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano

other hand, we may excuse this engineer, who writes a scientific text of great value, for being weak in what refers to hydraulic theory, since it mainly developed somewhat later, but not, even if he had frequented but one university, his very poor knowledge of mathematics even in elementary questions or those connected with levelling, so important for the matterwith which he deals, this has been shown by Nordon, although in some isolated cases the error may come partly from idiomatic confusion it does not suit with having been at a university. I must confess that in my portrait of the personage, as he appears in the book that I wrote with Frago, there was something that did not fit entirely: it was why this man had lived in some of the states that today make up Italy and learned its language. But in 1990 in a comment published in the ÂŤRevista de Obras PublicasÂť, I already claimed I had found the solution, which I further expand now. The Juanelo Turriano foundation entrusted Professor Severino Palleruelo to write a book on Aragonese builders of the time. In it almost four hundred names appear and for some, their works; although we have not been able to connect any of them with the manuscript. It does, however, reveal that a relatively high number worked part of their lives in Italy. If up until here my conclusions are accepted, I believe an important problem remains standing: when this builder had the time to instruct himself, adding reading to his experience. And, besides, why and for whom did he write the codex; since now we know that the title pages and their dedications came later and contain erroneous affirmations. Perhaps he could have made his work compatible by studying. Or he attained a sufficient fortune -by saving or inheritance- in order to dedicate his time first to reading and then to writing the treatise, that could have been assigned to him by some Aragonese noble, although there are other possible explanations. We will know this when we find out his name.

The Turriano Hypothesis

I First I will summarise his life, fairly well known today, I must say partly because of me, even though not everything is published. This is not vanity, since dealing with an important but secondary person, and knowing of my great interest for him, various Spanish and foreign researchers have facilitated for me the documentation, which completes what I already possessed. The facts which follow have been expanded in a book. And even if some, mainly those referring to his work as an engineer, do not appear there, I can assure the reader they are documented.

José Antonio García-Diego

II Juanelo Turriano was born in a town near Cremona, a Lombard city, circa 1511. He first learned astronomy. But also the profession of clockmaker and to make scientific instruments, especially related to cosmography. As the same time -and this duality will persist during his entire life- he worked as a technician; he was what we would call today a mechanical or hydraulic engineer. Although the actual specialisation did not exist at the time, he had to know many other things: perhaps principally, architecture. He had other different activities, which still occur now, sometimes, but this was much more common in the Renaissance. I will subsequently indicate only the most important of his works. Ferrante Gonzago, Governor of the Milanesado, commissioned him to make a planetary clock -years later he would make another- a present to give to Charles V. This is not the place to go into details; but such an instrument, being based on Ptolemy's Universe then current, was very complicated and its maker had to have a great deal of science and other qualities for it to function with sufficient approximation. The instrument made him world-famous, since it surpassed the astrario of de Dondi, considered the masterpiece of medieval science and technology. From 1554 to 1556 he was in the entourage of the emperor in Brussels; and, until the death of the latter, he accompanied him in Yuste. It is there that people begin to attribute automatons to him. Upon the death of Charles V, he passed into the service of his son. And already in 1562 he was working as a clockmaker in the Alcázar of Madrid. His life changed radically in 1565 and, in a disastrous way. Because he contracted personally, and without having money, with the city of Toledo, to construct a device capable of elevating the water of the Tagus to the Alcázar. Extraordinary works, which gave him as much fame as the planetariums but also plunged him into misery. His devices were moved by machines which he had partly invented and partly modified, while he resided in Toledo, where he died in 1585. As a civil engineer he was not so outstanding. The king assigned him works which today would correspond to a «consultant engineer for hydraulic works». He always spoke Castilian Spanish very poorly. Despite the many years that he spent in Spain, he expressed himself in Italian. Not a single plan or drawing has been found that could be attributed to him. For the first device of Toledo, he used a model in miniature. From an obscure passage from Ambrosio de Morales it may be deduced that in order to calculate the efficiency of the machine he used papers with arithmetical series, not therefore, formulas or equations, despite their simplicity. 63

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He was, at least from his arrival at the Imperial Court of Brussels, a functionary. There were very few, at least compared to what is customary nowadays; around two thousand in Castille and tightly controlled. Such is the case that Philip II, upon renewing the contract which he had with his father, made him reside in the Court, having to ask for permission to make any departure. Some will think that these mandates were not complied with or were mere formal clauses, but there is proof that this was not the case. It may be established, thus, with the exception of short trips, some surely to El Escorial or to Aranjuez and when staying with the Court in Valladolid and Toledo, where and when he lived in Spain; that is, the part of his life in which it is presumed he wrote themanuscript. The documents that concern him especially during his long years in Toledo, are not only sufficient but rather superabundant.

