Mathematics, technics, and courtly life in late Renaissance Urbino (Q354152)

The article deals with the late Renaissance court in Urbino and its relation with the development of mathematics through the analysis of the `School of Urbino', the environment of the court, and the world of the technicians and engineers. The author emphasizes at the beginning of the paper that the school of Urbino has already been the object of several studies but that the other two aspects and their influence on the mathematicians' work at the Urbino court have not been carefully analyzed until now. In the last section of the article he presents as a case study the influence on the work of Guidobaldo dal Monte (1545--1607), scientist at the court of Urbino. Accordingly, in Section 1, the author enumerates important names from the school of Urbino such as Federico Commandino, Guidobaldo dal Monte, Bernardino Baldi, Muzio Oddi or Giulio da Thiene. He describes the influence exerted by Francesco Maria II della Rovere (1549--1631), Duke of Urbino (1574--1621 and 1623--1631) on their scientific work. Section 2 provides a description of the courtly environment, with a focus on two aspects: the interest in mathematics in a wider sense and the interest in philosophy. The article includes many quotations that show, for example, how the duke was educated in mathematics and how Commandino lectured him and interpreted the \textit{Elements} of Euclid. Concerning the interest in philosophy, the author presents the Duchy of Urbino as `an important cultural centre'. The most notable scientists of that time from all over Italy visited and contacted Urbino's court to discuss Aristotle's philosophy. Again, the author provides the reader with some selected quotations in order to justify this point. In the final part of Section 2, he briefly describes the activities of some of those involved in the Urbino scientific environment; all with one point in common, their interest in philosophy and mathematics. Section 3 describes the world of technicians in the Duchy of Urbino. The author emphasises the importance of military and civil architecture through the construction projects undertaken in the Duchy of Urbino, such as the construction of the S. Maria degli Angeli, the Vecchio Teatro di Corte, the renovation at the port of Pesaro, etc. He also stresses the manufacture of precision instruments such as mechanical clocks. In both fields, for example, both Guidobaldo and others were involved; they discussed ways of improving the water supply of Villa Mirafiore and also revised the manufacture of clocks. The author provides us with many quotations that reflect the interest of scientists from the Duchy of Urbino in practical topics related with civil and military engineering. Finally, in Section 4, as a case study, the author analyses the impact of Guidobaldo's environment on his scientific work through three aspects; the consideration of problems discussed in his environment, the use of high precision instruments in theory and practice, and the mechanics and natural philosophy in Guidobaldo's writings. In the first, the integration of problems raised by his interlocutors in his writings is justified by two examples: the first is an example described with figures and concerns a problem of triangles proposed by Count Giulio da Thiene, solved in Guidobaldo's \textit{Meditatiunculae} and later used in Guidobaldo's \textit{Perspectivae libri sex}. A second example is the barycentre problem, discussed `among the gentlemen of Pesaro', first solved in Guidobaldo's \textit{Meditatiunculae} and found later in the first book of Guidobaldo's \textit{Paraphrasis}. This barycentre problem was also mentioned after the death of Guidobaldo by his disciple Guerrini in a letter to Clavius. As for the second aspect, the author provides us with numerous examples from Guidobaldo's \textit{Mechanicorum liber} and his exchanges with those in his environment about the construction and use of high-precision instruments. In the last part of the article, the author focusses on the relationship between mechanics and natural philosophy in several of Guidobaldo's works, and addresses some examples from \textit{Mechanicorum liber}, \textit{Paraphrasis} and \textit{Quaestiones mechanicae}. The paper is very well documented, especially on Guidobaldo's writings (works, letters and comments) and his environment. The article reminds us that science, both now and in the past, is a collaborative endeavour and an integral part of social activity. So when it comes to studying the history a scientific process, we should not fail to take these aspects into account for contributing to a better understanding of this historical process.