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Add MS 34113

Record Id:

032-002025087

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002025087

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000054.0x000136

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Add MS 34113

Title:

Compilation of treatises on natural philosophy and mechanics, and numerous mechanical designs.

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains a compilation of treatises on natural philosophy and mechanics along with numerous mechanical designs, principally selections from the works De ingeneis (1433) and De machinis (1449) by the Sienese engineer Mariano Taccola (b. c. 1382, d. c. 1458), and the Codicetto (?1460s-70s) by the Sienese architect Francesco di Giorgio (b. 1439, d. 1501), who is named in the manuscript three times (f. 17v, 129r, 194v). It also contains some otherwise unattested designs. The final portion of the manuscript (ff. 252r-261r) is an addition from the 1st quarter of the 17th century (f. 259r is dated 1612).

ff. 1r-8v: Treatise on hydrostatics.

ff. 9r-12r: Treatise on qualities of various kinds of earth and water.

ff. 12r-14v: Treatise on minerals.

ff. 15r.-17v: Recipes for inextinguishable fire.

ff. 18v- 20v: Marcus Graecus, Liber ignium, followed by recipes concerning fire.

ff. 21r-250v: Mechanical designs.

ff. 252r- 261r: Designs for architectural work in SS Annunziata in Florence and the Certosa of Pisa, early seventeenth century.

Decoration:

Numerous mechanical designs in outline drawing, usually tinted with brown, pink and green washes, including apparatus for scientific experiments, hydraulic systems, devices for moving heavy loads, mills, fortresses, siege machines, weapons, devices for crossing water, carpentry joints, devices for catching fish, devices for operating bellows, chimneys, a sheepfold, battering rams, ladders, ships, fountains, a centaur costume, diving suits, parachutes, canons, clocks, surveying techniques, systems for raising columns, architecture (ff. 3r, 4r-8v, 13v, 21r, 22r-103v, 104r-126v, 128r-v, 130r-175r, 176v-182v, 183v-201r, 202r-203v, 204r-249v, 250r-v, 253r-v, 254v-256r, 257r, 258r, 259r, 260r-261v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Additional Manuscripts

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "032-002025087", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 34113: Compilation of treatises on natural philosophy and mechanics, and numerous mechanical designs." , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002025087

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-002025087

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

A paper codex

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_34113 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Italian
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1450

End Date:

1624

Date Range:

2nd half 15th century-1st quarter 17th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper. Watermarks are visible on ff. 7 and 8 (see C. M. Briquet, Les Filigranes: Dictionnaire Historique des Marques du Papier dès leur Apparition vers 1282 jusqu'en 1600 , 4 vols (London: Quaritch, 1907), nos 6645-6659) that suggest an origin in Italy 1445-1484.

Dimensions: 300 x 205 mm (text space: 240-260 x 180 mm [ff. 1-20]).

Foliation: ff. 1-261 (+ 8 modern flyleaves at the beginning + 6 at the end); plus 6 blank leaves after f. 14; 1 blank leaf after f. 17, 2 blank leaves after f. 20, 1 blank leaf after f. 104, 1 blank leaf after f. 204, 4 blank leaves after f. 250, 1 blank leaf after f. 251, 1 blank leaf after f. 255.

An older foliation, now struck out, also exists; the number sequences are: '1-14', '16-113', '115-214', '216-267'; plus one blank leaf after ff. '14', '113', '214', and 11 leaves after f. '267'.