Ill I am going to refute the hypothesis of the authorship of Turriano on the basis of the aforementioned, but first leaving something well established. I believe that my work cannot be qualified as dogmatic. But as far as that referring to Juanelo, my opinion is absolutely firm although I think I should not extend myself too much since it would affect the relative equilibrium of this introduction. I will begin with the clocks. He who wrote the codex could not have projected and made instruments that were considered as sublime. Since the author does not make another allusion to the mechanical clock than as a source of energy for an absurd -and not even original- mill. And it must even be said that if it were not for this, one would have to arrive at the conclusion that he did not even know of its existence. In fact, in order to measure the time, he only cites the clepsidras and, besides, making such an infantile comment as that these serve as much in the daytime as at night, it is evident that he was not aware of something which the ancient Egyptians had already known, that they have to be in the form of truncated cones in order to be able to measure in equal intervals the gauge which indicates the hours. I now go to the relation that his famous elevation systems may have with the text. The only solution that is given to a problem fairly similar to that of Toledo is in Book 13, f.345. One who, with only common sense and minimal technical knowledge, sees the figure will realise immediately that this series of water wheels never could have raised one single drop of water from the river. The error comes from his desire, also visible in other passages, to impress the reader with an important work. In this case it turns out to be especially strange since in Book II the hydraulic wheels have a very prominent place and concepts appear, for the first time, which have been considered by some to anticipate modern turbines. The very important sum of knowledge on hydraulics and on other matters that the codex contains are, nevertheless, perhaps superior to those which Turriano must have had. Even though to this, of course, one can object that

José Antonio García-Diego

no one knows all the technical knowledge that his mind accumulated, and that his library and archives have disappeared. I will only say then that it seems improbable. To attribute to him a Spanish text of such characteristics is absolutely impossible; I have already mentioned his poor knowledge of this language, let alone the dialect of the Aragonese. I will add that, in my opinion, his disobeying, for years, the king's order to write a treatise on the planetary clocks, so that he would not continue to be the only person capable of making them work, came from this difficulty with the language. And the text of clockwork that was found at his death, and lost, was, in all likelihood, in Italian. As far as the places cited, those in Italy where there is less information on his trips, but what is known of him does not seem to correspond to the knowledge of as many places as are represented on the northern border of Lombardy and in the centre of the peninsula. He came from a very poor family and, as master clockmaker he only managed to open a workshop in Milan; as an engineer he did not then occupy any important position nor does it seem that they assigned him missions that would have required him to travel. For Spain things are quite clear. None of the places in which he is known to have lived or those with the slightest probability of it appear cited. The only one is Madrid which is mentioned when dealing with materials, attributing to it the following «dark stone, lightweight easy to work and resistant; it attracts all the humidity from mortar. To work it, it is soaked». It treats, therefore, of a town which I have not identified, but in volcanic terrain. The same can be said of Toledo, which does not appear, and where, in his desperate situation, it can be assumed that he had time and temper to write such a long manuscript. The knowledge of extensive zones of Aragon and Catalonia is incompatible with his already indicated work as a functionary. I believe that these are some important reasons. But, naturally I could cite many others. On the other hand it is not strange that his name appeared on the title pages; because the man became a myth. I have already written about this, and later I have found two new erroneous attributions. The first, a manuscript conserved in the library of the University of Salamanca which I cited as his first work! And I was on the point of publishing it. (As it can be seen, I am not embarrassed to recognise my mistakes.) The second is another manuscript, perhaps the first Spanish translation of Heron of Alexandria. A few years ago it was on offer in the London trade, but I do not know its current whereabouts.

