Difference between revisions of "Talk:Fausto Veranzio"

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(deleted "The Veranzio family probably came from Bosnia" wording and ref too weak & work up to "Polymath and inventor")
(History and philosophy)
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As a youth, Veranzio was interested in science. Still a child, he moved to Venice, where he attended schools, and then to Padua to join the University of Padua, where he focused on law, physics, engineering and mechanics.
 
As a youth, Veranzio was interested in science. Still a child, he moved to Venice, where he attended schools, and then to Padua to join the University of Padua, where he focused on law, physics, engineering and mechanics.
  
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At the court of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor/King Rudolf II, in Hradcany Castle, in Prague, Veranzio was chancellor for Hungary and Transylvania often in contact with Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe. After his wife's death,<ref>[http://books.google.com.au/books?id=6r9y2f5OjVsC&pg=PA115&dq=Faust+Verantius&hl=en&ei=4-L4S7fMCsXJcYuxxOYL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Faust%20Verantius&f=false Cultural Link Kanada, Deutschland:] Festschrift zum Dreissigjährigen Bestehen by  Beate Henn-Memmesheimer & David Gethin John</ref> Veranzio left for Hungary. In 1598, he got the title of ''Episcŏpus Csanadiensis''<ref>[[Diocese of Csanád|bishop of Csanád]]</ref>  ''in partibus'' (even if he never set foot in Csanád). In 1609, back in Venice, he joined the brotherhood of Paul of Tarsus/Saint Paul of Tarsus  and committed himself to the study of science. Veranzio died in 1617 in Venice and was buried in Dalmatia, near his family's countryhouse.<ref>on the Island of Prvic in the Adriatic Sea .</ref>
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At the court of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor/King Rudolf II, in Hradcany Castle, in Prague, Veranzio was chancellor for Hungary and Transylvania often in contact with Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe. After his wife's death,<ref>[http://books.google.com.au/books?id=6r9y2f5OjVsC&pg=PA115&dq=Faust+Verantius&hl=en&ei=4-L4S7fMCsXJcYuxxOYL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Faust%20Verantius&f=false Cultural Link Kanada, Deutschland:] Festschrift zum Dreissigjährigen Bestehen by  Beate Henn-Memmesheimer & David Gethin John</ref> Veranzio left for Hungary. In 1598, he got the title of ''Episcŏpus Csanadiensis''<ref>Diocese of Csanád/bishop of Csanád</ref>  ''in partibus'' (even if he never set foot in Csanád). In 1609, back in Venice, he joined the brotherhood of Paul of Tarsus/Saint Paul of Tarsus  and committed himself to the study of science. Veranzio died in 1617 in Venice and was buried in Dalmatia, near his family's countryhouse.<ref>on the Island of Prvic in the Adriatic Sea .</ref>
  
 
==Polymath and inventor==
 
==Polymath and inventor==
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Veranzio's masterwork, ''Machinae Novae'' (Venice 1595), contained 49 large pictures depicting 56 different [[machine]]s, [[tool|device]]s, and technical [[concepts]]. <br/>
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Veranzio's masterwork, ''Machinae Novae'' (Venice 1595), contained 49 large pictures depicting 56 different machines, tools/devices, and technical concepts.  
−
Two variants of this work exist, one with the ''"Declaratio"'' in Latin and Italian, the other with the addition of three other languages. Only a few copies survived and often do not present a complete text in all the five languages. This book was written in Italian, [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[French language|French]] and [[German language|German]].<ref name = "Malvasi Library">[http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mostradellibroantico.it%2Fexpo21%2Fmain.php%3Fid%3D252%26idom%3D320 Original ''Machine Novae'', Fausto VERANZIO] - Malavasi Library, Milan - a complete and very detailed description of first and second edition of Veranzio's most famous work, "''Machine Nove''"</ref>  The tables represent a varied set of projects, inventions and creations of the author. There Veranzio wrote about water and solar energy, the universal clock (Plates 6–7), several types of mills, agricultural machinery, various types of bridge in various materials, machinery for clearing the sea, a dual sedan traveling on mule (Plate 47), special coaches, and ''Homo Volans'' (Plate 38) a forerunner of the parachute. His work included a ''portable boat'' (Plate 39), that is say a boat that, thanks to the same energy as the current may go against the river (Plate 40). It was his idea to use the printing rotary principle (e.g. grinding them printers, Plate 46) in order to alleviate the great difficulty of printers and improve results.  
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 +
Two variants of this work exist, one with the ''"Declaratio"'' in Latin and Italian, the other with the addition of three other languages. Only a few copies survived and often do not present a complete text in all the five languages. This book was written in Italian, [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[French language|French]] and [[German language|German]].<ref name = "Malvasi Library">[http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mostradellibroantico.it%2Fexpo21%2Fmain.php%3Fid%3D252%26idom%3D320 Original ''Machine Novae'', Fausto VERANZIO] - Malavasi Library, Milan - a complete and very detailed description of first and second edition of Veranzio's most famous work, "''Machine Nove''"</ref>   
 +
 
