Hydraulic-Pneumatic Mechanics: A Work in Two Parts

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Original title: P. Gasparis Schotti ... Mechanica hydraulico-pneumatica ...: Opus bipartitum A two-part Latin treatise (opus bipartitum) by the Jesuit Gaspar Schott, printed at Würzburg by Henricus Pigrin at the expense of the heirs of the Frankfurt bookseller Johann Gottfried Schönwetter. It is a quarto dedicated to Johann Philipp von Schönborn, Elector of Mainz and Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, and illustrated with about forty-six engraved plates. Part I sets out the theory of water and air: their nature, properties, motive force and conflict, including the vacuum, rarefaction, hydrostatic axioms, flow through orifices and the weight of air. Part II catalogues fountains, pumps, vessels, hydraulic organs and automata, many seen in Kircher's Roman museum. These are sorted by four motive principles: attraction, expulsion, rarefaction and natural fall. Part II also examines and rejects perpetual-motion machines, discusses marvels such as ancient temple devices and water-drinking performers, and shows how a Heronian vessel could exhibit the miracle at Cana. An appendix, the Experimentum novum Magdeburgicum, reports Otto von Guericke's vacuum experiments, including the Magdeburg hemispheres. It sets out rival Vacuist and Peripatetic arguments, including Melchior Cornaeus's diatribe. The volume closes with an epilogue, errata and instructions to the binder. 👉 Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here 📜 View the original source file This text was transcribed and translated as part of the ExLatinis project—an effort by Leo to make English translations of every published text in Latin in early modern Europe (between 1450 and 1750) available to the public for free online.

• Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here
• View the original source file

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