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translated by the Flemish scholar [29]. Although the evidence is not completely con-
vincing, it is remarkable that the Aquinas, already present in the legend about Albertus
Magnus' automaton as a minor character, returns as a possible reader of a Hero's text.
Another work, entitled
De inani et vacuo
(About void), is both quoted without any
reference to the author by the 14
th
-century philosopher Marsilius of Inghen in his
Quaestiones super VIII physicorum libros
(Questions on the Eight Books of the Phys-
ics; IV, 13), and copied in 1466 in a manuscript (Krakow, Biblioteka Jagiellonska,
MS 568, ff. 207-211), where it is attributed to Hero. The Polish manuscript has two
interesting issues:
•
in the colophon the scribe's name of the antigraph is mentioned (
quem in-
scripsit Landfridus
); such a name (in the German version Lantfrid) is present
also in the colophon of a Carolingian manuscript (München, Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 14461, f.150) of religious content, copied in the 820s
in Freising, and housed in St.Emmeram's abbey library, near Regensburg, at
least since 1347. If the scribe would be the same, we would have an evidence
of the connection between a Pneumatics tradition in Latin language and a
Benedictine monastery, a place quite advanced from the technological point
of view during the Middle Ages;
the handwriting is very similar to Regiomontanus', the famous German as-
tronomer and mathematician; in addition, we must say that the manuscript
was bound in Germany, and the author of the letters included in the last part
of the manuscript was a friend of Regiomontanus': Cristianus Roder de
Hamburgo. Regiomontanus is said by the French humanist Pierre de la
Ramée to have built an eagle, and a fly, that could fly away and back. De-
spite the fact that the story told by Pierre is certainly exaggerated, the fact
that Regiomontanus may have dealt with an abridged version of
Pneumatics
,
makes it less improbable.
Though there is no definitive proof of direct knowledge of
Pneumatics
during the
Middle Ages, we, however, have 28 copies of Latin translations from Philo's or
Hero's treatises made in the 14
th
-15
th
century. Based on a comparison of the incipits,
they can be grouped into at very least 3 families:
•
•
Quum/Cum apud antiquos
: 12 manuscripts.
•
Quoniam tuum,
where the incipit mentioned above (
In nomine Dei
...) is
often, but not always, placed before: 15 manuscripts.
Cum spirituale negocium
: 1 manuscript.
A deep comparative study of all these manuscripts is in progress.
•
3.2.3 A Useful Mechanical Automaton Called Maurizio
Concerning craft tradition, we can remark that more or less in the same years one of
the oldest mechanical automata appeared in Italy, in Orvieto. In 1347 the Opera del
Duomo (Committee on the cathedral works) charged the clockmaker Francesco with
building a clock mechanism, which required 285 pounds of iron, three blacksmiths,
and eight craftsmen. The following year a bronze automaton was added to the clock
as a striking system; it represents a “dottiere”, a yard overseer, who was in charge of
verifying compliance with working hours, and of forbidding workers to waste time.
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