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Galileo Engineer Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science GALILEO ENGINEER BOSTON STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE VOLUME 269 Editors ROBERT S. COHEN, Boston University JÜRGEN RENN, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science KOSTAS GAVROGLU, University of Athens Editorial Advisory Board THOMAS F. GLICK, Boston University ADOLF GRÜNBAUM, University of Pittsburgh SYLVAN S. SCHWEBER, Brandeis University JOHN J. STACHEL, Boston University MARX W. WARTOFSKY†, (Editor 1960–1997) For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/5710 GALILEO ENGINEER by MATTEO VALLERIANI Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Berlin, Germany 123 Matteo Valleriani Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Boltzmannstr. 22 14195 Berlin Germany [email protected] Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades an der Philosophischen Fakultät I der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. ISBN 978-90-481-8644-0 e-ISBN 978-90-481-8645-7 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8645-7 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010922899 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Carlo de Bonardis (17th century). Scientist undertaking an experiment. Oil painting (Bona Castellotti, Gamba et al. 1999/2000, 141) Contents Foreword: The Historical Epistemology of Mechanics .......... xi Jürgen Renn Introduction ................................. xv Part I War and Practice 1 Artist-Engineers’ Apprenticeship and Galileo ............. 3 The Political and Economic Context . .................. 3 The Education of Artist-Engineers . .................. 7 Galileo’sApprenticeship......................... 12 FromtheApprenticeshiptotheWorkshopviatheUniversity...... 15 TheBuzzoftheWorkshop........................ 19 2 Instruments and Machines ....................... 21 Galileo’s Balance Sheet . ....................... 24 The Production and Organization of the Workshop ............ 26 The Military Compass ........................... 27 The Reduction Compass . ....................... 38 TheSurveyingCompass......................... 39 OtherInstrumentsandTools....................... 41 Lenses................................... 41 Glass Production . ............................ 48 Adapting the Telescope for other Optical Devices ............ 53 Mirrors.................................. 60 Machine for Pounding Gunpowder . .................. 66 Machine for Lifting Heavy Weights . .................. 67 Water Lifting Machine . ....................... 68 Galileo as a Military Engineer ...................... 69 3 Galileo’s Private Course on Fortifications ............... 71 TheStructureoftheBusiness....................... 72 Mathematics for the Military Art . .................. 75 Military Architecture ........................... 77 Artillery Powered by Gunpowder . .................. 86 vii viii Contents La sfera .................................. 89 The Science of Machines . ....................... 91 Compounds of Simple Machines to Multiply Force . ........ 104 Compound Machines Useful in the Fortress . ............. 108 The Art of War and the Materiality of Machines ............. 112 Part II Practice and Science 4 The Knowledge of the Venetian Arsenal ................ 117 Dating Galileo’s Work on the Science of Materials ............ 120 The Key Question of the Machine Makers . ............. 120 Galileo’s Cantilever Model . ....................... 122 The Origins of the Renaissance Engineers’ Cantilever Model . .... 124 Galileo at the Arsenal: The Aristotelian Nautical Questions . .... 132 Did the Venetian Arsenal Employ Galileo? . ............. 138 Galileo’s Apprenticeship as a Proto .................... 140 Galileo’s Masterpiece: The Oar Model .................. 150 Did Galileo Become a Proto?....................... 152 5 Pneumatics, the Thermoscope and the New Atomistic Conception of Heat ........................... 155 The Thermoscope . ............................ 158 The Emergence of the Thermoscope . .................. 160 From the Thermoscope to the Thermometer . ............. 165 Empirical Data Provided by the Thermoscope . ............. 169 The Reception of Ancient Pneumatics .................. 172 Galileo as a Pneumatic Engineer . .................. 178 The Functioning of the Thermoscope . .................. 181 Galileo’sDoctrineofHeat........................ 186 The Generation of a Heat Doctrine . .................. 190 Part III The Engineer and the Scientist 6 Was Galileo an Engineer? ........................ 193 RevolutionoftheArtofWar....................... 