 +
The tables represent a varied set of projects, inventions and creations of the author. There Veranzio wrote about water and solar energy, the universal clock (Plates 6–7), several types of mills, agricultural machinery, various types of bridge in various materials, machinery for clearing the sea, a dual sedan traveling on mule (Plate 47), special coaches, and ''Homo Volans'' (Plate 38) a forerunner of the parachute. His work included a ''portable boat'' (Plate 39), that is say a boat that, thanks to the same energy as the current may go against the river (Plate 40). It was his idea to use the printing rotary principle (e.g. grinding them printers, Plate 46) in order to alleviate the great difficulty of printers and improve results.  
  
 
Despite the extraordinary rarity of this book (because the author published it at his own expense, without a publisher and having to stop printing because of lack of funds),<ref name = "Malvasi Library" /> the ''Machinae Novae'' was the work which mainly contributed to Veranzio's popularity around the world. His design pictures were even reprinted a few years later and published in China.<ref>Weiying Gu, Ku Wei-Ying,[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uDdDaXtUhPQC&pg=PA184&dq=linguist+I%E2%80%8E+Veranzio&lr=&hl=en&cd=2#v=onepage&q=Veranzio&f=false Missionary approaches and linguistics in mainland China and Taiwan],  Leuven University Press, 2001 - ISBN 9058671615 - Page 184</ref>
 
Despite the extraordinary rarity of this book (because the author published it at his own expense, without a publisher and having to stop printing because of lack of funds),<ref name = "Malvasi Library" /> the ''Machinae Novae'' was the work which mainly contributed to Veranzio's popularity around the world. His design pictures were even reprinted a few years later and published in China.<ref>Weiying Gu, Ku Wei-Ying,[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uDdDaXtUhPQC&pg=PA184&dq=linguist+I%E2%80%8E+Veranzio&lr=&hl=en&cd=2#v=onepage&q=Veranzio&f=false Missionary approaches and linguistics in mainland China and Taiwan],  Leuven University Press, 2001 - ISBN 9058671615 - Page 184</ref>
  
 
===Veranzio's parachute===
 
===Veranzio's parachute===
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[[File:Fausto Veranzio homo volans.jpg|thumb|160px|''"Machinae Novae"'' plate n. 38: Veranzio's parachute]]
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One of the illustrations in ''Machinae Novae'' is a sketch of a parachute dubbed ''Homo Volans'' ("The Flying Man"). Having examined Leonardo da Vinci's rough Sketch of a parachute, Veranzio designed a parachute of his own.<ref>[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=quCh9tAW1jcC&pg=PA176&dq=Technology+and+Culture,+veranzio&hl=en&ei=VWf7S9KLPIbd-QbUyJDcAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=veranzio&f=false "The Invention of the Parachute"], by Lynn White, Jr. in: ''Technology and Culture'', Vol. 9, No. 3. (1968), pp. 462-467 (463)</ref><ref>Jonathan Bousfield, [http://books.google.com/books?id=UxSnm-mUp40C&pg=PA280&dq=Faust+Vran%C4%8Di%C4%87&hl=cs&cd=2#v=onepage&q=&f=false ''The Rough Guide to Croatia''], pg. 280, Rough Guides (2003), ISBN 1843530848</ref>  
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One of the illustrations in ''Machinae Novae'' is a sketch of a parachute dubbed ''Homo Volans'' ("The Flying Man"). Having examined [[Leonardo da Vinci]]'s rough [[Sketch (drawing)|sketch]]es of a [[parachute]], Veranzio designed a parachute of his own.<ref>[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=quCh9tAW1jcC&pg=PA176&dq=Technology+and+Culture,+veranzio&hl=en&ei=VWf7S9KLPIbd-QbUyJDcAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=veranzio&f=false "The Invention of the Parachute"], by [[Lynn White, Jr.]] in: ''[[Technology and Culture]]'', Vol. 9, No. 3. (1968), pp. 462-467 (463)</ref><ref>Jonathan Bousfield, [http://books.google.com/books?id=UxSnm-mUp40C&pg=PA280&dq=Faust+Vran%C4%8Di%C4%87&hl=cs&cd=2#v=onepage&q=&f=false ''The Rough Guide to Croatia''], pg. 280, Rough Guides (2003), ISBN 1843530848</ref> [[Paolo Guidotti]] (about 1590) already attempted to carry out Da Vinci's theories, ending by falling on a house roof and breaking his thigh bone; but while [[Francis Godwin]] was writing his flying romance ''The Man in the Moone"'', Fausto Veranzio performed a parachute jumping experiment for real.<ref>
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Paolo Guidotti (about 1590) already attempted to carry out Da Vinci's theories, ending by falling on a house roof and breaking his thigh bone; but while Francis Godwin was writing his flying romance ''The Man in the Moone"'', Fausto Veranzio performed a parachute jumping experiment for real.<ref>
 