The Hypothesis of a collaboration of Giovanni Francesco Sitoni In my first general introduction, I affirmed that the author had an Italian friend who provided him with facts on the differences in the hydraulic works that they 65

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had in his country, in relation to the Spanish. And this was, very probably, Giovanni Francesco Sitoni. For whom I included a first summary of his life and work. Later I wrote an article in English on this personage and in it, this opinion is moderated. In the text to which I have first referred, I had already considered a different attribution to be possible, and in the article, that a rereading of the codex in Italian had added to my doubts. Consequently, only the hypothesis should have been maintained that Sitoni, among others, could have had some part in the preparation of «The Twenty-One Books ...». Even so, I reproduced the indexes of both manuscripts, but only because, although they were not related, they were the oldest-known until now which dealt exclusively with water works. And myself having been the first to publish them, I was naturally satisfied. But I continued to occupy myself with this personage. I will copy two paragraphs from «An Aragonese Author for the Twenty-One Books of the Devices and Machines». «The supposed help from the Italian (Sitoni) seems to me now to have had its origin in my enthusiasm for the discovery and the first analysis of this manuscript; but there were some other reasons, such as his intervention in works related to the Imperial Irrigation Channel and the irrigation of Lérida, which allow one to think that he knew Aragonese engineers. In any case, I stopped believing this in 1984, and since then nothing has been found to support that former opinion of mine». And referring to a proposed author, with which I will concern myself later: «It must be said that the first to leave written evidence contrary to this authorship was Marcel Nordon. I have already cited his analysis of the mathematical errors. I will now say that before they served him in order to demonstrate that Sitoni could not be coauthor. Which I, certainly, had never supposed, but at least I made clear that I abandoned the hypothesis that he would have intervened at all in relation to the codex». I repeat, therefore, not the least bit of documentary proof exists and, additionally the internal and external criticisms refute the idea that any type of relation whatsoever exists among the authors of both manuscripts. But I have continued to occupy myself with him. In 1990, the Juanelo Turriano Foundation published a book entitled «Giovanni Francesco Sitoni, Renaissance Engineer in the Service of the Spanish Crown». It contains the codex in Italian and its translation to Spanish, an introduction of mine which studies his life and work and an analysis of the manuscript by Alexander Keller. And there is even more, in spite of the lateness of the last date cited, the great -perhaps the best- specialist on Leonardo da Vinci, Augusto Marinoni, has found that Sitoni had an important library with, at least, mathematical tracts and surely books. And the North American historian Catherine Zerner found a large document from his working period in Spain, which, I was lucky, confirmed what I said in the book. Moreover, both new pieces of information come from the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris; here it did not occur to me to search; perhaps part of what Napoleon's troops carried off.

José Antonio García-Diego

The Pedro Juan de Lastanosa Hypothesis In 1983, Nicolás García Tapia came to see me for the first time. He brought a manuscript written by a Renaissance specialist, found in Valladolid, a curious text and drawings. There must have been many others from the same period, most of which will probably have been lost and others will be found and published due to the current interest the historians have in technology. He wanted it to be published, preceded by a study that we would both write. Quite a while later, because of the many obligations that we both had, the book appeared. It has two prologues. He writes in his prologue «... through his collaboration with me I had the opportunity to enter into the exciting world of Renaissance technology and to know more than a few people of international prestige in this field, in which García-Diego enjoys a well-deserved world-wide reputation». Naturally, to this last very exaggerated affirmation I demurred in mine. Pedro Juan de Lastanosa, who was born at the beginning of the 16th century, and died in 1576; he belonged to one of the most noble families of Aragón. He studied in various Spanish and foreign universities (the latter in France and Flanders), knew various languages, among them Latin, and had an important library with books in this language, and also in Greek, Hebrew, French and Italian. He translated, from the Latin, a book by Oronce Finé. He also wrote some minor works, which he left unpublished. He worked for Philip II, apparently as «machinario», an uncommon denomination which does not appear in the encyclopaedic dictionary of Covarrubias (1611). But no work nor machinery is known that could be attributed to him. I rejected the authorship of Lastanosa in the second part of my cited book «An Aragonese Author ...» As to the opinion of García Tapia, expressed in various publications, it does not take into account all the characteristics that the personage should possess and which appear, further elaborated, in this general introduction: date, dress, language, style, etc. All his arguments are summarised in a book, whose title may be translated «Pedro Juan ,de Lastanosa the Aragonese Author of the Twenty-One Books of the Devices»5 which has the date of 1990. But this volume will also give rise to something frankly curious and strange. Since 1989, there have been published, in the Revista de Obras Públicas, various monographs on the matter and, later, commentaries by various historians and a reply from the author; very good practice of this publication and, besides, uncommon in Spain. I include them as follows: 1. Ángel de Campo. «Two researchers in search of an author: The PseudoJuanelo Turriano of José A. García-Diego. «Comments by José A. GarcíaDiego, Julio Porres, Carmen Bernis, José A. Fernández Ordóñez and Nicolás García Tapia and response of the author». 1989, pp. 189-206 and 1990, pp. 36-60. 5