193 Galilei in the Current of Warfare . .................. 197 Beyond Engineering ............................ 199 The Aristotelian Engineer . ....................... 203 Generation of Knowledge . ....................... 206 Engineer-Scientists ............................ 207 Sources: Galileo’s Correspondence ..................... 213 NotesontheTranslations......................... 213 Galileo to G. Contarini in Venice. Padova, March 22, 1593 . .... 214 G. Contarini to Galileo in Padova. Venice, March 28, 1593 . .... 216 Galileo to A. Mocenigo in Venice. Padova, January 11, 1594 . .... 219 G. Sagredo to Galileo in Padova. Venice, January 17, 1602 . .... 221 Contents ix G. Sagredo to Galileo in Padova. Venice, August 23, 1602 ........ 222 Galileo to A. de’ Medici in Florence. Padova, February 11, 1609 .... 223 G. Bartoli to B. Vinta in Florence. Venice, September 26, 1609 . .... 225 M. Hastal to Galileo in Florence. Prague, August 24, 1610 . .... 226 D. Antonini to Galileo in Florence. Brussels, February 4, 1612 . .... 227 G. Sagredo to Galileo in Florence. Venice, June 30, 1612 ........ 229 G. Sagredo to Galileo in Florence. Venice, May 9, 1613 . ........ 231 G. Sagredo to Galileo in Florence. Venice, July 27, 1613 ........ 233 G. Sagredo to Galileo in Florence. Venice, August 24, 1613 . .... 234 G. B. Baliani to Galileo in Florence. Genoa, April 4, 1614 ........ 238 G. F. Sagredo to Galileo in Florence. Venice, February 7, 1615 . .... 239 G. F. Sagredo to Galileo in Florence. Venice, March 15, 1615 . .... 241 G. F. Sagredo to Galileo in Florence. Venice, April 11, 1615 . .... 244 B. Castelli to Galileo in Florence. Pisa, May 24, 1617 . ........ 248 Galileo to Leopold of Austria in Innsbruck. Florence, May 23, 1618 . 250 G. F. Sagredo to Galileo in Florence. Morocco, August 4, 1618 . .... 252 G. F. Sagredo to Galileo in Florence. Venice, August 18, 1618 . .... 255 G. F. Sagredo to Galileo in Bellosguardo. Venice, October 27, 1618 . 256 G. F. Sagredo to Galileo in Florence. Venice, November 3, 1618 .... 257 G. F. Sagredo to Galileo in Florence. Venice, December 22, 1618 .... 259 G. F. Sagredo to Galileo in Bellosguardo. Venice, March 30, 1619 . 260 G. C. Lagalla to Galileo in Florence. Rome, July 30, 1621 ........ 263 G. B. Guazzaroni to Galileo in Aquasparta. Todi, April 20, 1624 .... 264 Galileo to F. Cesi in Rome. Bellosguardo, September 23, 1624 . .... 266 G. di Guevara to Galileo in Florence. Teano, November 15, 1627 .... 268 A. Arrighetti to Galileo in Siena. Florence, September 25, 1633 . .... 270 Galileo to A. Arrighetti in Florence. Siena, September 27, 1633 . .... 273 N. Aggiunti to Galileo in Florence. Pisa, February 22, 1634 . .... 274 F. Micanzio to Galileo in Florence. Venice, July 8, 1634 . ........ 276 A. de Ville to Galileo in Arcetri. Venice, March 3, 1635 . ........ 277 F. Micanzio to Galileo in Florence. Venice, December 1, 1635 . .... 284 B. Cavalieri to Galileo in Arcetri. Bologna, March 11, 1636 . .... 285 Galileo to L. Reael in Amsterdam. Arcetri, June 5, 1637 . ........ 288 Galileo to F. Micanzio in Venice. Arcetri, November 20, 1637 . .... 295 Credits .................................... 297 References .................................. 299 Galileo’sWorks.............................. 299 PrimaryLiterature............................. 301 Secondary Literature ........................... 306 Name Index .................................. 315 Illustration Index .............................. 319 Foreword: The Historical Epistemology of Mechanics Jürgen Renn The historical epistemology of mechanics studies the long-term development of mechanical knowledge. Mechanical knowledge concerns material bodies in time and space, their motions, and the forces that cause or resist such motions. Mechanical knowledge enables us to predict how bodies change their position with time as long as we know their current state and the forces acting upon them. Mechanical knowledge of this kind played a special role in the process of transformation from natural philosophy to modern science. Natural philos- ophy from its very inception in the works of Aristotle constructed conceptual systems to represent pictures of the world as a whole. But, in contrast to such global intentions, the origins of mechanical knowledge have to be sought in the much more down-to-earth practical activities of achieving the specific tasks of everyday life. Over a long historical period, the development of mechanical knowledge and its transmission from one generation to the next remained an inherent dimension of such activities, unrelated to any cognitive
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