Francis Trevelyan Miller, [http://books.google.co.uk/books?ei=viUBTKObG4my-Aaik-m2Dw&ct=result&hl=en&id=MdDNAAAAMAAJ&dq=Veranzio+Fausto&q=%22Fausto+Veranzio%22#search_anchor The world in the air: the story of flying in pictures], G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1930, pages 101-106</ref>
 
Francis Trevelyan Miller, [http://books.google.co.uk/books?ei=viUBTKObG4my-Aaik-m2Dw&ct=result&hl=en&id=MdDNAAAAMAAJ&dq=Veranzio+Fausto&q=%22Fausto+Veranzio%22#search_anchor The world in the air: the story of flying in pictures], G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1930, pages 101-106</ref>
  
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He is considered the first man to build and test a parachute: in 1617, now over sixty-five years old, he implemented his design and tested the parachute by jumping from [[St Mark's Campanile]] in Venice.<ref>[http://books.google.co.uk/books?lr=&cd=27&num=100&as_brr=0&id=TM2EAAAAIAAJ&dq=Fausto+Veranzio+italian&q=Fausto+Veranzio#search_anchor ''He's in the paratroops now''], Alfred Day Rathbone, R.M. McBride & Company, 1943, University of California.</ref> This event was documented some 30 years after it happened in a book<ref>The book mentioning Veranzio parachute jump is [[John Wilkins]]'s ''Mathematical Magic of the Wonders that may be Performed by Mechanical Geometry'', ''Part I: Concerning Mechanical Powers Motion'', and ''Part II, Deadloss or Mechanical Motions'' (London, 1648)</ref> written by [[John Wilkins]], the secretary of the [[Royal Society]] in London.
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He is considered the first man to build and test a parachute: in 1617, now over sixty-five years old, he implemented his design and tested the parachute by jumping from St Mark's Campanile in Venice.<ref>[http://books.google.co.uk/books?lr=&cd=27&num=100&as_brr=0&id=TM2EAAAAIAAJ&dq=Fausto+Veranzio+italian&q=Fausto+Veranzio#search_anchor ''He's in the paratroops now''], Alfred Day Rathbone, R.M. McBride & Company, 1943, University of California.</ref> This event was documented some 30 years after it happened in a book<ref>The book mentioning Veranzio parachute jump is John Wilkins's ''Mathematical Magic of the Wonders that may be Performed by Mechanical Geometry'', ''Part I: Concerning Mechanical Powers Motion'', and ''Part II, Deadloss or Mechanical Motions'' (London, 1648)</ref> written by John Wilkins, the secretary of the Royal Society in London.
  
 
===Mills===
 
===Mills===
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His areas of interest in engineering and mechanics were broad. Mills were one of his main point of research, where he created 18 different designs. He envisioned [[windmill]]s with both vertical and horizontal [[Axis of rotation|axes]], with different wing constructions to improve their efficiency. The idea of a mill powered by tides incorporated accumulation pools filled with water by the high tide and emptied when the tide ebbed, simply using [[gravity]]; the concept has just recently been engineered and used.
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His areas of interest in engineering and mechanics were broad. Mills were one of his main point of research, where he created 18 different designs. He envisioned windmills with both vertical and horizontal Axis of rotation/axes, with different wing constructions to improve their efficiency. The idea of a mill powered by tides incorporated accumulation pools filled with water by the high tide and emptied when the tide ebbed, simply using gravity; the concept has just recently been engineered and used.
  
