Thompson,  I'm  head  of  the  Archives, and  welcome  all  to  the  Rare  Book  Spotlight. I'd  like  to  introduce  you  to  Alison  Reynolds. She  is  our  research  services  and  instruction  librarian. In  this  role,  she  develops  hands on  activities  and  workshops  using Archival  collections  to  teach primary  source  literacy  and Archival  research  skills  to classes  visiting  the  archives. In  2021,  she  began  serving  as a  curator  of  the  library's  Rare  Book  Collection, where  she  works  to  build  the  collection in  support  of  the  teaching, research  and  excuse  me, research  interest  of  Georgia  Tech  students. She  holds  a  bachelor's  degree  in English  and  history  and  master's  degree  in English  literature  and  library  science  with a  specialization  in  archives  and  records  management. Most  recently,  she  completed  two  courses, the  printed  book  in  the  West  to  1,800, making  early  modern  Illustrated  scientific  book  and the  second  reference  sources  for researching  rare  books  through the  University  of  Virginia's  are  book  School. Thank  you.  Thanks,  Eels. Thank  you,  Joe.  Thank  you,  everyone  for  coming. So  I  have  a  presentation  to start  out  with  to  talk  about rare  books,  kind  of  the  Show. Rare  books  a  Georgia  Tech, a  little  bit  of  context  for  Theory  of  Machines. You  know,  what  does  that  mean?  Was  the  definition about  and  who  are  the  major  players  involved? There'll  be  a  few  minutes  for  Q&A  if people  have  questions  that  they  want  to  ask  the  group. Otherwise,  the  second  half of  this  is  really  for  people  to come  up  and  browse  the  books  we  have  on  display  here. So  the  book  collection  started here  at  Georgia  Tech  around the  1950s  with  Dorothy  Crosland, who  was  a  librarian  at  the  time. She  made  a  lot  of  trips  to  Europe  and  purchased several  books  that  were  influential  in  chemistry, engineering,  astronomy, and  really  built  up  the  collection. And  then  it  was  kind  of  on  hiatus  for  a  while. And  about  four  years  ago, we  were  fortunate  to  be  able  to start  building  the  collection  again. So  some  of  the  earlier collection  strengths  are  astronomy, engineering,  architecture,  math,  physics. And  we're  really  working  on  building  up new  collecting  areas  depending  on what  people  are  interested  in  researching  here, or  what  might  be  used  in  class. So  some  areas  in  medicine,  natural  history. And  I'm  kind  of  also  interested  in  cryptography. There's  a  kind  of  early  computer  science  here. So  most  of  the  books  that  we  have  are European  in  origin  from  about  1,500  to  1,800. And  that  is  kind  of  very  heavily  apparent  in the  books  that  we  have  out  here  today.  Alright. So  what  is  theater  of  machines? So  this  is  a  term  broadly  given  to  illustrated  books  of inventions  showcasing  machines  that are  both  practical  and  imagined, offering  solutions  to  everyday  problems  through science  and  mechanized  technological  processes. They  first  appeared  in  Europe  in the  late  16th  through  late  18th  centuries, but  flourished  between  about  the  1570s  to  1620s. These  types  of  machines  included books  that  change  over  time  with the  advancement  of  technologies  and societal  needs  of  growing  populations. So  starting  out  some  of  the  books  in the  mid  16th  century  really  focused more  on  harnessing  hydraulic  energy, cranes,  mills,  pumps. Towards  the  end  of  that  century, there  was  a  shift  in  emphasis  to  architecture, looking  for  machines  you  can  use  for building  or  hauling  heavy  objects  up  and  down. Further  into  the  17th  century, there  are  more  books  on  practical  manufacturing to  improve  day  to  day  lives  of  working  people, evidenced  by  inclusion  of  broader  range  of tools  in  industry,  arts  and  crafts, and  trade  machines,  and  almost  none  for military  purposes,  like  you  see  early  on. So  there  are  some  common  characteristics  of  this,  Shana. They  were  not  intended  to  be  strictly  scholarly  works, but  were  instead  meant  to  help make  the  wider  public  knowledgeable  about the  benefits  of  better  machinery  and  encourage engineers  to  look  for  new  ways of  improving  existing  machines. So  they're  both  useful  from  an  engineering  perspective, but  also  aesthetically  attractive, making  them  more  accessible  for  general  audiences. At  the  same  time,  they  provided  broad  guidelines  for technicians  to  recreate  the  machines and  apply  them  in  practical  scenarios. So  unlike  most  scholarly  books at  the  time  that  were  printed  in  Latin, the  theater  machines  books  tended  to  be printed  first  in  Italian  or  French, and  then  later  German  and  Latin. So  again,  they  can  reach  wider  audiences, people  who  may  not  have  that  scholarly  Latin  training. The  growing  success  of these  illustrated  books  in  the  16th  century, heightened  by  the  spread  of the  printing  industry  and  improvements  in  printing techniques  and  illustrative  processes throughout  Europe  helped  contribute  to  their  popularity. It's  good  to  point  out  that  at  the  time these  first  books  were  printed  around  158, that  printing  had  only  really existed  for  100  to  150  years. So  that  and  books  were  still  really  new  in  the  world. Later  into  the  17th  and  18th  centuries, some  smaller  town  presses, universities  took  a  larger  share  in printing  and  producing  works  on  technology. Also  travelers  kind  of  going  around  Europe, looking  at  engineering  feats, writing  about  them  in  their  journals  and  guide  books, and  then  spreading  those  knowledge  of innovations  throughout  Europe  to iterate  the  literate  public  outside  of these  intellectual  circles  kind of  helped  make  this  genre  grow. There's  one  article  I  read with  a  quote  that  really  I  think  sums  it  up  well, an  article  called  Illustrating  Machines, the  enigma  of  Theater  of  Machines during  the  Renaissance  by Louisa  Dolza  and  Helene  Varin summarizes  it  saying  these  books  collect, gather,  a  symbol,  and  above  all, border  as  in  a  theater  for  the  eye  of  the  mind. They  nourish  the  imagination  and  memory  of  the  reader. So  all  of  these  illustrations, when  we  say  theater,  we're  not  meaning,  like, acting,  but  just  kind  of  the  layout of  them  in  the  book  for  show. Right.  