Nome canonico: Laurenza, Domenico
Sesso: male
Nazionalità: Italy
Istruzione: University of Naples (Laurea, 1991)
Scuola superiore di studi Storici, San Galileo, Florence (Ph.D., 1996)
Attività lavorative: historian
scientific consultant
author
editor
Breve biografia: Domenico Laurenza is a historian of science with an interest in the history of art and visual culture. He is an expert on Leonardo da Vinci's scientific works, on the history of anatomy and technology in the Renaissance, and on the history of geology. He is a scientific consultant for the University of RomaTre, Museo Galileo (Florence), and Schroeder Arts Consulting (New York), and has taught or been a fellow of several scientific institutions, including McGill University (Montreal), the Warburg Institute (London), the Italian Academy at Columbia University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), and Trinity College, Dublin.

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Recensioni

Leonardo's Machines: Da Vinci's Inventions Revealed di Domenico Laurenza

It's a pretty simple thesis. Take all the writings and drawings that you can find of machines that can be attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and make models of them to see if they will work. The diagrams and pictures are, quite simply, fantastic. The authors/artists have done an incredible job of translating Leonardo's ...sometimes rather sketchy drawings into real working models ....or at least 3D drawings.
A few things struck me. One was the incredible imagination and incredible drawing ability of Leonardo. (I was already aware of the fact that Leonardo drew very heavily on the work of engineers designers who were contemporary with him or lived slightly before him. (See "The innovators behind Leonardo " by Plinio Innocenzi...another great book). So not all his designs are totally original. Maybe most of them are adaptations of others. But Leonardo certainly excelled in his drafting abilities. he seemed incapable of doing a crude drawing...even where he clearly copied other works he couldn't help turning the copy (of a crude set of water wings for example) into a modest work of art.
The other thing that struck me was that virtually none of these inventions were actually made into real world objects....Leonardo was a designer not a producer. (I think some of his critics suggested that he never finshed anything. Well not quite true...he did complete a number of paintings and murals..."the last supper" for example). And many of his inventions lacked a decent power supply. he had to rely on men working treadmills or working hand cranks etc., or horses or oxen walking around in circles to provide the motive force for many of his inventions. He would have been in heaven with a gasoline engine or electric motor!
Fair to say, I really enjoyed the book. Happy to give it 5 stars...the diagrams/pictures, alone, are worth that.… (altro)

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booktsunami | 2 altre recensioni | Jul 7, 2022 |

Leonardo on Flight di Domenico Laurenza

See also: Leonardo's Machines: Da Vinci's Inventions Revealed.
This beautifully illustrated volume reconstructs the origin of one of the most fascinating and fundamental aspects of Leonardo's life and work: his dream of human flight. With masterfully reproduced drawings from his vast library of manuscripts and folios -- especially from the Codex "On the Flight of Birds" and the Codex "Atlanticus" -- this book traces the development of Leonardo's theories and experiments over time. Detailed descriptions and unique readings of these exquisite sketches, letters, and notes reveal the inner workings of the artist-scientist.

Leonardo on Flight begins with the drawings from his years in Florence making theatrical devices (ingegni) and then moves to the marvelous flying machine -- the ornithopter -- constructed in Milan during the same period he completed The Last Supper and the equestrian statue Francesco Sforza for Duke Ludovic il Moro. After 1500, Leonardo's work returned to nature and focused on the flight of birds, the dynamic potential of the human body, and the physics of wind. The final chapter of the book considers the last years of Leonardo's life and his escape into theory and whimsical experiments such as flying wax figurines, inflated bullocks' intestines, and automatons.… (altro)

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MasseyLibrary | Mar 8, 2018 |

Da Vinci's machines alle visionaire ontwerpen… di Domenico Laurenza

Het boek beschrijft een aantal machines uit de geschriften van Leonardo da Vinci, geïllustreerd met 3-dimensionale beelden. Helaas zijn de beschrijvingen wat kort en wordt er niet al te diep op de diverse modellen ingegaan. Maar het is daardoor wel een vlot leesbaar boek geworden.

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Pieter_Goldhoorn | 2 altre recensioni | Sep 22, 2015 |

Da Vinci's machines alle visionaire ontwerpen… di Domenico Laurenza

Domenico Laurenza, Mario Taddei en Edoardo Zanon geven een totaal nieuwe kijk op de geniale uitvindingen van Leonardo da Vinci, van machinerie voor oorlogen tot vliegende apparaten en muziekinstrumenten. Een kritische analyse gecombineerd met een gedetailleerde uitleg van de complexe processen en verfijnde technologische oplossingen in de ontwerpen van de Italiaanse meester.

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JanWalraet | 2 altre recensioni | May 27, 2015 |

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