 
===Urbanist and engineer in Rome and Venice===
 
===Urbanist and engineer in Rome and Venice===
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[[File:Pons ferreus by Fausto Veranzio.gif|left|thumb|170px|Drawing of suspension [[cable-stayed bridge]] by Fausto Veranzio in his ''Machinae Novae'']]
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[[File:Pons ferreus by Fausto Veranzio.gif|left|thumb|170px|Drawing of suspension '''cable-stayed bridge''' by Fausto Veranzio in his ''Machinae Novae'']]
  
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By order of the [[Pope]], he spent two years in [[Rome]] where he envisioned and made projects needed for regulating rivers, since Rome was often flooded by the [[Tiber]] river.<ref name = "1856 Rome and Venice" /> He also tackled the problem of the wells and water supply of Venice, which is surrounded by sea.<ref name = "1856 Rome and Venice">[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=fngtAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA263&dq=Veranzio+%22Tevere%22&hl=en&ei=idr_S4r8MIqc-AbyhsmkCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Veranzio%20%22Tevere%22%20%22Venezia%22&f=false ''Biblioteca italiana, o sia giornale di letteratura, scienze ed arti''], Vol 53, New York Public Library, 1829 {{it}}</ref> Devices to register the time using water, fire, or other methods were envisioned and materialized. His own sun clock was effective in reading the time, date, and month, but functioned only in the middle of the day.
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By order of the Pope, he spent two years in Rome where he envisioned and made projects needed for regulating rivers, since Rome was often flooded by the Tiber river.<ref name = "1856 Rome and Venice" /> He also tackled the problem of the wells and water supply of Venice, which is surrounded by sea.<ref name = "1856 Rome and Venice">[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=fngtAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA263&dq=Veranzio+%22Tevere%22&hl=en&ei=idr_S4r8MIqc-AbyhsmkCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Veranzio%20%22Tevere%22%20%22Venezia%22&f=false ''Biblioteca italiana, o sia giornale di letteratura, scienze ed arti''], Vol 53, New York Public Library, 1829 </ref> Devices to register the time using water, fire, or other methods were envisioned and materialized. His own sun clock was effective in reading the time, date, and month, but functioned only in the middle of the day.
  
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The construction method of building metal bridges and the mechanics of the forces in the area of statics were also part of his research. He drew proposals which predated the actual construction of modern [[suspension bridge]]s and [[cable-stayed bridge]]s by over two centuries. The last area was described when further developed in a separate book by mathematician Simon de Bruges ([[Simon Stevin]]) in 1586.
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The construction method of building metal bridges and the mechanics of the forces in the area of statics were also part of his research. He drew proposals which predated the actual construction of modern suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridges by over two centuries. The last area was described when further developed in a separate book by mathematician Simon de Bruges (Simon Stevin) in 1586.
  