So  before  the  invention  of  the  printing  press, a  lot  of  illustrations  of  machines  existed mainly  in  the  Forest  pictorial  manuscripts  or  sketches. Many  of  the  machines  in  these  books were  likely  influenced  by some  Greek  and  Roman  traditions like  Greek  mathematician  Archimedes, Roman  architect  Vitruvius,  unpublished  notebooks of  Leonard  DaVinci  and  some  of the  late  medieval  pictorial  manuscripts. Like,  this  is  Koner  Kaiser's  or Conrad  Kaiser's  15th  century  illustrated  treatise on  military  engineering  that  I  got  from  Wikipedia  there. Um,  so  it  was known  about  a  lot  of  authors  of  these  books, they  most  for  the  most  part, didn't  become  rich  and  famous  and  their  names are  kind  of  faded  into  obscurity. But  it  was  common  for  them  to  copy  each other  or  build  on  one  another's  ideas. So  plagiarism  was  a  common  problem. One  thing  I  want  to  point  out  too  is  kind  of the  term  inventor  was  different  in the  16th  and  17th  centuries  than  today. So  an  inventor  in  terms  of  theory  of machines  may  not  be  the  original  creator  of  the  machine, but  someone  who  takes  some  known  something  known, like  a  device  of  ancient  origins, like  a  pump  or  a  lathe  and  synthesizes  it  with some  new  knowledge  from  the  current  time  to create  something  that's  maybe  not  completely  new, but  is  improved  to  help  service  the  public  good. The  terms  architect  and engineer  also  less  well  defined  than  now. Anybody  could  kind  of  bestow  that  title  on themselves  if  they  get  enough  experience  and  recognition. So  being  an  engineer  doesn't  always  denote professional  vocational  training  if you  see  that  printed  in  a  book. Several  of  the  authors  discussed  today also  had  close  ties  to  monarchy  and  noblemen, or  they  served  in  the  military  or  fled  countries due  to  religious  persecution, which  undoubtedly  impact  some of  the  themes  and  popularity  of  their  works. For  instance,  the  late  16th  century, French  wars  of  religion  impacted  Jacques  Besson, who  was  a  Protestant  and  Agostino  Rami,  who  was  Catholic. Bessan  was  forced  to  flee France  near  the  end  of  his  life, Rami  was  a  prisoner  of  war  for  a  time. And  there  are  more  war  machines  in  his  book, which  I  think  reflects  that  experience. Additionally,  there  were  little  to no  use  of  copyrights  or  patents  at  the  time, so  that  led  to  some  hesitation by  inventors  to  share  their  designs. The  burgeoning  patent  system  of  the  late  16th  century, most  often  took  the  form  of  monarchs  bestowing  a  decree, making  it  illegal  to  reproduce specific  inventions  for  a  period  of  a  few  years. So  because  of  this,  inventors  seek  out patronage  from  the  nobility  who  had  wealth  and  power, most  ideally  a  king. And  this  is  evident  in the  preface  to  a  lot  of  these  books, where  they  begin  by  praising  and  thanking the  king  in  a  very  humble  and  subservient  tone. The  dedication  could  also  be  a  way  to preemptively  counter  people  who might  be  critical  of  the  work, implying  that  if  you  criticize  this  book, you're  also  criticizing  the  king who  funded  this  or  supported  this. So  royal  patronage,  along  with that  growing  market  for  printed  books and  mathematical  instruments did  make  entice  some  inventors to  publish  their  things  for  monetary  gain. But  even  with  support  from  the  King,  plagiarism, what's  common  of  both  the  machines  and  the  drawings. And  most  of  the  instances,  except  for  Meli, who  you  know  invented  all  of  his  drawings, most  of  the  drawings  were  not  created  by  the  authors. They  were  kind  of  compiled  or  found  somewhere, but  their  origin  may  be  unknown, or  they  could  have  been  printed  from an  earlier  manuscript  into the  book  without  any  kind  of  attribution. A  lot  of  the  books  also  have  a  similar  structure, so  they  contain  a  lot  of  the  same  kinds  of information  but  differ  in  how  they're  presented. They  have  an  engraved  frontie  piece, a  dedication  to  a  great  patron, a  notice  to  readers,  announcing their  intentions  and  the  ideas  they  are  proposing. And  then  the  bulk  of  the  book  is  made up  of  full  page  illustrations, accompanied  by  captions  and  brief  commentary. So  it's  a  page  of  the  description  from  Ram's  book. The  illustrated  plates  tend  to  be clear  and  precise  with  captions  in  pros describing  a  sequence  of  events  objectively  in a  simple  vocabulary  to  be more  accessible  to  general  audience. They're  engraved  on  wood  or  copper  and  represent a  machine  or  instrument often  in  the  environment  in  which  it  would  be  used, like  a  landscape,  workshop,  abstract  space. And  I  have  a  lot  of  examples  of that  later  on  when  I  talk  about  each  book. And  illustrations  became  more  sophisticated  over  time. Hydraulic  engineering  was  already  well  developed  at the  time  because  of  the  medieval  need for  irrigation  systems. So  there  was  already  a  lot  of  work  that  had previously  been  done  in  that  area. But  as  populations  increase, water  needed  for  irrigation, drinking,  industries,  like  flour  mills, foundry,  saw  mills  all  grew. So  it's  kind  of  understandable, these  were  the  things  that  appear most  frequently  in  books. There  are  also  a  lot  of  variations on  pumps,  mills,  engines, machines  from  antiquity,  like  a  chain  pump,  a  drumoil, Archimedes  screw,  machines  for  lifting  heavy  weights. Okay.  