Vitruvius

Vitrūvius, iī, m., vollst. M. Vitruvius Pollio, angebl. aus Verona, Kriegsbaumeister unter Cäsar u. Augustus, dessen wahrsch. 27. v. Chr. abgefaßte Schrift de architectura libri X wir noch besitzen, Sidon. epist. 4, 3, 5 u. 8, 6, 10. Vgl. W. Teuffel Gesch. der röm. Liter.⁶ § 264.

SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building

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Nothing is known of Vitruvius apart from what can be gleaned from his only known work, the treatise De architectura. He seems to have been employed in some capacity by Julius Caesar and continued to serve under his heir, Octavianus, later Emperor Augustus, to whom he dedicated his book. It was written towards the end of his life, after Octavianus became undisputed ruler of the Empire by his victory at Actium in 31 BC, and was based partly on his own experience and partly on earlier, Hellenistic, writers.

The De architectura is divided into ten books. The first seven books expound the general principles of architecture and the planning, design and construction of various types of building, public and domestic, including a consideration of techniques and materials. Book 7 deals with interior decoration, including stucco work and painting, while Book 8 treats water supply, from the location of sources to the transport of water by aqueducts, tunnels and pipes. Book 9, after a long and somewhat confused account of the astronomical theories of the day, describes various forms of clock and sundial. Finally, Book 10 deals with mechanical devices for handling building materials and raising and pumping water, for which Vitruvius draws on the earlier Greek authors Ctesibius and Hero.

Although this may seem a motley assembly of subjects, to the Roman architect and builder it was a logical compendium of the subjects he was expected to know about. At the time, Vitruvius' rigid rules for the design of buildings such as temples seem to have had little influence, but his accounts of more practical matters of building materials and techniques were widely used. His illustrations to the original work were lost in antiquity, for no later manuscript includes them. Through the Middle Ages, manuscript copies were made in monastic scriptoria, although the architectural style in vogue had little relevance to those in Vitruvius: these came into their own with the Italian Renaissance. Alberti, writing the first great Renaissance treatise on architecture from 1452 to 1467, drew heavily on De architectura; those who sought to revive the styles of antiquity were bound to regard the only surviving text on the subject as authoritative. The appearance of the first printed edition in 1486 only served to extend its influence.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Vitruvius was used as a handbook for constructing machines and instruments. For the modern historian of technology and architecture the work is a source of prime importance, although it must be remembered that the illustrations in the early printed editions are of contemporary reproductions of ancient devices using the techniques of the time, rather than authentic representations of ancient technology.

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See: Vitruvius Pollio

secta, ae, f. (sequor), die Folge = die Grundsätze, die jmd. befolgt, die Denk- u. Handlungsweise, I) im allg.: sectam meam exsecutae, Catull.: eorum sectam sequuntur multi mortales, Naev. fr.: nos, qui hanc sectam rationemque vitae re magis quam verbis secuti sumus, Lebensweise, Cic.: quod (natura) habet quasi viam quandam et sectam quam sequatur, Cic.: altera severitas eiusdem sectae disciplinaeque est, der zweite strenge Urteilsspruch legt (ebenfalls) Zeugnis ab von einer ähnlichen Verfahrungsweise u. Zucht, Gell. 4, 20, 7: iuvenes hortatur, ut illam ire viam pergant et eidem incumbere sectae, Iuven. 14, 121 sq.: m. folg. Infin., hi mores, haec duri immota Catonis secta (die Grundsätze) fuit, servare modum finemque tenere, Lucan. 2, 380. – II) insbes.: 1) die polit. Grundsätze, die Partei, der jmd. anhängt, horum hominum sectam atque instituta persequimur, Cic.: cuius sectam sequi, cuius imperio parēre potissimum vellet, Cic.: cuius sectam atque imperium secutus est, Cic.: Vitruvius sectamque eius secuti, seine Anhänger, Liv. – 2) philosophische Lehre, Schule, Sekte, qui eorum philosophorum sectam secutus es, quorum etc., Cic.: Stoici et Epicuri sectam secuti, Quint.: Stoicorum secta, Tac.: Stoica secta, Sen. u.a.: Peripatetica secta, Colum.: Academica secta, Lact. – 3) juristische Schule, Sekte, hi duo primum veluti diversas

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sectas fecerunt (bildeten), Pompon. dig. 1, 2, 2. § 47. – 4) eine religiöse Sekte, Cod. Iust. 1, 9, 3: plurimae sectae et haereses, Lact. 4, 30, 2. – 5) eine Bande von Räubern, Apul. met. 4, 18 u. 24.