 
===Lexicography===
 
===Lexicography===
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[[File:Fausto Veranzio Pentadictionarium.jpg|thumb|right|160px|[[Book frontispiece|Frontespiece]] of the ''Dictionarium quinque lingarum'']]
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Veranzio was the author of a five-language dictionary,<ref>[http://books.google.com.au/books?id=cqBkQFiTbX4C&pg=PA91&dq=Faust+Verantius&hl=en&ei=Deb4S6bvNo6lceiVjecL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=Faust%20Verantius&f=false Dictionaries in Early Modern Europe:] Lexicography and the Making of Heritage by John P. Considine.</ref> ''Dictionarium quinque nobilissimarum Europæ linguarum, Latinæ, Italicæ, Germanicæ, Dalmatiæ, & Vngaricæ'',<ref>''[http://books.google.com./books?id=oFlgAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Fausto+Veranzio&as_brr=4&hl=en&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false Apud Nicolaum Morettum], 1595, Venice''</ref> published in Venice in 1595, with 5,000 entries for each language: [[Latin]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[German language|German]], the Dalmatian language and Hungarian. These he called the "five noblest European languages" ("''quinque nobilissimarum Europæ linguarum''").<ref name = "eptadictionary">When Petrus Lodereckerus published in 1606 his ''[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Xn0jPAAACAAJ&dq=Petrus+Lodereckerus&hl=en&ei=69z_S7LFHYXX-QaL8smkCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA Dictionarivm septem diversarvm lingvarvm], videlicet Latine, Italice, Dalmatice, Bohemicè, Polonicè, Germanicè, & Vngaricè, vna cum cuiuslibet linguæ registro siue repertorio vernaculo, Singulari studio & industria collectum a Petro Lodereckeroin'' (Prague), he included two more languages than Veranzio's ''pentadictionary'': Czech language/Czech and Polish language/Polish, with the addition of indices in Latin for each language.</ref>
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Veranzio was the author of a five-language [[dictionary]],<ref>[http://books.google.com.au/books?id=cqBkQFiTbX4C&pg=PA91&dq=Faust+Verantius&hl=en&ei=Deb4S6bvNo6lceiVjecL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=Faust%20Verantius&f=false Dictionaries in Early Modern Europe:] Lexicography and the Making of Heritage by John P. Considine.</ref> ''Dictionarium quinque nobilissimarum Europæ linguarum, Latinæ, Italicæ, Germanicæ, Dalmatiæ, & Vngaricæ'',<ref>''[http://books.google.com./books?id=oFlgAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Fausto+Veranzio&as_brr=4&hl=en&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false Apud Nicolaum Morettum], 1595, [[Venice]]''</ref> published in Venice in 1595, with 5,000 entries for each language: [[Latin]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[German language|German]], the [[Dalmatian language]] (in particular, the [[Chakavian dialect]] of [[Croatian language|Croatian]]) and [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]. These he called the "five noblest European languages" ("''quinque nobilissimarum Europæ linguarum''").<ref name = "eptadictionary">When Petrus Lodereckerus published in 1606 his ''[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Xn0jPAAACAAJ&dq=Petrus+Lodereckerus&hl=en&ei=69z_S7LFHYXX-QaL8smkCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA Dictionarivm septem diversarvm lingvarvm], videlicet Latine, Italice, Dalmatice, Bohemicè, Polonicè, Germanicè, & Vngaricè, vna cum cuiuslibet linguæ registro siue repertorio vernaculo, Singulari studio & industria collectum a Petro Lodereckeroin'' ([[Prague]]), he included two more languages than Veranzio's ''pentadictionary'': [[Czech language|Czech]] and [[Polish language|Polish]], with the addition of indices in Latin for each language.</ref>
 
  
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The ''Dictionarium'' is a very early and significant example of both Croatian and Hungarian lexicography, and contains, in addition to the parallel list of vocabulary, other documentation of these two languages. In particular, Veranzio listed in the ''Dictionarium'' 304 Hungarian words that he deemed to be [[loanword|borrowed]] from Croatian. Also, at the end of the book, Veranzio included Croatian language versions of the [[Ten Commandments]], the [[Lord's Prayer]], the [[Ave Maria]] and the [[Apostles' Creed]].<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=tSqyOQAACAAJ&dq=Faust+Vran%C4%8Di%C4%87&cd=4 Was Faust Vrančić the first Croatian lexicographer?]", by Branko Franolić, Annali Istituto Orientale di Napoli, Volume 19, 1976, p.178-182</ref>
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The ''Dictionarium'' is a very early and significant example of both Croatian and Hungarian lexicography, and contains, in addition to the parallel list of vocabulary, other documentation of these two languages. In particular, Veranzio listed in the ''Dictionarium'' 304 Hungarian words that he deemed to be loanword/borrowed from Croatian. Also, at the end of the book, Veranzio included Croatian language versions of the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Ave Maria and the Apostles' Creed.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=tSqyOQAACAAJ&dq=Faust+Vran%C4%8Di%C4%87&cd=4 Was Faust Vrancic the first Croatian lexicographer?]", by Branko Franolić, Annali Istituto Orientale di Napoli, Volume 19, 1976, p.178-182</ref>
  