So  some  discussed  mechanical  theory, however,  most  are  schematic  and  conceptual. It  wasn't  really  until  the  late  18th  century that  a  lot  of  the  techniques evolved  to  show  detail  and proposed  machines  became  more  realistic  and  functional. So  there  is  evidence  of  some  of  these being  reproduced  in  the  17th  century. But  most  of  these  drawings  that  you  see  were easier  to  draw  on  paper  than  create  in  real  life. That's  one  of  the  criticisms  that  they  received in  their  own  time  and  by  historians later  on  that  there  were technical  concerns  about  operational reliability  of  the  machines, scientific  content  application  and  mechanics, difficulties  in  constructing  them, including  exorbitant  costs, which  can  be  very  prohibitive. So  some  of  the  authors  will  indicate that  the  models  aren't  meant  for  reproduction, but  are  presented  in  a  way  to inspire  the  readers  to  use  them as  models  and  create  improvements  or  new  machines. This  is  confirmed  by  captions  on the  plate  that  present  the  figures  in  a  way  that  will express  the  expected  end  and not  necessarily  the  means  to  achieve  that. But  in  later  centuries, there  are  more  technical  specifications, and  some  of  the  authors  in  their  books  actually  claim that  this  device  was  built  in  the  city, and  you  can  look  at  it  here. But  despite  the  criticisms, there  is  evidence  that  improvements  to hydraulic  machinery  resulted  from these  works,  and  more  importantly, they  present  knowledge  that  was  previously  scattered  or fragmented  in  an  orderly  and  concise  format with  more  accessible  language, and  by  inviting  contemporary  and  future  audiences to  further  explore  these  machines. They  merge  science  and  art  with a  humanistic  approach  whose  impact can  be  seen  centuries  later. So  so  as  early  as  16  83, there's  evidence  of  a  Paris  exhibition that  included  19  models  constructed by  designs  presented  by  Baan  Romell  and  Buckler, which  my  German  and  French  pronunciation is  bad,  so  please  forgive  me  there. But  those  are  the  three  books  that I'm  talking  about  and  that  we  have  here. But  the  late  16th  and  early  17th  centuries, Rami's  drawings  spread  to  China  through Jesuit  missionaries  and  also appeared  in  books  and  machines  printed  in  Chinese. While  they  were  popular  in  their  time, there  were  some  19th  and  early  20th  century  historians who  were  somewhat  critical  of  them  calling them  pre  scientific  or an  a  scientific  mode  of exhibition  because  of  the  lack  of  technical  instructions. The  one  article  I  wrote  referred  to one  article  I  read  referred  to  them  as coffee  table  books  for  aristocratic  courts, rather  than  legitimate  scientific  texts, which  sounds  a  little  harsh. But  theater  of  Machines  books  have  had a  resurgence  in  the  20th  and  21st  centuries, evidenced  by  the  number  of  translations,  facsimiles, and  modern  editions  published over  the  past  hundred  years  in  Europe, the  United  States,  and  China. Today,  they're  useful  in studying  the  history  of  the  book, history  of  inventions  and  tracking knowledge  distribution throughout  the  early  modern  period. The  engravings  are  works  of art  that  can  be  studied  and  appreciated independently  from  the  text  as  a  fusion between  art  and  science  in  the  early  years  of  printing. So  I'm  going  to  switch  over  to  talking about  some  of  the  specific authors  and  books  that  we  have. There's  a  lot  more  information available  about  Jacques  Basson and  Agostino  Romell  as more  people  have  researched their  works  and  published  them. So  I  have  a  little  bit  more  upfront. And  then  the  last  few, there's  not  as  much  information  available. So  Jacques  Besson  is  frequently cited  as  the  originator  of  the  Theater  of  Machines  genre. His  previous  works  on  engineering  and  technology focused  mainly  on  inventions  of the  past  with  limited  descriptions. Besan's  work  was  innovative  in  that  he spent  his  career  searching  for  these  machines, collecting  images,  and  improving  them, and  then  putting  them  together  in  book  form. And  that  is  not  Jacques  Besson. There  were  not  any  images  of  him  available. So  that  is  King  Charles  ninth,  who  was  his  patron. But  the  son  was  born  1530-1540 in  the  Alps  in  rural  France,  what  is  now  Italy. He  was  primarily  a  mathematics  teacher  who traveled  between  France  and  Switzerland  and gained  some  fame  for  creating  a  pump  for public  fountains  in  Las  Aannes  Switzerland  in  15  57. He  presented  his  treatise, which  was  an  early  version  of  his  printed  book, Teatrm  instrumentorum, to  King  Charles  nth  of  France  in  15  69. The  King  was  impressed,  brought  him  to  court  and named  him  master  of  the  King's  engines. So  an  English  translation of  the  book  is  Theater  of  instruments  and  Machines. It  was  Bisson's  third  book, but  his  most  influential. It  was  originally  published  in  French  in 15  71  and  included  nearly  60  engravings, including  dredging  machines,  pumps,  pulleys, water  wheels,  mills,  canal  locks, and  even  a  fire  engine  and  carriage  for  royalty. Includes  a  dedication  to  King  Charles and  nine  Wesley  funded  it, followed  by  two  prefaces  where  each  mechanical  device is  described  with  its  purpose  and an  explanation  of  how  it  works. Illustrations  are  listed  in  the  contents at  the  beginning  of  the  book  and  have  limited  text, only  a  caption  at  the  top. But  the  lack  of  description of  illustrations  is  thought  to  be caused  by  hurried  printing due  to  the  French  wars  of  religion. Mentioned  in  the  beginning,  Pasan  had to  flee  France  in  15  72, which  was  a  little  after  this  book  was  published, and  he  moved  to  England  where  he  died  in  