N. García Tapia, «Pedro Juan de Lastanosa, el autor aragonés de los veintiún libros de los ingenios».

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2. Nicolás García Tapia. «In defence of Lastanosa». (It is a second publication of the commentary of the previous section). Comments by Angel del Campo, José A. García-Diego and Carmen Bernis. 1990, pp. 27-33, 37-39 and 41. 3. José A. Fernández Ordóñez and David Fernández Ordóñez. «A plagiarising poor writer?». «Comments by Ángel del Campo, José A. García-Diego, Julio Porres and Severino Palíamelo. Response of the authors». 1991, pp. 19-32 and 42-536. Well now, García Tapia puts at the end of his first commentary the bibliography of his works referring to Lastanosa. And his previously mentioned book carries the date of 1989.1 telephoned the Institute of Higher Aragonese Studies and they told me that the book did not exist. As I have already indicated, it has the date of 1990 and was presented in 1991. As such, it has not had to answer the irrefutable arguments of the diverse specialists of great standing, except for myself, who wrote in the Revista de Obras Poeblicas, and are cited in the Preface. All of them reject the authorship that he proposes and many are very harsh. Because what I am writing is only a general introduction, it does not seem adequate to give a long summary of this controversy. But at least I will give an example. In an English book which refers to science and technology in the times of Philip II, I found in a marginal note the reference to a letter of Lastanosa, directed to an unnamed correspondent and dated the 13th of January of 1568. It is in London, in the British Library and I have copied it as follows. «Lastanosa 13 January error of longitude Sir, In the book of longitudes of Santa Cruz where he believes that the longitude may be given by the distance of the moon to the ascending degree, to verify his rule he brings as example the distance from Genoa to Mexico by the east, and he says he finds it to be of fourteen and a half hours which are 217 degrees 30 min., and by this calculation (cueta) by the west from Genoa to Mexico there would remain nine and a half hours, for the 142 deg. 30 min. which remain for the completion of the whole circle. And taking away 22 deg. 38 min. that Genoa differs from Seville, there remains according to the calculation of Sanctacruz, that Seville would be 119 deg. 52 min. away from Mexico which is almost eight hours. Which is not only false and deduced from false principles, but now this distance exceeds by more than fifteen degrees the most generous calculation that until now has been commonly received: and it exceeds the calculation of some, who claim to have made by eclipse a wiser observation than the navigators (who for the most part extend themselves with their voyages), by almost two hours: placing Mexico almost 30degrees more to the west than what some say it is. And I hope that with time it will be ascertained that Mexico is not more distant from Seville than six or six and a half hours. This error would be a notable detriment to the justice of his majesty's cause in the demarcation of the Moluccas. And for having in Santacruz the head cosmographer 6

A. Del Campo, «Dos investigadores en busca de un autor: El Pseudo-Juanelo Turriano de José A. García Diego»; N. García Tapia, «En defensa de Lastanosa»; J.A. Fernández Ordóñez & D. Fernández Ordóñez, «Un plumífero plagiario?».