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aera, ae, f. [from aera, counters; v. aes, 2. E., later Lat.

In math., a given number, according to which a reckoning or calculation is to be made, Vitruvius (Vetrubius) Rufus ap. Salmas. Exercc. I. p. 483.—

Anitem of an account (for the class. aera, plur. of aes, Ruf. Fest. in Breviar. init. The passage of Lucil. cited by Non. 2, 42, aera perversa, is also prob. plur.).—

An era or epoch from which time is reckoned, Isid. Orig. 5, 36; cf. Inscr. Orell. II. p. 374.

făcĭlis, e, adj. (archaic forms nom. sing. facil, Plaut. Trin. 3, 2, 53; adv. facul, like difficul, simul; v. under adv. 2, and cf. Paul. ex Fest. p. 87 Müll.), [facio, properly, that may be done or made; hence, pregn.], easy to do, easy, without difficulty.

In gen.

Prop., constr. absol., with ad (and the gerund), the supine, inf., ut, and the dat.

Absol.:

nulla est tam facilis res, quin difficilis siet, quam invitus facias,

Ter. Heaut. 4, 6, 1; cf.:

facilis et plana via (opp. difficilis),

Plaut. Trin. 3, 2, 20:

quae facilia ex difficillimis animi magnitudo redegerat,

Caes. B. G. 2, 27 fin.; cf.

also: mihi in causa facili atque explicata perdifficilis et lubrica defensionis ratio proponitur,

Cic. Planc. 2, 5:

justa res et facilis,

Plaut. Am. prol. 33:

facilis et prompta defensio,

Cic. de Or. 1, 56, 237; cf.:

facilis et expedita distinctio,

id. Fin. 1, 10, 33:

facilia, proclivia, jucunda,

id. Part. Or. 27, 95; cf.:

proclivi cursu et facili delabi,

id. Rep. 1, 28:

ascensus,

Caes. B. G. 1, 21:

aditus,

id. ib. 3, 25 fin.;

descensus Averno,

Verg. A. 6, 126; Cic. de Imp. Pomp. 14, 41; cf.:

celerem et facilem exitum habere,

Caes. B. C. 3, 22 fin.:

lutum,

easy to work, Tib. 1, 1, 40:

fagus,

Plin. 16, 43, 84, § 229:

humus,

easy to cultivate, mellow, Curt. 4, 6, 5:

arcus,

Val. Fl. 1, 109:

jugum,

easy to climb, Prop. 4 (5), 10, 4:

somnus,

easy to obtain, Hor. C. 2, 11, 8; 3, 21, 4:

irae,

easily excited, Luc. 1, 173:

saevitia,

easily overcome, Hor. C. 2, 12, 26 et saep.:

aurae,

gentle, Ov. H. 16, 123:

jactura,

easily borne, Verg. A. 2, 646:

cera,

easily shaped, Ov. M. 15, 169:

victus,

copious, Verg. G. 2, 460.— Comp.:

iter multo facilius atque expeditius,

Caes. B. G. 1, 6, 2:

cui censemus cursum ad deos faciliorem fuisse quam Scipioni?

Cic. Lael. 4, 14:

faciliore et commodiore judicio,

id. Caecin. 3, 8.— Sup.:

quod est facillimum, facis,

Plaut. Trin. 3, 2, 4; cf. Cic. Rep. 2, 3:

concordia,

id. ib. 1, 32:

hujus summae virtutis facillima est via,

Quint. 8, 3, 71:

in quibus (ceris) facillima est ratio delendi,

id. 10, 3, 31 et saep.—

With ad and the gerund:

nulla materies tam facilis ad exardescendum est,

Cic. de Or. 2, 45, 190:

ad subigendum,

id. Rep. 2, 41:

ad credendum,

id. Tusc. 1, 32, 78:

palmae ad scandendum,

Plin. 13, 4, 7, § 29.— Comp.:

faciliora ad intelligendum,

Quint. 2, 3, 8.— Sup.:

haec ad judicandum sunt facillima,

Cic. Off. 3, 6, 30; id. Fin. 2, 20.—

With ad and subst.:

faciles ad receptum angustiae,

Liv. 32, 12, 3:

mens ad pejora,

Quint. 1, 2, 4:

credulitas feminarum ad gaudia,

Tac. A. 14, 4.— Comp.:

mediocritas praeceptoris ad intellectum atque imitationem facilior,

Quint. 2, 3, 1.—

With supine:

facile inventust,

Plaut. Trin. 3, 2, 53:

res factu facilis,

Ter. Heaut. 4, 3, 26:

cuivis facile scitu est,

id. Hec. 3, 1, 15:

facilis victu gens,

abounding in resources, Verg. A. 1, 445 Wagn.:

(Cyclops) nec visu facilis nec dictu affabilis ulli,

id. ib. 3, 621; cf.:

sapiens facilis victu fuit,

Sen. Ep. 90, 11.— Comp.:

nihil est dictu facilius,

Ter. Ph. 2, 1, 70.— Sup.:

factu facillimum,

Sall. C. 14, 1.—

With inf.:

materia facilis est, in te et in tuos dicta dicere,

Cic. Phil. 2, 17, 42:

facilis vincere ac vinci vultu eodem,

Liv. 7, 33, 2:

facilis corrumpi,

Tac. H. 4, 39:

Roma capi facilis,

Luc. 2, 656.—So esp. freq. in the neuter, facile est, with a subject-clause:

id esse verum, cuivis facile est noscere,

Ter. Ad. 5, 4, 8:

quod illis prohibere erat facile,

Caes. B. C. 1, 50, 2:

neque erat facile nostris, uno tempore propugnare et munire,

id. ib. 3, 45, 4; Quint. 6, 4, 20:

nec origines persequi facile est,

Plin. 3, 5, 6, § 46:

quīs facile est aedem conducere,

Juv. 3, 31; 4, 103.— Comp.:

plerumque facilius est plus facere quam idem,

Quint. 10, 2, 10; 12, 6, 7.— Sup.:

stulta reprehendere facillimum est,

Quint. 6, 3, 71; 11, 1, 81.—

With ut:

facilius est, ut esse aliquis successor tuus possit, quam ut velit,

Plin. Pan. 44, 3; 87, 5; cf. with quod: facile est quod habeant conservam in villa, Varr. R. R. 2, 10, 6.—

With dat.:

terra facilis pecori,

i.e. suitable, proper, Verg. G. 2, 223; cf.:

campus operi,

Liv. 33, 17, 8:

facilis divisui (Macedonia),

id. 45, 30, 2:

neque Thraces commercio faciles erant,

Liv. 40, 58, 1:

homines bello faciles,

Tac. Agr. 21:

juvenis inanibus,

easily susceptible, open to, id. A. 2, 27; cf.:

facilis capessendis inimicitiis,

id. ib. 5, 11. —

With gen. ( poet.):

Hispania frugum facilis,

fertile in, Claud. Laud. Seren. 54.—

Adverbially, in facili, ex (e) facili, and rarely, de facili, easily:

cum exitus haud in facili essent,

not easy, Liv. 3, 8, 9 Drak.:

in facili,

Sen. Clem. 1, 7: Plin. 18, 28, 68, § 274; Dig. 26, 3, 8:

ita adducendum, ut ex facili subsequatur,

easily, Cels. 7, 9 med.:

ex facili tolerantibus,

Tac. Agr. 15 init.: ex facili, Cel. 6, 1, 1; Plin. 37, 4, 15, § 60;

for which: e facili,

Ov. A. A. 1, 356: de facili ab iis superabuntur, Firm. Math. 5, 6.—

Transf.

Of persons that do any thing with facility, ready, quick. — Constr. with ad, in, and simple abl.:

facilis et expeditus ad dicendum,

Cic. Brut. 48, 180:

sermone Graeco promptus et facilis,

Suet. Tib. 71; cf.:

promptus et facillis ad extemporalitatem usque,

id. Tit. 3:

faciles in excogitando et ad discendum prompti,

Quint. 1, 1, 1:

exiguo faciles,

content, Sil. 1, 615.—

Of things, easily moving:

oculi,

Verg. A. 8, 310:

manus,

Ov. F. 3, 536:

cervix,

Mart. Spect. 23:

canes, i. e. agiles,

Nemes. Cyneg. 50.

In partic.