15  73. Um,  however,  his  book  influenced  later  inventions  in astronomical  instruments  survey  and timekeeping  instruments  that  are  still  published  today. And  most  recently,  facsimiles  of  six  of machines  were  included  in  the  2009  Chinese  publication. So  that  there's  an  image  of  looks  like a  three  story  middle  era  with people  having  to  climb  up  and put  the  grain  in  the  top  and  climb  back  down. It's  all  very  laborious. Um,  our  library  has  a  copy  of the  Italian  translation  printed in  Lie  in  France  in  15  82, so  that's  the  title  page  for our  copy  and  the  Italian  title. And  this  editions  a little  bit  different  from  the  first  one  that the  descriptive  captions  were removed  from  the  original  engravings, and  the  plates  were  printed  with new  numbering  and  letterpress  captions  in  Italian. The  description  of  each  image  is on  the  opposing  page  rather  than the  original  edition  where  all  the  text is  at  the  beginning  and  the  images  are  at  the  end. So  I  have  a  few  images, unless  otherwise  noted,  all  of these  pictures  are  from  our  copies  of  the  book. But  this  is  a  saw  mill  for a  one  man  operation whose  movement  is  based  on  a  massive  counterweight. The  pendulum  shaped  weights  are a  specific  feature  of  the  sons  machine, so  they  appear  often  in  his  book anytime  he  has  a  blade  doing  something. Here  is  the  carriage  I  mentioned. So  this  is  a  new  design  for a  royal  carriage  that  features a  rear  suspension  to  absorb the  bumps  in  the  road  constructed  with an  open  lattice  work  if you're  the  king  or you're  with  the  king,  you  want  to  be  seen. So  it's  open  so  people  can  see  the  passengers  there. This  is  a  musical  instrument  with metal  strings  that  when  touched  with  fingers or  fiddle  bow  is  supposed  to  produce  a  sound comparable  to  a  wire  and  a  trombone  combined, which  sounds  very  difficult to  imagine  what  that  would  sound  like. Um,  I've  always  liked  this  image, and  I  did  a  little  more research  to  figure  out  what  it  was. It  is  an  invention  for  building  chimneys. And  I  put  some  of  these  into  Google  Translate, which  doesn't  always  work  out  so  well, but  this  one  I  copied in  here  because  I  thought  it  was  funny, but  it  is  a  new  and  very  certain  invention for  building  chimneys, even  in  any  low  house  from which  the  sun's  rays  and  the  winds  are so  excluded  so  that  no  one  inside the  rooms  can  ever  be  offended  by  the  smoke. But  I  like  this  because  you  can  see  in the  top  corners  the  faces representing  the  wind  all  blowing  in. So  this  is  an  example  of  how  things  are  in a  landscape  or  they're  in  a  setting  of where  they  actually  would  have  been  used  at  the  time. This  one  is  a  fountain  that  plays  wind  powered  music, which  I  believe  the  little  faces  at  the  top, the  wind  is  supposed  to  blow  through  them, and  that's  supposed  to  create, I  guess,  some  kind  of  a  whistling  sound. Again,  I  don't  know  if  that  was  actually  functional. I  don't  think  that's  like  anyone ever  made,  but  it  looks  pretty. And  this  one  is  a  fire  extinguisher, which  looks  like  it  might  actually  work, but  it  can  be  used  as  a  distance  to  protect  people  from getting  burned  there  people dumping  water  in  the  big  bucket, and  I  guess  they've  got  a  crank  of some  sort  that's  projecting  the  water  out  onto  the  fire. So  the  second  figure  is  Agostino  Romell. And  if  Basson  is  the  originator, then  Agostino  Romell  is  arguably  the most  influential  and  well  respected  in  the  genre. His  work  diverse  et Artificios  Machine said  a  new  standard  is  the  most  comprehensive and  artistic  of  all  the  early  books  with nearly  200  illustrated  plates  with more  advanced  inventions  all  designed  by  Romell. He  was  born  in  Northern  Italy  around 15  31  and  trained  in mathematics  and  military  engineering. There  are  a  few  existing  records  about him  that  indicate  he  was  a  soldier  elevated to  nobility  who  served  as military  engineer  to  King  Henry  of  France. I  mentioned  he  was  Catholic  and  was  briefly captured  by  Huguenots  during  the  French  wars  of  religion. And  his  military  background  is  evident  through  his  work, which  includes  several  siege  bridges,  fortifications, and  war  machines,  has more  than  any  of  his  other  contemporaries. And  even  his  portrait  here, you  can  see  the  military  influence  with  his  helmet  and the  kind  of  classical  figures  in  armor. So  his  work  was  very  expensive  to  publish  and cost  so  the  cost  of  that  book  plus the  title  rand  Engineer  or Grand  Architect  bestowed  upon  him  by the  King  suggests  a  close  relationship to  the  king  who  probably  funded  this  work. Ram  did  self  publish  this  in  Paris  in 15  88  and  purposely made  illustrations  detailed  and  elaborate. He  was  very  concerned  with  plagiarism more  so  than  anyone  else  I've  talked  about  here. He  worked  really  closely  with his  apprentice  Am  Bois  Baha, who  engraved  many  of  the  illustrations, but  their  relationship  didn't  end  well. I  love  little  historical  stories  like  this. In  the  book's  introduction, Rami  complains  that  someone  stole  and published  his  fortification  designs under  a  different  name, but  he  doesn't  say  who,  but  he kind  of  hints  he  thinks  it  might  be  Bache. Bacha  published  something  later  on. But  there  is  really  no  evidence that's  conclusive  in  what  happened, but  they  kind  of  had  a  falling  out. And  then  ever  since  Denn  ro  Mei  was  just  very, very  concerned  with  unauthorized  copying  of  his  designs, which  is  ironic  because  his designs  were  copied  in  theaters featuring  theater  of  machine  books  for more  than  150  years  after  his  death. We  have  another  book  where  someone  literally copied  18  