José Antonio García-Diego

ofyour Majesty, and they (sic) are known for many years what has been the business of this book, in this way it seems that could it give us something to speak of to the Portuguese. May my Lord protect the (illegible) and very reverend person of your majesty. In Madrid XIII ofJanuary 1568 Your servant kisses the hands of Your majesty Pedro Juan de Lastanosa This document, surely directed to a person of high rank, shows the great knowledge of Lastanosa, as much in astronomy as about geography and his intervention in a political matter of great concern, the disputed rights of the Moluccas, which today form part of Indonesia. And now let us go to «The Twenty-One Books ...» In them one can read «I understand that Seville has a very large river that they call Guadalquivir» (f. 321 v., p. 361). This sentence, if the codex were English, would be: «I understand that London has a very large river that they call the Thames». To me, at least, it seems impossible that both texts are written by the same hand. On the other hand, the Fernández Ordóñez, father and son, the first of whom, as I said, is Professor of History and Aesthetics of Engineering at the School of Roads, Canals and Ports of Madrid, the most important in civil engineering in our country, refer to the text of García Tapia, criticising it «for its weak scientific foundation in the development of its investigations and of its conclusions», and other specialists arrive at the same conclusions. I will end this section with a quote from Einstein: «What a sad epoch this is, in which it is more difficult to break a prejudice than an atom».

FOURTH PART

An Epilogue for today And here begins the story of how the Codex was converted into a book of today, thanks to my intervention; I will leave it to the future that it will not end in the present either. And it constitutes the Fourth Part of this introduction.

I I am going to refer now to my personal intervention. In 1969 I managed, by offering a price under the cost, to obtain for my little engineering company, named Onuba -which remains inactive- the assignment of collaborating with the Hydraulic Confederation of the Tagus - a State Institution- in the preparation of a preliminarystudy entitled «Conservation of the Levels of the Tagus in Toledo». It was finished in 1970. Approved, as a general scheme, it originated two projects, one of which carried as a subtitle of the former that of «Historical and Artistic Buildings». We finalised it in 1972. Almost all the monuments included in it were related to the history of technology. The main part consisted in the partial reconstruction, on a natural scale, of one of the two devices by Turriano, which raised the water from the Tagus river to the highest part of Toledo, constituting one of the Renaissance's greatest engineering works. Although the combination of mechanisms was outstanding, the most unusual thing was the dimension of the ensemble. The water was to rise from the river to a height of 90 metres, with a length extending to the order of 300, adapting to terrain which was rough and difficult. Nothing similar had been done until then in the world, since before these devices the water supply of greatest height constructed was that of Augsburg, a tower of less than forty metres with seven floors that, according to the description of Cardano, used screws of Archimedes. I worked on this project with great effort and enthusiasm. (Not long before, my dedication, still partial, to historical studies had begun.) And I now want to leave evidence that the losses -relatively important- which were produced were 71]

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approved by all shareholders of my company since I had only a minor part of the capital. One consequence was meeting Ladislao Reti and initiating, as I have already said, a profound and affectionate friendship, as much with him as with Chiquita, his wife. A great many times we spoke not only of hydraulic engines but also of the codex which then was assumed to be of Turriano himself. Not only in Madrid, also in Toledo and in his house in Monza, which was part of an old palace, in a park, with a grand and magnificently decorated library. We also talked during the International Conference on the History of Science in Moscow and Leningrad, likewise travelling from Milan to Venice, later crossing Yugoslavia and Hungary. I managed to work methodically since 1973 when I disposed of the typewritten copy. I completed my work searching for documentation in archives, in and outside of Spain and visiting various towns cited in the text. This study also kept me busy for part of two stays in Italy in 1981 and 1982. I believe I was the first to consult the Reti Archives which, upon his death in 1973, passed to the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. But even though I could not dedicate more than a few hours to it, my impression was that due to very important documentation referring to Leonardo, what concerns us now was much less important. I want, before I finish, to tell the sad ending to my work for the reconstruction of the device in Toledo. The Minister of Public Works in 1973 did not allow the work to be carried out. The dictatorship ended and democracy arrived. The project was reformed, even improved and the new Minister came to approve the expense. But the town councillors of Toledo -elected by the people- were the ones who refused to accept it. Numerous opinions were expressed that it would have been the most important work of technological reconstruction in the world. But after that, the enthusiasm lost, I considered myself definitely defeated; I do not believe it will ever be reconstructed, at least I do not expect to see it. I related the characteristics of the apparatus and these incidents in a paper presented in the International Conference of the History of Science that took place in Berkeley, Cal. in 19857. Moreover, Alex Keller read it in my name and later, in the discussion, for the first time I saw Americans and Soviets fraternally united, asking each other how those who govern here or have governed can do such strange things, not to call them otherwise. I believe I answered that it was a matter of two isolated cases but that unfortunately I suffered the consequences.