Of character, easy, good-natured, compliant, willing, yielding, courteous, affable:

facilis benevolusque,

Ter. Hec. 5, 1, 35:

comes, benigni, faciles, suaves homines esse dicuntur,

Cic. Balb. 16, 36:

facilis et liberalis pater,

id. N. D. 3, 29, 73:

lenis et facilis,

id. Fam. 5, 2, 9:

facilis et clemens,

Suet. Aug. 67:

facilem populum habere,

Cic. Fam. 7, 1, 4:

facilem stillare in aurem,

Juv. 3, 122:

di,

id. 10, 8. —With in and abl.:

facilem se in rebus cognoscendis praebere,

Cic. Q. Fr. 1, 1, 11, § 32; cf.:

facilis in causis recipiendis,

id. Brut. 57, 207:

faciles in suum cuique tribuendo,

id. ib. 21, 85:

faciles ad concedendum,

id. Div. 2, 52, 107.—With in and acc.:

sic habeas faciles in tua vota deos,

Ov. H. 16, 282.—With inf.:

faciles aurem praebere,

Prop. 2, 21, 15 (3, 14, 5 M.):

O faciles dare summa deos,

Luc. 1, 505.—With gen.:

facilis impetrandae veniae,

Liv. 26, 15, 1:

alloquii facilis (al. alloquiis),

Val. Fl. 5, 407.— Absol.:

comi facilique naturā,

Suet. Gramm. 7:

facili ac prodigo animo,

id. Vit. 7.— Comp.:

facilior aut indulgentior,

Suet. Vesp. 21; Quint. 7, 1, 27; Flor. 4, 11, 2.— Sup.:

quid dicam de moribus facillimis,

Cic. Lael. 3, 11.—

Of fortune, favorable, prosperous:

res et fortunae tuae... quotidie faciliores mihi et meliores videntur,

Cic. Fam. 6, 5, 1; Liv. 23, 11, 2.— Adv. in four forms: facile, facul, faculter, and faciliter.

făcĭlĕ (the class. form).

easily, without trouble or difficulty:

facile cum valemus recta consilia aegrotis damus,

Ter. And. 2, 1, 9:

quis haec non vel facile vel certe aliquo modo posset ediscere?

Cic. de Or. 2, 57, 232:

vitia in contraria convertuntur,

id. Rep. 1, 45.— Comp.:

cave putes, aut mare ullum aut flammam esse tantam, quam non facilius sit sedare quam, etc.,

Cic. Rep. 1, 42 fin.:

quo facilius otio perfruantur,

id. ib. 1, 5: id hoc facilius eis persuasit, quod, etc., Caes, B. G. 1, 2, 3.— Sup.:

ut optimi cujusque animus in morte facillime evolet tamquam e custodia,

Cic. Lael. 4, 14:

facillime fingi,

id. Cael. 9, 22:

facillime decidit,

id. Rep. 2, 23:

mederi inopiae frumentariae,

Caes. B. G. 5, 24, 6 et saep.—

To add intensity to an expression which already signifies a high degree, certainly, unquestionably, without contradiction, beyond dispute, by far, far (often in Cic.;

elsewh. rare): virum unum totius Graeciae facile doctissimum,

Cic. Rab. Post. 9, 23:

facile deterrimus,

id. Tusc. 1, 33, 81:

genere et nobilitate et pecunia facile primus,

id. Rosc. Am. 6, 15; cf.:

virtute, existimatione, nobilitate facile princeps,

id. Clu. 5, 11:

facile princeps,

id. Div. 2, 42, 87; id. Fam. 6, 10, 2; id. Univ. 1; Flor. 3, 14, 1:

facile praecipuus,

Quint. 10, 1, 68:

facile hic plus mali est, quam illic boni,

Ter. And. 4, 3, 5: Pe. Sed tu novistin' fidicinam? Fi. Tam facile quam me, as well as I do myself, Plaut. Ep. 3, 4, 68.—With verbs that denote superiority (vincere, superare, etc.):

post illum (Herodotum) Thucydides omnes dicendi artificio, mea sententia, facile vicit,

Cic. de Or. 2, 13, 56; cf. id. Off. 2, 19, 59; id. Rep. 1, 23; cf.

also: stellarum globi terrae magnitudinem facile vincebant,

id. ib. 6, 16 fin.; id. de Or. 1, 33, 150:

Sisenna omnes adhuc nostros scriptores facile superavit,

id. Leg. 1, 2, 7; cf. id. de Or. 3, 11, 43:

facile palmam habes!

