Online Exhibits > Leonardo and the Engineers of the Renaissance > Manuscripts

FRANCESCO DI GIORGIO - Opusculum de architectura

Place: British Museum, London

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Ms. 197.b.21 (BML)

Facsimile; ca. 1475-78; 31x22 cm

This stupendous 80-leaf vellum codex contains a remarkable number of drawings with no explanatory text. The codex is the dedicatory copy given by Francesco to Duke Federico da Montefeltro at the time of his passage to the service of the Seigneur of Urbino. The codex includes a series of drawings of war-machines and copies from Taccola. There are also more drawings of mills, carts, pumps and machines to lift and displace weights, as well as numerous plans of fortresses.

fols. 60v-61r: Suction pump driven by water-wheel (left) and chain pump driven by an animal.

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