'Published in the Revista de Occidente. No. 64. September 1986 Madrid. Under the title ÂŤEl artificio de Juanelo Turriano en Toledo: una reconstrucciĂłn frustradaÂť.

José Antonio García-Diego

II I now come to the Spanish edition. I tried, without success, to have the codex published by some commercial publishers. But they informed me that its length and subject did not permit, in Spanish (of course in English it would) to print a minimum of copies in order to make the operation worthwhile. I tried some Foundations, but they already had their plans made and I did not achieve anything there either, though it is true that God did not call me to the position of promoter. And then I resorted to the College of Civil Engineers. In this Association all the civil engineers of Spain are brought together, and this is my profession. The President was then José Fernández Ordóñez with whom, besides a close friendship, I have very special bonds. And I believe, although he has never told me, that his authoritative opinion influenced the Minister to approve the reconstruction of which I have spoken, in Toledo. The presentation of the book took place on 24th March of 1983, in the Ceremonial Hall of the College, which was completely full, as the figure 3 indicates. Its President, three guests and I participated. Firstly, as is logical, Alex Keller. And then those whom I consider as the two greatest Spanish historians in science and technology: Professor Juan Vernet from the University of Barcelona, and Professor José María López Piñero from the University of Valencia. I will leave out all my intervention and also the excessively nice things the other participants told me. But I believe that it is worthwhile to make a record, eventhough it only be a small part about which each of the three guests spoke. First Alex Keller: «... the book is more an encyclopaedia of civil engineering than one of mechanics; as García-Diego has observed, Hydraulic Engineering, or perhaps Hydrotechnics by analogy with Pyrotechnics, the description of all the arts and crafts which use fire. Water is the subject of «The Twenty-One Books ...» Water has always been essential for human, plant and animal life; and thereby all agricultural life. In the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance water was, even more than that, the principal source of energy for industry; and the most important route of transportation, by navigable rivers and canals, not only by the sea. In most of Europe water ran the mills that beat cloths, ground raw materials for dyes, polished armour (all these machines are in the manuscript). In it are shown those intended for the production of sugar, saltpetre (for gunpowder) and starch. We find in the codex the first detailed descriptions of the innovations, probably then very recent in transportation for water and on water: sluices for canals, port dredges, cable ferries and abo the technique of irrigation, and drainage of marshes such as were practised in northern Italy and in the east of Spam». Next, Juan Vernet: «That is to say, if «The Twenty-One Books ...» are going to giveriseto numerous works, in addition to the studies already completed and still unpublished, I refer, as 73

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can be assumed, to doctorate theses in the field of humanities, jurisprudence, legislation, etc., which make reference to the canals which supplied the lands of Lérida, Huesca and Zaragoza during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, which will probably indirectly allow us to substitute the provisional authorship of the manuscript by a definite one. An engineer who has constructed the amount of public works noted by Mr. García-Diego cannot remain in anonymity». And, lastly, José María López Piñero: «It seems to me indisputable as García-Diego states at the beginning of his introduction: the publication of this manuscript will be a world-wide event. J4s hydraulic engineering first, it is situated very justly beside the Pyrotechnia of Biringuccio and De re metallica of Agricola; it is noted very beautifully that together with fire, which would represent the first, and earth the second, this manuscript adds the third of the four classical elements. So a Spanish text in one way or another, figures beside another, Italian and another, German, among the stellar works of the first modern technology. I want to underline the fact that it does not only deal with an isolated feat, because rigorous historical investigation emphasises the central position of Spanish participation in the science and technology of the 16th century. Without excluding some purely theoretical aspects, such as natural philosophy, geography and natural history, it becomes evident that the numerous and important Spanish contributions of this century correspond to fields of a practical and commercial nature military technology the exploitation of minerals, distillation and xperimentation, agriculture, veterinary science, surgery and pharmacological therapeutics». All the speeches and some figures were published in a non-commercial edition.

ILL I conclude. I felt great happiness. Our desires of so many years had become a reality.