Plaut. Trin. 3, 2, 80.— In naming a large amount, quite, fully:

huic hereditas facile ad HS. tricies venit testamento propinqui sui,

Cic. Verr. 2, 2, 14, § 35.—

With a negative, non facile or haud facile, to add intensity, not easily, i.e. hardly:

mira accuratio, ut non facile in ullo diligentiorem majoremque cognoverim,

Cic. Brut. 67, 238:

sed haud facile dixerim, cur, etc.,

id. Rep. 1, 3 fin.; cf.:

de iis haud facile compertum narraverim,

Sall. J. 17, 2:

animus imbutus malis artibus haud facile libidinibus carebat,

id. C. 13, 5. —

Readily, willingly, without hesitation:

facile omnes perferre ac pati,

Ter. And. 1, 1, 35; cf.:

te de aeternitate dicentem aberrare a proposito facile patiebar,

Cic. Tusc. 1, 33, 81:

disertus homo et facile laborans,

id. Off. 2, 19, 66:

ego unguibus facile illi in oculos involem,

Ter. Eun. 4, 3, 6.— Comp.:

locum habeo nullum, ubi facilius esse possim quam Asturae,

Cic. Att. 13, 26, 2.—

(Acc. to facilis, II. B.) Pleasantly, agreeably, well:

propter eas (nugas) vivo facilius,

Plaut. Curc. 5, 2, 6:

cum animo cogites, Quam vos facillime agitis, quam estis maxume Potentes, dites, fortunati, nobiles,

Ter. Ad. 3, 4, 56:

facillime agitare,

Suet. Vit. Ter. 1:

ubi Crassus animadvertit, suas copias propter exiguitatem non facile diduci,

not safely, Caes. B. G. 3, 23, 7.—

făcul (anteclass.), easily: nobilitate facul propellere iniquos, Lucil. ap. Non. 111, 19; Pac. ib. 21:

haud facul, ut ait Pacuvius, femina una invenietur bona,

Afran. ib. 22:

advorsam ferre fortunam facul,

Att. ib. 24.—

‡ făculter, acc. to the statement of Paul. ex Fest. p. 87, 1 Müll.; cf. Mart. Cap. 3, § 325. —

făcĭlĭter (post-Aug.; predominating in Vitruvius; censured by Quint. 1, 6, 17), easily:

ferrum percalefactum faciliter fabricatur,

Vitr. 1, 4, 3 et saep.; Mart. Cap. 3, § 325.

pressĭo, ōnis, f. [premo].

Lit., a pressing, pressing down, pressure (only in Vitruvius):

pressio cacuminis,

Vitr. 10, 8. —

Transf., the prop or fulcrum under a lever while the burden is raised, Caes. B. C. 2, 9, 6: pressio, quod Graeci hupomochlion appellant, Vitr. 10, 8.

See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA

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Adam, Robert

Albert, Prince Consort

Anthemios of Tralles

Apollonius of Perga

Arup, Sir Ove

Aspdin, Joseph

Barry, Sir Charles

Behrens, Peter

Bogardus, James

Breuer, Marcel Lajos

Brodrick, Cuthbert

Brunelleschi, Filippo

Bunning, James Bunstone

Coade, Eleanor

Coignet, François

Cubitt, Thomas

Edison, Thomas Alva

Fox, Sir Charles

Freyssinet, Eugène

Frost, James

Fuller, Richard Buckminster

Garnier, Tony

Gilbert, Cass

Gropius, Walter Adolf

Hennébique, François

Hero of Alexandria

Hodgkinson, Eaton

Holabird, William

Hopper, Thomas

Jeanneret, Charles-Edouard

Jenney, William Le Baron

Johnson, Isaac Charles

Johnston, William J.

