KMODDL Home Page Home

Taccola (1381-1458?)

Category: Famous Engineers

Mariano di Jacopo detto il Taccola was one of the most distinguished artist-engineers of the 15th century. He wrote treatises of military engineering, as well as many unpublished papers on hydraulic engineering. Like many engineering treatises written in 15th-century Siena, Taccola's manuscripts raise the question of water supplies, and address the need to provide Siena (a city deprived of natural waterways) with regular supplies of drinking water. Taccola actually was the nickname, meaning "crow" and referring to a talent for woodcarving, inherited from his father. Taccola's first profession was sculptor, and he contributed to the carving of the choir of Siena cathedral in 1408. He was active in civic life from at least 1413 and partially qualified as a notary in 1417. From 1424-1431 he was chamberlain of a residence for scholars in Siena. By 1427 Taccola seems to have become interested in mechanical technology. His earliest sketches of machines date from 1427. In 1432 Emperor Sigismund appointed Taccola in his service. With Brunalleschi and Giovanni Fontana, Taccola was a founder of the Italian school of Renaissance engineers. The originality of Taccola's machine designs is not clear. Certainly many devices and processes made their first recorded appearance in his works. At one time or another he has been credited with the invention of the explosive undermining of city walls, the suction pump, underwater breathing apparatus, the box-caisson method for building bridges, water mains and sluice gates, and vertically axled windmills and watermills. Taccola's importance was encyclopedic account of contemporary machine practice. Two ideas of great importance first appeared in Taccola's manuscripts: the chain transmission system and the compound crank with connecting rod. By the latter, rotary motion could be converted to reciprocal motion, a technical concept that has been considered crucial for the postmedieval development of Western technology. Sources for Further Information on Taccola:
  1. Charles Gillispie (ed.). Dictionary of Scientific Biography. V. XIII. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
  2. Taccola, Mariano, De rebus militaribus : (De machinis, 1449) / Mariano Taccola ; mit dem vollständigen Faksimile der Pariser Handschrift herausgegeben, übersetzt und kommentiert von Eberhard Knobloch , Baden-Baden : V. Koerner, 1984.
  3. Taccola, Mariano, De ingeneis : Liber primus leonis, Liber secundus draconis, Books I and II, on Engines, and addenda (the notebook) / Mariano Taccola ; Taccola's introduction, drawings of Engines and latin texts, descriptions of Engines in English translation, the Liber Ignium of Marcus Graecus, and editorial notes on technology in Renaissance Italy by Gustina Scaglia, Frank D. Prager, Ulrich Montag, Wiesbaden : Reichert, 1984.
  4. Taccola, Mariano, De machinis : the engineering treatise of 1449 / introduction, latin texts, descriptions of engines and technical commentaries by Gustina Scaglia, Wiesbaden : Reichert, 1971. http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/genscheda.asp?appl=LST&xsl=biografia&lingua=ENG&chiave=300725
  5. http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/on-line/invention/sienese.asp