Skip to content
MIT Press
  • MIT Press
  • Books
    • Column
      • View all subjects
      • New releases
      • Catalogs
      • Textbooks
      • Series
      • Awards
    • Column
      • Authors
      • Distributed presses
      • The MIT Press Reader
      • Podcasts
      • Collections
    • Column
      • MIT Press Direct

        MIT Press Direct is a distinctive collection of influential MIT Press books curated for scholars and libraries worldwide.

        • Learn more
  • Journals
    • column
      • Journals all topics
      • Economics
      • International Affairs, History, & Political Science
    • column
      • Arts & Humanities
      • Science & Technology
      • Open access
    • column
      • MIT Press journals

        MIT Press began publishing journals in 1970 with the first volumes of Linguistic Inquiry and the Journal of Interdisciplinary History. Today we publish over 30 titles in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and science and technology.

        • Learn more
  • Open Access
    • column
      • Open access at the MIT Press
      • Open access books
      • Open access journals
    • column
      • Direct to Open
      • MIT Open Publishing Services
      • MIT Press Open on PubPub
    • Column
      • Open access

        The MIT Press has been a leader in open access book publishing for over two decades, beginning in 1995 with the publication of William Mitchell’s City of Bits, which appeared simultaneously in print and in a dynamic, open web edition.

        • Learn more
  • Info for
    • column
      • Current authors
      • Prospective authors
      • Instructors
    • column
      • Media inquiries
      • Booksellers
      • Rights and permissions
    • column
      • Resources

        Collaborating with authors, instructors, booksellers, librarians, and the media is at the heart of what we do as a scholarly publisher. If you can’t find the resource you need here, visit our contact page to get in touch.

        • Learn more
  • Give
  • About
    • Column
      • About
      • Jobs
      • Internships
      • MIT Press Editorial Board
      • MIT Press Management Board
      • Our MIT story
    • Column
      • Catalogs
      • News
      • Events
      • Conferences
      • Bookstore
    • Column
      • The MIT Press

        Established in 1962, the MIT Press is one of the largest and most distinguished university presses in the world and a leading publisher of books and journals at the intersection of science, technology, art, social science, and design.

        • Learn more
  • Contact Us
Newsletter
MIT Press
Newsletter

Books

    Authors

      On the site

        • Home
        • Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology
        • technology & engineering
        • Picturing Machines 1400–1700
        Picturing Machines 1400–1700

        Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology

        Picturing Machines 1400–1700

        Edited by Wolfgang Lefèvre

        • $45.00 Hardcover

        354 pp., 7 x 9 in, 129 illus.

        • Hardcover
        • 9780262122696
        • Published: July 16, 2004
        • Publisher: The MIT Press

        $45.00

        • MIT Press Bookstore
        • Penguin Random House
        • Amazon
        • Barnes and Noble
        • Bookshop.org
        • Indiebound
        • Indigo
        • Books a Million

        Other Retailers:

        • MIT Press Bookstore
        • Penguin Random House
        • Amazon
        • Barnes and Noble
        • Bookshop.org
        • Indiebound
        • Indigo
        • Books a Million
        • Amazon.co.uk
        • Blackwells
        • Bookshop.org
        • Foyles
        • Hive
        • Waterstones
        • Request permissions
        • Description
        • Author(s)
        • Praise
        • Resources

        How technical drawings shaped early engineering practice.

        Technical drawings by the architects and engineers of the Renaissance made use of a range of new methods of graphic representation. These drawings—among them Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawings of mechanical devices—have long been studied for their aesthetic qualities and technological ingenuity, but their significance for the architects and engineers themselves is seldom considered. The essays in Picturing Machines 1400–1700 take this alternate perspective and look at how drawing shaped the practice of early modern engineering. They do so through detailed investigations of specific images, looking at over 100 that range from sketches to perspective views to thoroughly constructed projections.

        In early modern engineering practice, drawings were not merely visualizations of ideas but acted as models that shaped ideas. Picturing Machines establishes basic categories for the origins, purposes, functions, and contexts of early modern engineering illustrations, then treats a series of topics that not only focus on the way drawings became an indispensable means of engineering but also reflect the main stages in their historical development. The authors examine the social interaction conveyed by early machine images and their function as communication between practitioners; the knowledge either conveyed or presupposed by technical drawings, as seen in those of Giorgio Martini and Leonardo; drawings that required familiarity with geometry or geometric optics, including the development of architectural plans; and technical illustrations that bridged the gap between practical and theoretical mechanics.

        Wolfgang Lefèvre is Senior Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. He is the author or editor of several other books.

        Lefèvre has orchestrated a rich collection of work by a stellar cast of Renaissance scholars, and the result is a superb volume in the tradition of Michael Baxandall's Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy. These studies explore the invention of pictorial language, as well as the bodies of technical practice that permitted technical drawings to function as mediators between practical engineering, design work, and theoretical knowledge for patrons and professional engineers alike. A brilliant book!

        Tim Lenoir, Kimberly Jenkins Chair for New Technologies in Society, Duke University

        This excellent set of case studies offers many rewards. Erudite and skillful specialists, both American and European, show in rich detail how drawings of machines were made and used in early modern Europe. They illuminate the formal development of geometries of representation, the social relations between engineers, artisans, and patrons, and a wide range of other topics. Every essay rests on a deep foundation of drawings, lavishly reproduced and precisely analyzed. Historians of art, of architecture, and of Renaissance court and urban culture, as well as specialists on the history of science and technology, will find this volume indispensable.

        Anthony Grafton, Henry Putnam University Professor of History, Princeton University

        Index

        Sample Chapter

        Related Books

        Inside the Star Factory
        Fairness and Machine Learning
        The Age of Prediction
        An Introduction to System Safety Engineering
        Supervision
        Computing and Technology Ethics
        Collective Wisdom
        Seven Sublimes
        Hidden in Plain Sight
        Invention and Innovation
        logo
        • Column 1
          • Books
          • Journals
          • The MIT Press Reader
          • Podcasts
          • Imprints
        • Column 2
          • The MIT Press
            • About
            • Bookstore
            • Catalogs
            • Conferences
            • Press Editorial Board
            • Jobs
            • Internships
            • Press Management Board
            • News
            • Staff
            • Code of Conduct
            • Give
        • Column 3
          • Site Help
            • Accessibility
            • FAQ
            • Our eBooks
            • Privacy Policy
            • Terms of Use
        • Column 4
          • Resources
            • Current Authors
            • Prospective Authors
            • Booksellers
            • Instructors
            • Rights and Permissions
            • Media Inquiries
            • MIT Discounts
        • Column 5
          • Digital
            • CogNet
            • Digital Partners and Products
            • Knowledge Futures Group
            • MIT Press Direct
        • Global

          One Broadway 12th Floor Cambridge, MA 02142

        • Contact

        Connect

        © 2023 MIT Press. All Rights Reserved.

        Powered by Supadu