Lascelles, William

Leonardo da Vinci

Lever, William Hesketh

Li Jie

Loos, Adolf

Lubetkin, Berthold

Mansart, Nicolas François

Mendelsohn, Erich

Mengoni, Giuseppe

Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig

Monier, Joseph

Montferrand, Auguste Ricard de

Mylne, Robert

Nash, John

Nervi, Pier Luigi

Otis, Elijah Graves

Parker, James

Paxton, Sir Joseph

Perkins, Jacob

Perret, Auguste

Poelzig, Hans

Ransome, Frederick

Rickman, Thomas

Rondelet, Jean-Baptiste

Salt, Sir Titus

Sant'Elia, Antonio

Smirke, Sydney

Soane, Sir John

Sprague, Frank Julian

Sullivan, Louis Henry

Terragni, Giuseppe

Town, Ithiel

Villard de Honnecourt

Vitruvius Pollio

Walter, Thomas Ustick

Wren, Sir Christopher

Wright, Frank Lloyd

SUBJECT AREA: Horology, Weapons and armour

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Ctesibius made a number of inventions of great importance, which he described in his book Pneumatics, now lost. The Roman engineer and architect Vitruvius quoted extracts from Ctesibius' work in his De Architectura and tells us that Ctesibius was the son of a barber and that he arranged an adjustable mirror controlled by a lead counterweight descending in a cylinder. He noticed that the weight compressed the air, which could be released with a loud noise. That led him to realize that the air was a body or substance: by means of a cylinder and plunger, he went on to invent an air pump with valves. This he connected to the keyboard and rows of pipes of an organ. He also invented a force pump for water.

Ctesibius also improved the clepsydra or water clock, which measured time by the fall of water level in a vessel as the water escaped through a hole in the bottom. The rate of flow varied as the level dropped, so Ctesibius interposed a cistern with an overflow pipe, enabling the water level to be maintained; there was thus a constant flow into a cylinder and the passage of time was indicated by a float with a pointer. He fitted a rack to the float which turned a toothed wheel, to activate bells, singing birds or other "toys". This is probably the first known use of toothed gearing.

Ctesibius is credited with some other inventions of a military nature, such as a catapult, but it was his pumps that established a tradition in antiquity for mechanical invention using the pressure of the air and other fluids, stretching through Philo of Byzantium (c.150 BC) and Hero of Alexandria (c.62 AD) and on through Islam into medieval Western Europe.

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SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building, Civil engineering

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Villard was one of the thirteenth-century architect-engineers who were responsible for the design and construction of the great Gothic cathedrals and other churches of the time. Their responsibilities covered all aspects of the work, including (in the spirit of the Roman architect Vitruvius) the invention and construction of mechanical devices. In their time, these men were highly esteemed and richly rewarded, although few of the inscriptions paying tribute to their achievements have survived. Villard stands out among them because a substantial part of his sketchbook has survived, in the form of thirty-three parchment sheets of drawings and notes, now kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Villard's professional career lasted roughly from 1225 to 1250. As a boy, he went to work on the building of the Cistercian monastery at Vaucelles, not far from Honnecourt, and afterwards he was apprenticed to the masons' lodge at Cambrai Cathedral, where he began copying the drawings and layouts on the tracing-house floor. All his drawings are, therefore, of the plans, elevations and sections of cathedrals. These buildings have long since been destroyed, but his drawings, perhaps among his earliest, bear witness to their architecture. He travelled widely in France and recorded features of the great works at Reims, Laon and Chartres. These include the complex system of passageways built into the fabric of a great cathedral; Villard comments that one of their purposes was "to allow circulation in case of fire".

Villard was invited to Hungary and reached there c. 1235. He may have been responsible for the edifice dedicated to St Elizabeth of Hungary, canonized in 1235, at Kassa (now Košice, Slovakia). Villard probably returned to France c. 1240, at least before the Tartar invasion of Hungary in 1241.

His sketchbook, which dates to c. 1235, stands as a memorial to Villard's skill as a draughtsman, a student of perspective and a mechanical engineer. He took his sketchbook with him on his travels, and used ideas from it in his work abroad. It contains architectural designs, geometrical constructions for use in building, surveying exercises and drawings for various kinds of mechanical devices, for civil or military use. He was transmitting details from the highly developed French Gothic masons to the relatively underdeveloped eastern countries. The notebooks were annotated for the use of pupils and other master masons, and the notes on geometry were obviously intended for pupils. The prize examples are the pages in the book, clearly Villard's own work, related to mechanical devices. Whilst he, like many others of the period and after, played with designs for perpetual-motion machines, he concentrated on useful devices. These included the first Western representation of a perpetualmotion machine, which at least displays a concern to derive a source of energy: this was a water-powered sawmill, with automatic feed of the timber into the mill. This has been described as the first industrial automatic power-machine to involve two motions, for it not only converts the rotary motion of the water-wheel to the reciprocating motion of the saw, but incorporates a means of keeping the log pressed against the saw. His other designs included water-wheels, watermills, the Archimedean screw and other curious devices.

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KM / LRD