of  them  into  his  other  book. Um,  so  the  designs  in  his  book offer  mechanical  solutions  to  problems  of  everyday  life, very  strongly  in  water  management, tools  for  heavy  objects, Sigi  and  defensive  cities, and  even  entertainment,  very comprehensive  treatment  of  water  pumps. One  source  even  almost obsessive  preoccupation  with  water  pumps. But  he's  really  influenced  by  using  mathematics, especially  geometry  as  a  tool  for  engineers  and  artists. And  on  the  right there  is  a  list  of  the  breakdown  types  of  machines. There  was  someone  named  Martha  teached Nuti  who  translated  the  entire  book from  Italian  into  English  in 1978  and  did  this  nice  little  breakdown. So  110  water  raising  machines, grain  mills,  and  all  the  rest  of  those. It  was  a  little  unique  in  that  some  of  the  illustrations have  cutaway  views  where  you  can see  key  parts  or  tools  in  the  foreground. There's  a  much  greater  emphasis  on the  artistic  merits  and ornamental  designs  and  details that  you  don't  see  anywhere  else. Like  motifs,  popular  at the  time,  fountains,  bigots,  pictures, and  bellish  with  grotesques  and  masks  and garlands  and  animals  and  hybrid  monsters. The  So  here's  the  title  page. Another  unique  characteristic  is  it includes  descriptions  in  both  French  and  Italian. This  is  really  unusual  at  the  time, but  allowed  his  work  to  be  available  to the  majority  of  practicing  European  engineers, even  in  England  and  English  speaking  countries  where French  and  Italian  were  widely read  by  educated  people  at  that  time. Um,  there's  a  scriptive  text  that's printed  next  to  the  plates  to  explain  them. They're  written  more  for  technicians with  less  theory  and  personal  commentary. They  don't  give  exact  measurements, proportions  or  specific  materials  used  in  the  designs, just  kind  of  general  terms  like  metal  and  wood. This  was  possibly  to  improve the  adaptability  due  to  differences  in materials  available  in  different  locations was  an  attempt  to  protect  his  invention, again,  by  making  it  harder  to replicate  without  all  those  details. There's  also  some  implicit  assumption  that if  you're  an  expert  engineer  using  this  book, you'll  just  be  able  to  figure  it  out given  everything  there  in  the  image. And  Rami  has  been  criticized  for  focusing  more  on visual  impression  and  artistry rather  than  technical  specifications. But  his  machines  more  so  than  anyone else's  have  actually  been  replicated  later  centuries. They  overall, they  have  greatly  expanded capabilities  of  water  pumps  and encouraged  endless  possibilities  for  creating variations  on  new  machines  on  older  models. And  his  illustration  designs  are  apparent  in  some  of the  pictorial  tables  used  in engineering  studies  at  French  Universities through  the  19th  and  20th  centuries. So  we  have  a  first  edition  of  this  book from  15  88  that  we  just  purchased  last  year. So  I  have  a  few  examples  of  those  illustrations. This  is  a  device  for  raising  a  water  level  in  a  canal, and  I  like  this  one  because  it you  can  see  all  those  little  grotesques and  all  the  ornamental  features that  really  don't  have  anything  to  do  with  the  design, but  they  make  it  look  nice, indicative  of  the  time  and  again, make  it  harder  to  copy,  it's  more  unique. So  if  you  see  that,  you  think,  Oh,  that's  Meli's  design. This  is  for  raising  water  up  a  sloping  ground. Again,  you  see  a  lot  of  landscape  there. All  the  rocks  and  trees necessary  technically,  but  artistically  attractive. A  clockwork  mill  to  grind green  with  a  huge  weight  driven  clockwork  mechanism. And  this  is  one  boy  who  is  supposed  to rewind  the  weight  after  it's driven  through  the  mill  in  a  huge  gear  train. So  I  don't  know  how  much  is put  into  the  actual  manpower  of  that, but  that's  a  lot  for  a  small  child  to  do repeatedly.  Here's  another  fountain. So  this  one  is  supposed  to  continually recycle  water  through those  pipes  using  hydrostatic  pressure. But  again,  also  very  ornamental and  attractive.  Another  landscape. This  is  a  device  for  moving  and  pulling  artillery  through mountainous  places  and  long  and  difficult  roads to  help  save  your  horse's  strength. And  these  are  all  in  the  books, so  you  can  get  a  closer  look  if  you want  to  later  on,  open  them  up. And  this  one  is  very  famous. This  one  we  made  a  postcard  of, but  this  is  a  book  wheel. So  it's  almost  like  a  precursor  to  an  e  reader. You  can  have  a  bunch  of  books open  at  the  same  time  that  you're  reading, and  kind  of  just  pull  it  down  and  go  to  the other  one  and  ****  back  up. Great.  Alright,  so  Victoria  Vanco is  kind  of  the  other  of  the  big  three, according  to  the  English  scholar  AG  Keller, who  wrote  a  book  in  1964  called  A  Theater  of  Machines. Victoria  Zanca  along  with the  Sana  Rami  formed the  three  most  important  authors  of  the  genre. But  despite  that  significance, there's  very  little  information about  Zanco  or  the  origins  of  this  book. He  spent  most  of  his  life  in  Padua,  Italy, working  as  an  architect  for  the  city  where  he  made  maps and  surveys  and  worked  in  land  drainage  and  irrigation, giving  him  a  lot  of  practical  experience and  materials  and  construction. This  Nova  Teatro  de  Machine  is  his  only  book. It  was  first  published  in  1607 by  the  printer  Francesco  Bartelli four  years  after  Zanca's it's  unclear  how  Bertlli  obtained  the  book. There's  one  source  that  cites  Bertlli  as  claiming  that it  fell  into  his  hands,  whatever  that  means. But  this  one  is  a  little  more  unique  in  that the  illustrated  designs  were  closer to  actual  mechanical  practices  of the  time  incorporating  more  innovations  from contemporary  