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In an extension of the dictionary called ''Vocabula dalmatica quae Ungri sibi usurparunt'', there is a list of Proto-Croatian words that entered the [[Hungarian language]]. The book greatly influenced the formation of both the Croatian and Hungarian [[orthography]]; the Hungarian language accepted his suggestions, for example, the usage of ''ly'', '' ny'', ''sz'', and ''cz''. It was also the first dictionary of the Hungarian language, printed four times, in Venice, [[Prague]] (1606), [[Pozsony|Pozun]] (1834) <ref>Today [[Bratislava]] in [[Slovakia]]</ref>, and in [[Zagreb]], [[Yugoslavia]], in 1971. The work was an important source of inspiration for other European dictionaries such as an Hungarian and Italian dictionary written by [[Bernardino Balli]], a German ''Thesaurus polyglottus'' by [[Humanism|humanist]] and [[lexicographer]] [[Hieronim Megister]], and multilingual ''Dictionarium septem diversarum linguarum'' by [[Peterus Lodereckerus]] of Prague in 1605.<ref name = "eptadictionary" />
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In an extension of the dictionary called ''Vocabula dalmatica quae Ungri sibi usurparunt'', there is a list of Proto-Croatian words that entered the Hungarian language. The book greatly influenced the formation of both the Croatian and Hungarian orthography; the Hungarian language accepted his suggestions, for example, the usage of ''ly'', '' ny'', ''sz'', and ''cz''. It was also the first dictionary of the Hungarian language, printed four times, in Venice, Prague (1606), Pozsony/Pozun (1834) <ref>Today Bratislava in Slovakia</ref>, and in Zagreb,in 1971. The work was an important source of inspiration for other European dictionaries such as an Hungarian and Italian dictionary written by Bernardino Balli, a German ''Thesaurus polyglottus'' by Humanism/humanist and lexicographer Hieronim Megister, and multilingual ''Dictionarium septem diversarum linguarum'' by Peterus Lodereckerus of Prague in 1605.<ref name = "eptadictionary" />
  
 
===History and philosophy===
 
===History and philosophy===

Revision as of 11:20, 6 October 2010

Fausto Veranzio[1][2][3] (circa 1551 – January 17, 1617) was a polymath and bishop. [4]

Life

Family history

Fausto was born in Sibenik (or Sebenico)

He was a member of the noble family of counts Veranzio or conti Verantii (a branch of which later merged with Draganich family, creating the Counts Draganich-Veranzio), a notable family of writers.

He was the son of Michele Veranzio, a Latin poet, and the nephew of Antun Vrancic/Antonio, archbishop of Esztergom (1504–1573), a diplomat and a civil servant.

Fausto's mother was from the House of Berislavic family. His brother, Giovanni, died still young in battle.

While the family's main residence was in city of Sibenik, they owned a big summer house on island Prvic, in place Sepurine, a neighboring place to Prvic Luka (where he is buried in local church). The baroque castle that was used by Vrancic family as summer residence is now in possession of family Draganic.

Education and political activities

As a youth, Veranzio was interested in science. Still a child, he moved to Venice, where he attended schools, and then to Padua to join the University of Padua, where he focused on law, physics, engineering and mechanics.

At the court of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor/King Rudolf II, in Hradcany Castle, in Prague, Veranzio was chancellor for Hungary and Transylvania often in contact with Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe. After his wife's death,[5] Veranzio left for Hungary. In 1598, he got the title of Episcŏpus Csanadiensis[6] in partibus (even if he never set foot in Csanád). In 1609, back in Venice, he joined the brotherhood of Paul of Tarsus/Saint Paul of Tarsus and committed himself to the study of science. Veranzio died in 1617 in Venice and was buried in Dalmatia, near his family's countryhouse.[7]

Polymath and inventor

Veranzio's masterwork, Machinae Novae (Venice 1595), contained 49 large pictures depicting 56 different machines, tools/devices, and technical concepts.

Two variants of this work exist, one with the "Declaratio" in Latin and Italian, the other with the addition of three other languages. Only a few copies survived and often do not present a complete text in all the five languages. This book was written in Italian, Spanish, French and German.[8]

The tables represent a varied set of projects, inventions and creations of the author. There Veranzio wrote about water and solar energy, the universal clock (Plates 6–7), several types of mills, agricultural machinery, various types of bridge in various materials, machinery for clearing the sea, a dual sedan traveling on mule (Plate 47), special coaches, and Homo Volans (Plate 38) a forerunner of the parachute. His work included a portable boat (Plate 39), that is say a boat that, thanks to the same energy as the current may go against the river (Plate 40). It was his idea to use the printing rotary principle (e.g. grinding them printers, Plate 46) in order to alleviate the great difficulty of printers and improve results.

Despite the extraordinary rarity of this book (because the author published it at his own expense, without a publisher and having to stop printing because of lack of funds),[8] the Machinae Novae was the work which mainly contributed to Veranzio's popularity around the world. His design pictures were even reprinted a few years later and published in China.[9]

Veranzio's parachute

One of the illustrations in Machinae Novae is a sketch of a parachute dubbed Homo Volans ("The Flying Man"). Having examined Leonardo da Vinci's rough Sketch of a parachute, Veranzio designed a parachute of his own.[10][11]

Paolo Guidotti (about 1590) already attempted to carry out Da Vinci's theories, ending by falling on a house roof and breaking his thigh bone; but while Francis Godwin was writing his flying romance The Man in the Moone", Fausto Veranzio performed a parachute jumping experiment for real.[12]

He is considered the first man to build and test a parachute: in 1617, now over sixty-five years old, he implemented his design and tested the parachute by jumping from St Mark's Campanile in Venice.[13] This event was documented some 30 years after it happened in a book[14] written by John Wilkins, the secretary of the Royal Society in London.

