The Various and Ingenious Machines

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PREFACE.

...in the presence of King Hiero Hiero II (c. 308–215 BCE), King of Syracuse and patron of Archimedes., he alone pulled a massive vessel to land and, from the shore, returned the royal ship, the Alexandrian Known as the Syracusia, this was one of the largest ships of antiquity, designed by Archimedes; it was later sent as a gift to King Ptolemy of Egypt., to the sea. He crafted that celestial globe—that is, the divine sphere made of simple glass—showing the seven courses of the wandering stars The Sun, Moon, and the five planets known to the ancients., where, with unspeakable craftsmanship, one could see their distance, their height, and their depth. All of this he achieved solely through the power of excellent Mathematics. By virtue of these, he so greatly troubled the great Roman Marcellus Marcus Claudius Marcellus, the Roman general who besieged Syracuse. during the siege of Syracuse with his stupendous machines, that he became so confident in this art that he dared to let out that tremendous cry, entirely contrary to the laws of nature:

Give me a place where I may stand, and I shall move the earth. original: "Dammi luogo, oue io possa stare, ch' io mouerò la terra." This is the famous quote attributed to Archimedes regarding the mechanical advantage of the lever.

Something similar is read of Archytas Archytas of Tarentum (428–347 BCE), a Greek philosopher and mathematician., who was so skilled in this celebrated discipline that he constructed a wooden dove which flew and sustained itself in the air as if it were alive. Who, then, could ever describe in so clear a style, or adorn with glorious praise, the merits of this sublime science so that he might reach the heights of its supreme merits? These are the excellent disciplines without which (as it pleased the divine Plato) the human intellect does not emerge from its lowliness; and with their guidance, it rises to the contemplation of celestial and divine things. For this reason, the ancient and solemn Egyptians would only choose their priests—those who administered their religion—from among the students of these sciences. From this fellowship of priests, they then chose a King to rule them and govern worthily. The Persians observed a nearly identical custom, for they did not admit any King to their dominion who was not very well-versed in the discipline of Magic In this context, "Magic" refers to the wisdom of the Magi, which centered on the study of the stars and natural philosophy.. For truly (as Saint Augustine affirms in the second book of On Christian Doctrine original: "De doctrina Christiana." Augustine argued that a lack of mathematical knowledge led to errors in interpreting biblical allegories and numbers.), this most noble faculty of Mathematics is infinitely necessary for the knowledge and understanding of the Holy Scriptures. Indeed, because of an ignorance of numbers, many passages of the divine letters have been foolishly interpreted and understood by many. And of this same opinion was the scarlet-clad Jerome Saint Jerome (c. 347–420 CE) is often called "purpurato" (clad in purple/scarlet) in Italian, referring to his traditional depiction in the red robes of a Cardinal., who was moved to write in the first of his Epistles about the great power that numbers have in interpreting the Holy Scriptures. Recognizing this, the most learned...