technologies  rather  than just  revamping  older  ones. This  is  a  book  that  also  tells us  that  several  of  the  machines  are in  use  in  Padua  and  Venice  at  the  time  of  publication. The  drawings  are  overall  less fanciful  than  those  of  Viana  Rami. Many  of  them  do  have  dimensions, making  them  easier  to  replicate. And  there's  a  wide  range  of  machines  present here  for  the  first  time  machines used  for  textile  industry, the  textile  industry  are  apparent. Water  is  still  a  central  theme  lock  gates, hydraulic  power  mills,  water  wheels,  those  things. But  then  some  of  the  machines  absent in  earlier  works  like  a  rolling  mill, a  book  press  and  printing  presses  are  here. So  this  is  a  printing  Italia  printing  press, so  you  can  actually  see  the  image of  how  they  are  printing  the  illustration. So  the  engraving  plate goes  on  the  bottom,  the  press  where  D  is, and  then  they  put  paper  on  it, and  they  roll  the  wheel  over  so  that  the  ink from  the  grooves  and  the  plate is  being  pressed  on  the  paper. But  this  is  an  example  of  how  it's  being  used. Without  a  lot  of  description, you  can  see  who's  doing  what  and how  many  people  are  working  there. Um,  this  book  includes descriptions  of  machine  and an  explanation  of  their  operation. Again,  like  Bram  they're  in  context, different  types  of  people  working  on  different  machines. So  the  library  owns  a  later  copy, not  the  1607  version, but  a  16  21  version  that  the  provenance  was  traced  to the  library  of  17th  century  Slovakian  Earl and  book  collector  named  Wolfgang  Engelbert. And  I  have  a  few  illustrations here  water  lock  system  for  boats, which  also  made  a  postcard out  of  that  you  can  take  home  with  you. This  is  animal  power  treadmill  drill, so  we've  got  some  ox  who  always  walk  on the  treadmill  and  use  that  to  drill  underground. Here  is  a  printing  press, so  this  is  the  movable  type  printing  press  for printing  woodcuts  or  text. An  automated  spit  for  cooking  meat. So  this  is  the  first  book  that  has some  things  that  are  a  little  bit more  domestic  in  nature. Stamping  Mill  for  paper  making  was  the  first  time  this book  an  illustration  of this  machine  was  ever  put  into  prints. And  then  Twin  power  hand  pumps, which  I  just  like  this  picture  because  that seems  like  a  really  hard  job  to  be  standing  there straddling  something  and  kind  of  moving  back  and forth  and  it's  creating  suction  and  pulling  the  water  up, but  I  can't  imagine  doing  that  for  more  than  2  minutes. Alright.  So  Giovanni  Branca, so  I  only  have  a  little  bit  of  information  about  him. This  is  one  we  don't  actually  have. We  just  ordered  this,  and  I  was hoping  he  would  get  here  in  time  for  my  presentation, but  it  takes  a  really  long  time to  get  books  here  from  Europe. So  if  you're  interested  to check  back  in  two  or  three  weeks, we  should  have  that  available  to  see  in  the  reading  room. But  Giovanni  Branco  was  born  in  15  71  in  Italy  as an  engineer  and  architect  to  this  book called  LaMachin  the  Machine. It  was  published  in  Rome  in  16  29. And  at  the  time  of  the  publication, it  was  criticized  as  being  a  little bit  outdated  or  backward  looking. Like  for  Meli,  he  designed more  artistically  than  technically, although  he  has  a  lot  less  material, and  his  illustrations  are  less  sophisticated. So  he  is  the  only  one  whose  illustrations are  on  woodcut  instead  of  engraved. And  you  can  tell  a  really  big  difference  in  the  detail that  you  get  from  those  types  of  drawings. It's  also  unclear  how  much Bunch  invented  versus  those  he  came  across. Like  I  mentioned  plagiarism. A  lot  of  times  people  just  came across  drawing  to  publish  them. But  it  seems  unlikely  that  they were  all  his  original  designs. But  there  are  77  woodcut  illustrations  overall, and  the  books  divide  into  three  sections. One  is  machines  for  general  purposes,  like  mills, metal  rollers  toys,  metallurgy,  and  agriculture. The  second  is  pumps  for  water  lifting  devices. And  the  third  is  automata  and  a  clutch  device. It  also  includes  early  representations of  a  steam  jet  used  to  power  a  turbine, although  bears  no  relation  to later  pressurized  steam  piston  devices. But  this  image  I  took  I found  on  Wikipedia  because  it's  public  domain. But  this  is  the  most  famous  image  from the  book  has  the  human  head  kind  of blowing  gal  into  the  gear  to turn  all  of  those  and  create  a  kind  of  piston  system. And  just  a  few  images that  I  pulled  so  you  can  kind  of  see how  the  woodcuts  are  a  lot less  intricate  than  the  engravings. This  is  a  powered  water  wheel. Water  powered  spinning  wheel, which  was  interesting  because  I  think this  is  the  only  time  I  ever  saw any  women  in  any  of the  illustrations  in  any  of  these  books, and  it  has  to  do  with  textiles. And  then  a  mind  hoist. So  this  is  one  for  lifting heavy  things  up  and  down  and  mining. Alright.  