Collation: 9 singletons (ff. 1-9), i^10-1+1 (ff. 10-14, plus 5 blank leaves after f. 14; the 6th leaf is missing and has been replaced with a blank modern paper leaf), two singletons (a blank leaf and f. 15), ii⁸ (ff. 16-20, plus one blank leaf after f. 17, and two after f. 20), singleton (f. 21), iii-iv¹² (ff. 22-45), v¹⁰ (ff. 46-56), 3 singletons (ff. 57-59), vi⁸ (ff. 60-67), 5 singletons (ff. 68-72), vii⁶ (ff. 73-78), 4 singletons (ff. 79-82), viii¹⁰ (ff. 83-92), 3 singletons (ff. 93-95), ix⁸ (ff. 96-103), 4 singletons (ff. 104-106, plus 1 blank modern paper leaf after f. 104), x⁸ (ff. 107-114), 3 singletons (ff. 115-117), xi¹⁰ (ff. 118-127), 3 singletons (ff. 128-130), xii⁸ (ff. 131-138), 2 singletons (ff. 139-140), xiii¹² (ff. 141-152), 2 singletons (ff. 153-154), xiv⁸ (ff. 155-162), 3 singletons (ff. 163-165), xv¹⁰ (ff. 166-175), 2 singletons (ff. 176-177), xvi¹⁰ (ff. 178-187), 2 singletons (ff. 188-189), xvii¹⁰(ff. 190-199), 2 singletons (ff. 200-201), xviii^10-1+1 (ff. 202-210, the 4th leaf is missing and has been replaced with a blank modern paper leaf), 2 singletons (ff. 211-212), xix¹⁰ (ff. 213-222), 2 singletons (ff. 223-224), xx¹⁰(ff. 225-234), 2 singletons (ff. 235-236), xxi¹⁰ (ff. 237-246), 4 singletons (ff. 247-250), four bifolia (ff. 251-253, plus four blank leaves before f. 251 and one blank leaf after f. 251), xxii⁴ (ff. 254-257), 3 singletons (ff. 258-255, plus one blank leaf after f. 255), 1 bifolium (ff. 260-261).

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: Post-1600, British Museum binding. Brown leather with gold tooling on the spine.

Custodial History:

Origin: ?Siena, Italy.

Pietro Bigazzi, 1869: named as the owner by Angelo Angelucci at the time of his examination (Angelucci, Documenti inediti (1869), p. 84).

Sir John Charles Robinson (b. 1824, d. 1913), museum curator and art collector: named as the source of acquisition on first flyleaf, ‘Purchd of Sir J C Robinson 15 Dec. 1891.’ (f.[i]), and in the British Museum Department of Manuscripts records of minutes and acquisitions, which notes the price of £200.

Information About Copies:

Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.

Publications:

A. Angelucci, Documenti inediti fer la stovia della armi da fusco italione (Turin: G. Cassone E Comp., 1869), p. 84.

Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1888-1893, Add. 33345-34526 (London: The British Museum, 1884), p. 201.

Italian drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum: the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, ed. by A.E. Popham and Philip Pouncey (London: British Museum, 1950), p. 38.

Lynn White, Jr., 'The Invention of the Parachute', Technology and Culture, 9.3 (July, 1968), p. 462-67.

Frank D. Prager, 'Brunellesci's Clock?', Physis, 10 (1968), p. 203-16.

Frank D. Prager and Gustina Scaglia, Mariano Taccola and his Book De Ingeneis (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1972), pp. 199-200.

Gustina Scaglia, Frank D. Prager, Ulrich Montag, ‘Appendix II. Drawings in Add. 34113, The British Library, and in Codex Santini, Urbino. Machines and structures developed from the notebook of Taccola. The Machine Complex’, in Mariano Taccola Iacopo, De ingeniis liber primus leonis, liber secundus draconis, 2 vols (Wiesbaden: Dr Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1984), I, pp. 160-74.

Gustina Scaglia, ‘The Development of Francesco di Gioggio’s Treatises in Siena’, in Les Traités d’architecture de la Renaissance, proceedings of the conference, Tours 1981 (Paris: Picard, 1988), p. 93-94.

Paolo Galluzzi, Renaissance Engineers from Brunelleschi to Leonardo da Vinci (Florence: Giunti, 1996), pp. 40, 119.

Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519: The Design of the World, ed. by Pietro C. Marani and Maria Teresa Fiorio (Milan: Skira, 2015), no. VII.6, pp. 304-05, 317, 563-64.

Exhibitions:

Leonardo 1452-1519, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 15 April 2015 - 19 July 2015

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Notes:

Exhibited: Leonardo 1452-1519, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 15 April 2015 - 19 July 2015

Names:

Giorgio, Francesco, architect, 1439-1501
Taccola, Mariano, c. 1382-c. 1458