Openness, Secrecy, Authorship Long 00 (I-Xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page Ii Long 00 (I-Xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page Iii
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Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page i Openness, Secrecy, Authorship Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page ii Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page iii Openness, Secrecy, Authorship technical arts and the culture of knowledge from antiquity to the renaissance Pamela O. Long The Johns Hopkins University Press baltimore and london Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page iv © 2001 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2001 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Long, Pamela O. Openness, secrecy, authorship : technical arts and the culture of knowledge from antiquity to the Renaissance / Pamela O. Long. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-8018-6606-5 (alk. paper) 1. Technology and civilization—History—To 1500. 2. Commu- nication of technical information—Europe—History—To 1500. 3. Technical writing—Europe—History—To 1500. 4. Intellectual property—Europe—History—To 1500. 5. Learning and scholar- ship—Europe—History—To 1500. 6. Renaissance. I. Title. CB478 .L65 2001 001.1'094—dc21 00-010152 A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page v For Bob Korn and Allison Rachel Korn Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page vi Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page vii Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Note on Editions and Translations xiii introduction Categories and Key Words: Local Meaning in Long-Term History 1 1 Open Authorship within Ancient Traditions of Techne µand Praxis 16 2 Secrecy and Esoteric Knowledge in Late Antiquity 46 3 Handing Down Craft Knowledge 72 4 Authorship on the Mechanical Arts in the Last Scribal Age 102 5 Secrecy and the Esoteric Traditions of the Renaissance 143 6 Openness and Authorship I: Mining, Metallurgy, and the Military Arts 175 7 Openness and Authorship II: Painting, Architecture, and Other Arts 210 epilogue Values of Transmission and the New Sciences 244 Notes 251 Bibliography 299 Index 351 Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page viii Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page ix Illustrations 1. Alexander of Macedon holding a rocket, from Conrad Kyeser’s Bellifortis 107 2. A giant tank invented by Alexander of Macedon, from Conrad Kyeser’s Bellifortis 108 3. Portrait of Conrad Kyeser, from his Bellifortis 109 4. Parts of a fountain and view of an assembled fountain, from Giovanni Fontana’s Bellicorum instrumentorum liber 112 5. Saint Dorothy recommending Mariano Taccola, from Taccola’s De ingeneis 114 6. Man in fish submarine, from Mariano Taccola’s De ingeneis 116 7. Loading a cannon barrel and discharging a cannon, from Cod. germ. 600, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich 118 8. Cannons mounted with elevated arches used for aiming and a double-barreled cannon, from HS 25,801, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg 121 9. Epicycloid gears, from Leonardo da Vinci’s Madrid Codex I 139 10. Silver refiners, from the Schwazer Bergbuch 183 11. Miners smelting ore, from Georgius Agricola’s De re metallica 187 12. Bastion fort, from Giacomo Lanteri’s Duo libri . del modo di fare le fortificationi 207 13. Portrait of Mathes Roriczer by Hans Holbein the Elder 214 14. Albrecht Dürer, self-portrait, 1500 219 15. Cesare Cesariano’s allegory of his own life, from his Vitruvian commentary of 1521 225 Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page x Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page xi Acknowledgments riting this book has been a long-term project during which I acquired Wnumerous debts, used many libraries and archives, both in the United States and in Europe, and developed many friendships. It has been supported by a number of grants and fellowships, many of which arrived at precisely propitious moments. I am indebted to friends and colleagues who have discussed and cri- tiqued my work and to my students, from whom I have learned much, especially those in my seminars and courses at the Johns Hopkins University and in a semi- nar at the Folger Institute for Renaissance and Eighteenth Century Studies. The research for this book was supported by three grants from the National Science Foundation (grant nos. SES-8607112, DIR-9112729, and SES-9729871). I also am grateful for a three-month fellowship from the Dibner Library, of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries; and an NEH fellowship for an academic year at the Folger Shakespeare Library. The Folger Library has been an ideal location for both research and intellectual exchange. I thank everyone there, especially Werner Gundersheimer, Lena Cowen Orlin, Kathleen Lynch, Carol Brobeck, and Betsy Walsh. In addition, the Library of Congress has been a crucial research base; Bruce Martin in his capacity as supervisor of research facilities has always been helpful and solicitous of scholars and their work. Carol Armbruster, a Euro- pean area specialist, has provided both technical assistance and moral support. A different version of chapter 4 appeared as “Power, Patronage, and the Au- thorship of Ars: From Mechanical Know-How to Mechanical Knowledge in the Last Scribal Age,” Isis 88 (March 1997): 1-41, © by the History of Science Society. All rights reserved. I thank the University of Chicago Press for permission to reprint. Friends and colleagues who have helped well beyond the call of duty in vari- ous ways include Bert S. Hall, Pamela Smith, Alice Stroup, Mary Henninger- Voss, Robert Mark, Frank A. C. Mantello, and Alex Roland. I discussed many parts of the research with Gaby Spiegel and Mary Fissell, both of whom also read Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page xii xii Acknowledgments major portions of successive revisions of the manuscript and helped to bring about major improvements. My sister, Priscilla Long, an author of scholarly works, fiction, and poetry, critiqued chapters and in addition discussed with me this work in particular and writing in general during numerous usually late-night telephone conversations. My dear friends Glenn Bugh and Jackie and Ken Berk- man have been there for the long haul, and I thank Ken as well for his work on the index. I thank Robert J. Brugger, of the Johns Hopkins University Press, for his encouragement; an anonymous reader, whose extensive comments helped to improve the manuscript greatly; and Joanne Allen, whose astute and rigorous copyediting has saved me from many errors. Finally, and most of all, Bob Korn has helped with innumerable problems in- volving computers, modems, and logistics, has read drafts, and has discussed this work with me over the years. Our daughter, Allison, has grown from a kid whose favorite game was hide-and-go-seek to a hardworking and enthusiastic college student. This book is dedicated to them. Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page xiii Note on Editions and Translations have used standard critical editions of sources wherever possible, and I have I utilized English translations when adequate ones were available. When I cite a translation that is given in the bibliography, I use that translation unless I indi- cate in the note that the translation is mine. When only a non-English source is cited, the translation is my own. I provided direct quotations in the original lan- guage in notes only in cases where the original text may not be widely available. Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page xiv Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page xv Openness, Secrecy, Authorship Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page xvi Long 00 (i-xvi/1-15) REV 5/14/01 7:43 PM Page 1 introduction Categories and Key Words Local Meaning in Long-Term History his book investigates openness, secrecy, authorship, and ownership—what Twe now call intellectual property. Ranging from antiquity to the early seven- teenth century, it draws substantially on writings from technical, craft, and prac- tical traditions. Sources include books on catapults, agriculture, and generalship; evidence derived from artisanal contexts, such as ancient and medieval craft- guild records; treatises on painting, architecture, machines, mining, and pottery making; alchemical treatises, magical texts, and Neoplatonic writings that eluci- date esoteric beliefs and practices. Rather than contributing to the substantive content of a particular discipline—say, the history of agriculture or the history of architecture—it explores attitudes and practices involving the possession of knowl- edge and its transmission. It investigates the cultures of knowledge—whether knowledge is open or secret; which topics become the focus of written author- ship and why; when and in what contexts people consider knowledge to be prop- erty; and what they take knowledge to be. The ways in which practical and craft cultures have interacted with learned tra- ditions are a significant focus. During most of antiquity the separation of craft know-how from more theoretical knowledge was characteristic. In late antiquity, however, certain alchemical sources integrated material operations and the quest for higher knowledge, while craft magic harnessed the higher world of the spirit for material ends.