Mills

His areas of interest in engineering and mechanics were broad. Mills were one of his main point of research, where he created 18 different designs. He envisioned windmills with both vertical and horizontal Axis of rotation/axes, with different wing constructions to improve their efficiency. The idea of a mill powered by tides incorporated accumulation pools filled with water by the high tide and emptied when the tide ebbed, simply using gravity; the concept has just recently been engineered and used.

Urbanist and engineer in Rome and Venice

Drawing of suspension cable-stayed bridge by Fausto Veranzio in his Machinae Novae

By order of the Pope, he spent two years in Rome where he envisioned and made projects needed for regulating rivers, since Rome was often flooded by the Tiber river.[15] He also tackled the problem of the wells and water supply of Venice, which is surrounded by sea.[15] Devices to register the time using water, fire, or other methods were envisioned and materialized. His own sun clock was effective in reading the time, date, and month, but functioned only in the middle of the day.

The construction method of building metal bridges and the mechanics of the forces in the area of statics were also part of his research. He drew proposals which predated the actual construction of modern suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridges by over two centuries. The last area was described when further developed in a separate book by mathematician Simon de Bruges (Simon Stevin) in 1586.

Lexicography

Veranzio was the author of a five-language dictionary,[16] Dictionarium quinque nobilissimarum Europæ linguarum, Latinæ, Italicæ, Germanicæ, Dalmatiæ, & Vngaricæ,[17] published in Venice in 1595, with 5,000 entries for each language: Latin, Italian, German, the Dalmatian language and Hungarian. These he called the "five noblest European languages" ("quinque nobilissimarum Europæ linguarum").[18]

The Dictionarium is a very early and significant example of both Croatian and Hungarian lexicography, and contains, in addition to the parallel list of vocabulary, other documentation of these two languages. In particular, Veranzio listed in the Dictionarium 304 Hungarian words that he deemed to be loanword/borrowed from Croatian. Also, at the end of the book, Veranzio included Croatian language versions of the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Ave Maria and the Apostles' Creed.[19]

In an extension of the dictionary called Vocabula dalmatica quae Ungri sibi usurparunt, there is a list of Proto-Croatian words that entered the Hungarian language. The book greatly influenced the formation of both the Croatian and Hungarian orthography; the Hungarian language accepted his suggestions, for example, the usage of ly, ny, sz, and cz. It was also the first dictionary of the Hungarian language, printed four times, in Venice, Prague (1606), Pozsony/Pozun (1834) [20], and in Zagreb,in 1971. The work was an important source of inspiration for other European dictionaries such as an Hungarian and Italian dictionary written by Bernardino Balli, a German Thesaurus polyglottus by Humanism/humanist and lexicographer Hieronim Megister, and multilingual Dictionarium septem diversarum linguarum by Peterus Lodereckerus of Prague in 1605.[18]

History and philosophy

Only a few of Veranzio's works related to history remain: Regulae cancellariae regni Hungariae and De Slavinis seu Sarmatis in Dalmatia exist in manuscript form, while Scriptores rerum hungaricum was published in 1798. In Logica nova ("New logic") and Ethica christiana ("Christian ethics"), which were published in a single Venetian edition in 1616, Veranzio dealt with the problems of theology regarding the ideological clash between the Reformation movement and Catholicism. Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639) and the Archbishop of Split Marco Antonio de Dominis (1560–1624) were his intellectual counterparts.

Lost works

File:Wells museum in sibenik 2.JPG
Veranzio's parachute in Šibenik's Wells Museum

Veranzio published some of his last works under the name "Giusto Verace"[21]. Some of them were never printed, left in the form of manuscripts. Some were sold to stay in big archives in the capitals of Austria or Hungary, while some were lost forever.