This  we  do  have. This  is  fifth  of  six  that  I'm  going  to  talk  about. So  this  book  by  John  Wilkins, it  really  doesn't  fit  in  with the  definition  of  a  genre  theater  of  machines. And  as  I  was  writing  this,  I  was  thinking  scholars  of this  field  would  probably really  balk  at  me  including  it  in  here. But  I  would  argue  that  it's influenced  by  the  machine  books, it  appears  at  the  same  time  in  which  they  were  popular. And  the  one  big  difference  is  there aren't  nearly  as  many  illustrations, but  those  that  appear, they  do  share  some  similarities  in appearance  and  purpose  to  other  books  in  the  genre. Wilkins  even  cites  Rami  for illustrations  of  two  of  his  drawings. So  John  Wilkins  was  an  English natural  philosopher  and  polymath, in  a  lot  of  things,  geometry,  mechanics, magnetism,  chemistry,  medicine,  astronomy. He  was  one  of  the  founding  members  of the  Royal  Society  in  London. So,  mathematical  magic  is his  first  published  book  in  English  in  London  in  16  48, and  it  follows  the  tradition  of  the  theater of  machine  books  in  that  it's  almost  wholly devoted  to  the  practical  uses  of  mechanical  devices  with only  enough  theory  to  give the  reader  a  sense  of  scientific  understanding. In  his  address  to  the  reader, he  explains  that  the  real benefit  both  for  gentlemen and  the  improvement  of  their  estates, as  in  the  draining  of  mines  and  coal  pits  and  for common  artificers  in  gaining a  right  understanding  of  the  grounds and  theory  of  the  arts  they  practice. So  really  meant  for the  general  public  who  are  out  in  the  field  working. It  is  a  very  short  compact  book. It's  a  little  one  I  have  up  front. It's  knowledge  that  was  otherwise  previously available  in  large  expensive  Latin  volumes. So  that  and  the  size  of  it, you  take  it  with  you,  so  it's  a  lot more  accessible  to  wider  audience. This  book  is  divided  into  two  parts. There's  Archimedes  or  mechanical  powers and  datas  are  mechanical  motions. The  first  part  deals  with  balance,  lever,  wheel, pulley,  wedge,  and  scroop,  all  of  simple  machines. And  the  second  part  deals  with  how  the  combination  of these  devices  may  be  used practically  through  illustrations  of  machines. The  second  part  also  contains theoretical  devices  like  flying  machines, moving  and  speaking  statues,  artificial  splinters, land,  vehicle  driven  by  sails  and  a  submarine. Before  you  get  excited,  there  are  not illustrations  of  artificial  spiders. I  know  I  was  really  disappointed  by  that. But  I  think  that  lack  of  illustrations  is one  thing  that  differentiates it  from  the  rest  of  the  books  in  the  genre. There  are  actually  only  nine  illustrations in  32  woodcut  diagrams. And  this  is  the  first  edition  book that  we  acquired  in  2023. So  I  have  a  couple. This  is  a  simple  machine. The  multi  use  wind  powered  device. I  like  this  one  is  a  pulling  system  for  uprooting trees  or  heavy  objects because  you've  got  some  of  the  ornamentation, they  like  to  use  people's  heads  to  represent  the  wind, the  wing  coming  out  of  the  mouth, turning  something  that  is  than  turning  all  of those  gears  that's  uprooting  the  tree. And  here's  the  sailing  chariot, two  sailing  chariots,  which  I assume  we're  supposed  to  be  wind  powered. And  then  the  Archimede  screw, which  was  definitely  not  new  at  the  time, but  had  been  repurposed  in  many, many  different  formats  for  pumping  water. Alright.  So  our  last  person  here,  and  again, this  is  a  book  that  I  ordered, and  I  think  it's  still  stuck  in customs  in  Miami  right  now. But  it  is  a  German  George  Andrea  Speckler  and  again, not  the  right  pronunciation. So  the  theory  of  Machine  as  really originated  in  France  and  Italy and  later  spread  to  Germany. So  this  is  the  latest  book  in  16  61  that  we  have. I  think  Becklers  was  one  of  the most  influential  from  Germany. It  was  first  published  in  Nuremberg  in  16  61. Beckler  was  an  architect  and  engineer  in  Nuremberg, who  published  other  books  about Automata  fountains  and  harnessing  water  power. But  this  is  his  most  famous  work. He  was  very  heavily  influenced  by  Romell, and  this  is  the  person  who  copied 18  plates  directly  from  his  book. They're  actually  mirror  images. He  had  his  engraver, just  traced  them  from  the  original  engraved  on  the  plate. But  this  book  covers  probably the  broadest  range  of  diverse  machines with  154  illustrative  plates  of  artillery  pumps, mills,  fire  engines,  roasting  spits. So  again,  some  repetition  from  the  other  inventors. Gear  mechanisms,  paper  making  equipment. But  it  was  very  popular  at  its  time  and  published in  three  German  editions  and  one  Latin  translation. And  these  pictures,  I  took  from  a  book that  we  have  Markie  Andrews, engineer  who  collects  rare  books, and  he  published  a  book  all  about  his  collection. So  I  photographed  his  drawings or  his  copy  from  his  book  there. But  I  think,  yeah,  but  this  one, there's  a  couple  of  hand  powered  mills. So  there's  one  of  the  hand  power  mills, one  person  kind  of  turning  the  cranks. There  is  an  animal  powered  mill, so  now  you  have  horses  doing  the  work  for  you. A  water  powered  saw. I  think  if  we  compare  this  to  the  songs  saw  from  15  71, both  his  swinging  thing,  and  now  we  have water  powering  vertical  saw. And  this  is  a  hand  power  oil  press, which  is  one  of  the  more  unique  ones. See,  a  lot  of  this  still  relies  on  manpower, physical  power  and  somebody  turning  things. Great.  So  I  have  a  work  site  here. A  lot  of  articles.  I  read books,  probably  articles  online. There  were  a  lot  of  online  stories  or digital  projects  from  libraries  or  rare  book  magazines. So  everything  I  gathered  from  one  of  these  sources  Um, so  hopefully  this  presentation  will  give you  a  better  understanding  of  the  definition of  the  genre  of  theater  machines  books  and some  context  for  the  most  influential authors  and  works  in  the  genre, an  idea  of  the  type  of  machines and  inventions  most  prominent. So  we'll  have  a  brief  Q&A if  he  has  questions  they  want  to  ask. Right  now,  we  can  do  that,  or you  can  ask  me  one  on  one  later. But  before  we  kind  of  look  at  things, I  have  one  slide  just  about  how  to  handle  these  books. So  we  want  to  make  sure  hands  are  clean  and  dry. So  we  have  some  wet  wipes  on  the  table  over  there. Everybody,  if  you  just  use  one  of those  and  throw  it  away  and  make  sure  they're  dry. Um,  if  you  have  bags  or  coats  or  anything, just  leave  them  on  the  chair  and  make  sure  you  don't have  any  food  or  drink  or  any  writing  utensils, especially  ink  pens  around  them. You  can  take  photographs  without  the  flash. If  you  have  your  phone,  you  want  to  take  photographs. And  you  can  turn  the  pages. Recommended  to  turn  them  from the  vertical  side  instead  of  the  corners. But  don't  be  afraid  to touch  them.  