Legacy

When Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), Austrian-British philosopher and mathematician, moving from Berlin to England, began studying mechanical engineering in 1908, he was highly influenced by his reading of Renaissance technical treatises, particularly Veranzio's Machinae Novae.[22]

The 17th century Brooklyn Tidal Mill in Long Island (NY), one of the most popular and few still standing mills in the New York City area,[23] was built after the plan of Fausto Veranzio.[23][24][25]

Today, one of the oldest astronomical societies in Croatia bears the name "Faust Vrančić", as does a Croatian Navy rescue ship, as well as many schools in Croatia.

Notes

  1. ^ Alfred Day Rathbone, He's in the paratroops now, R.M. McBride & Company, 1943, University of California. page 172
  2. ^ Andrew L. Simon, Made in Hungary: Hungarian contributions to universal culture
  3. ^ The Hungarian Quarterly, Vol. XLII * No. 162 *, Summer 2001 László Sipka: Innovators and Innovations
  4. ^ Berthold Laufer, The Prehistory of Aviation Chicago Field Museum of Natural History, University of Michigan, 1928
  5. ^ Cultural Link Kanada, Deutschland: Festschrift zum Dreissigjährigen Bestehen by Beate Henn-Memmesheimer & David Gethin John
  6. ^ Diocese of Csanád/bishop of Csanád
  7. ^ on the Island of Prvic in the Adriatic Sea .
  8. ^ a b Original Machine Novae, Fausto VERANZIO - Malavasi Library, Milan - a complete and very detailed description of first and second edition of Veranzio's most famous work, "Machine Nove"
  9. ^ Weiying Gu, Ku Wei-Ying,Missionary approaches and linguistics in mainland China and Taiwan, Leuven University Press, 2001 - ISBN 9058671615 - Page 184
  10. ^ "The Invention of the Parachute", by Lynn White, Jr. in: Technology and Culture, Vol. 9, No. 3. (1968), pp. 462-467 (463)
  11. ^ Jonathan Bousfield, The Rough Guide to Croatia, pg. 280, Rough Guides (2003), ISBN 1843530848
  12. ^ Francis Trevelyan Miller, The world in the air: the story of flying in pictures, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1930, pages 101-106
  13. ^ He's in the paratroops now, Alfred Day Rathbone, R.M. McBride & Company, 1943, University of California.
  14. ^ The book mentioning Veranzio parachute jump is John Wilkins's Mathematical Magic of the Wonders that may be Performed by Mechanical Geometry, Part I: Concerning Mechanical Powers Motion, and Part II, Deadloss or Mechanical Motions (London, 1648)
  15. ^ a b Biblioteca italiana, o sia giornale di letteratura, scienze ed arti, Vol 53, New York Public Library, 1829
  16. ^ Dictionaries in Early Modern Europe: Lexicography and the Making of Heritage by John P. Considine.
  17. ^ Apud Nicolaum Morettum, 1595, Venice
  18. ^ a b When Petrus Lodereckerus published in 1606 his Dictionarivm septem diversarvm lingvarvm, videlicet Latine, Italice, Dalmatice, Bohemicè, Polonicè, Germanicè, & Vngaricè, vna cum cuiuslibet linguæ registro siue repertorio vernaculo, Singulari studio & industria collectum a Petro Lodereckeroin (Prague), he included two more languages than Veranzio's pentadictionary: Czech language/Czech and Polish language/Polish, with the addition of indices in Latin for each language.
  19. ^ Was Faust Vrancic the first Croatian lexicographer?", by Branko Franolić, Annali Istituto Orientale di Napoli, Volume 19, 1976, p.178-182
  20. ^ Today Bratislava in Slovakia
  21. ^ The pseudonym "Giusto Verace" is a sort of pun in Italian: means "just (righteous) and genuine (truthful)".
  22. ^ F. A. Flowers, Portraits of Wittgenstein, Volume 2, page 133
  23. ^ a b Roger H. Charlier and Charles W. Finkl,Ocean Energy: Tide and tidal power
  24. ^ Bernard L. Gordon, Energy from the sea: marine resource readings, Book & Tackle - University of Virginia, 1977, ISBN 0910258074. - p. 119
  25. ^ ISES Congress 2007 Nothing New Under the Sun or Every Little Bit Helps Tidal Power: Status & Perspectives R.H. Charlier, M.C.P. Chaineux, C.W. Finkl, A.C Thys, Vol. I–V, Springer

References

  • No4 ref: Berthold Laufer, The Prehistory of Aviation Chicago Field Museum of Natural History, University of Michigan, 1928.
The above: Veranzio's parachute ref (does not mention Croatia ???)
  • This is odd: "Fausto was born Šibenik", then in ref Today Šibenik, Croatia. Cfr.
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