I  don't  want  to  work  with  students. Sometimes  students  are  afraid  to  touch  them, but  they're  all  in  fine  shape  for  you  to  handle. And  lastly,  access. So  all  of  these  belong  to the  archives  and  special  collections  here, so  they're  available  to  use  in  our  archives  reading room  anytime  during  our  open  hours,  11  to  four. We  do  ask  for  appointments  for rare  books  about  24  hours  in  advance. And  if  you  are  teaching  a  class, I  do  a  lot  of  class  visits where  students  come  into  the  archives, and  can  do  presentations  or  we  can  come  up  with activities  for  students  to  do  something  hands  on, learn  about  books  and  archival  collections. And  then  I  have  contact  information  to  if  you'd  like to  email  me  or  contact  us  via  online  form. But  with  that,  I  will  open  it  up  if anybody  has  Excuse  me,  anybody  has  questions. We  have  a  mic.  You  want  to  use  this  Sand  mic.  Feel  free. Yeah. John  mechanical  engineering. Goals.  This  is  very  interesting. Did  you  do  any  extension of  this  to  all  the  handbooks  that  we  have  now? Because  they  look  like  they're  like  Mark  handbook  and all  these  other  handbooks  that  now  exist  that we  use  to  teach  and  to  design  things  from. And  almost  like  these  are  the  precursors  for  those. Yeah,  I'm  not  as  familiar  with  those. What  time  were  they  published  the  current  books? Yeah.  Us.  Yeah,  from  all  the  articles  and  things  I  read, they  mentioned  a  lot  of  these  had influenced  early  mechanical  engineering  handbooks, so  it  would  be  interesting  to  look  and  see  if  there  are any  diagrams  that  look like  they  might  have  been  copied  somehow. I  definitely  think  this  is early  precursors  of  mechanical  engineering in  a  lot  of  these  books. Marxits Yeah. I'll  look  it  up.  Yeah.  I  kind  of stop  at  1,800  everything  that  I  do so  definitely  I  will look  at  that  because  this  is  really  interesting  to  me, and  I  kind  of  like  tracing the  trajectory  of  how  these  machines  evolved  over  time, especially,  Georgia  Tech  we're so  focused  on  the  present  and  the  future. And  so  how  are  these  reflected  in  what students  here  are  doing  right now?  It's  really  interesting. You  commented  on  how  the  machines. Some  of  them  were  motion. Yeah. Like,  one  of  the  water  pumps  pumping  it  up and  using  to  run  the  machine. Yeah.  Yeah,  I  one  criticism that  seemed  like  that  was  their  like, at  a  golden  ticket. They  were  all  trying  to  create a  professional  motion  machine, I  had  some  in  their  books,  but  those  never  worked. So  all  these  were  published  before  Newton  even published  his  laws  of  motion  and  theory  of  relativity, which  is  interesting  to  me, too.  Oh,  thank  you,  guys. Pretty  from  my  history of  technical  communication  perspective. I'm  wondering  what  do  you  know about  where  the  conventions  of this  genre  come  from  in  terms of  the  printing  and  engraving, how  they  present  motion  and  time because  that's  something  that's really  difficult  to  do  with  these  early  printed  texts. I  noticed  there's  some  labeling  ADC. Are  they  drawing  from  another  genre  of  book  here, like  in  the  late  16th  century, how  did  it  get  started?  What  was  before  this? Yeah.  Before  that,  were  some  of those  medieval  pictorial  manuscripts. So  they  were  looking  at Leonardo  DaVinci's  notebooks  and  some  of his  drawings  and  some  other medieval  manuscripts  that  had  drawings. But  I  think  the  earlier  ones, they  did  not  have  a  lot  of  those  diagrams. So  it  was  hard.  It  would  have  been  harder  to  reproduce. But  I  think  that's  one  thing  I  noticed  over time  is  that  they  became  the  images. They  have  more  letters  that  I  think are  supposed  to  tell  you this  goes  here  and  this  goes  here. So  if  you  want  to  make  this,  this  is  how  you  do  it. And  again,  I  haven't  read  all  the  texts, so  I'm  assuming  we  translate  some  of  the  texts  that that  might  give  you  more  specific  instructions  too. Some  profession  kind  of  coalesce  at  some  point, around  the  17th  century. I  don't  know  if  I  could  do  a  defilel  I need  to  look  at  more  of  them  to  say  that  definitively, but  there  is  a  lot  of  overlap, and  thing  I've  seen  and  read  that  they  did  tend  to copy  each  other  a  lot or  try  to  improve  on  someone  else's  design, but  then  they  didn't  always  cite  where  it  came  from. Yeah,  that  would  be  interesting. Keep  looking  at.  How  that  worked. Yeah. Yeah,  less  of this  than  with  some  other  books, I  think  John  Wilkins  is probably  the  one  who  would  come  closest  to overlapping  with  some  of  that  mysticism because  he  was  more  interested  in  natural  philosophy. I  believe  he  was  a  clergyman  too, although  there's  only  nine  illustrations  there, so  I  don't  know  that  it's  really  apparent, but  I  don't  know. That  would  be  interesting,  too.  He's  in  English. That's  another  reason  I  wanted  to  include  it. So  you  can  actually  read that  one  a  little  bit  more  easily. So  yes,  we  have. Okay. We  have  about  30  minutes  left,  so  I'll  stop  here. But  if  you  want  to  come  up, I'll  put  the  books  on  the  Book  supports. Feel  free  to  kind  of  flip  through  them, ask  any  other  questions  you  might  have. But  thank  you  all  again  so  much  for  coming. I  hope  this  was  interesting.  You  learned  something. Um,