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Bookwheel
The bookwheel (also written book wheel and sometimes called a reading wheel) is a type of rotating bookcase that allows one person to read multiple books in one location with ease. The books are rotated vertically similar to the motion of a water wheel, as opposed to rotating on a flat table surface. The design for the bookwheel originally appeared in a 16th-century illustration by Agostino Ramelli at a time when large books posed practical problems for readers. Ramelli's design influenced other engineers and, though now obsolete, inspires modern artists and historians. History and design The bookwheel, in its most commonly seen form, was invented in 1588 by Italian military engineer Agostino Ramelli, presented as one of the 195 designs in ''Le diverse et artificiose machine del Capitano Agostino Ramelli'' (''The various and ingenious machines of Captain Agostino Ramelli'').Brashear, Ronald"Ramelli's Machines: Original drawings of the 16th century machines" Smithsonian Librar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agostino Ramelli
Agostino Ramelli (1531–ca. 1610) was an Italian engineer best known for writing and illustrating the book of engineering designs ''Le diverse et artificiose machine del Capitano Agostino Ramelli'', which contains, among others, his design for the bookwheel. Ramelli was born in Ponte Tresa or Mesanzena, today in Switzerland. During the Siege of La Rochelle (1572–1573), he successfully engineered a mine under a bastion and breached the fortification,"One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and Screw" Witold Rybczynski p.47 making him popular with his commander, Henri d'Anjou, who later became King Henri III of France. In 1588, Ramelli published ''Le diverse et artificiose machine del Capitano Agostino Ramelli'', or ''The various and ingenious machines of Captain Agostino Ramelli''. The book contains 195 designs, over 100 of which are water-raising machines, such as water pumps or wells.Brashear, RonaldRamelli's Machines Smithsonian Libraries. Other d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bibliotheca Thysiana
The Bibliotheca Thysiana was erected in 1655 to house the book collection of the lawyer Johannes Thysius (1621–1653). Upon his early death, he left a legacy of 20,000 guilders for the building of a public library ("tot publycque dienst der studie") with a custodian's dwelling. Designed by the architect Arent van ‘s-Gravensande, the building follows the Dutch Classical style and is regarded as one of the jewels of Dutch 17th-century architecture. Bibliotheca Thysiana is one of the Top 100 Dutch heritage sites. It is distinguished by its balanced proportions and the purity of its Ionic order on top of a high basement. The ''Bibliotheca Thysiana'' is the only surviving 17th century example in the Netherlands of a building that was designed as a public library. It is quite extraordinary that a complete private 17th century library has been preserved and thus offers a good impression of the book collection of a young, learned bibliophile from the period of late Humanism. The col ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epicyclic Gearing
An epicyclic gear train (also known as a planetary gearset) is a gear reduction assembly consisting of two gears mounted so that the center of one gear (the "planet") revolves around the center of the other (the "sun"). A carrier connects the centers of the two gears and rotates, to carry the planet gear(s) around the sun gear. The planet and sun gears mesh so that their pitch circles roll without slip. If the sun gear is held fixed, then a point on the pitch circle of the planet gear traces an epicycloid curve. An epicyclic gear train can be assembled so the planet gear rolls on the inside of the pitch circle of an outer gear ring, or ring gear, sometimes called an ''annulus gear''. Such an assembly of a planet engaging both a sun gear and a ring gear is called a planetary gear train.J. J. Uicker, G. R. Pennock and J. E. Shigley, 2003, ''Theory of Machines and Mechanisms,'' Oxford University Press, New York.B. Paul, 1979, ''Kinematics and Dynamics of Planar Machinery'', Pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Global Spread Of The Printing Press
Following the invention of the printing press in the German city of Mainz by Johannes Gutenberg , Western printing technology spread across the world, and was adopted worldwide by the end of the 19th century. The technology, which mechanized the process of printing with moveable type, displaced the manuscript and block printing. In the Western world, the operation of a press became synonymous with the enterprise of publishing and lent its name to a new branch of media, the " press" (see List of the oldest newspapers). Spread of Gutenberg's press Germany Gutenberg's first major print work was the 42-line Bible in Latin, probably printed between 1452 and 1454 in the German city of Mainz. After Gutenberg lost a lawsuit against his investor, Johann Fust, Fust put Gutenberg's employee Peter Schöffer in charge of the print shop. Thereupon Gutenberg established a new one with the financial backing of another money lender. With Gutenberg's monopoly revoked, and the techno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bibliothèque De L'Arsenal
The Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal (, ''Library of the Arsenal'', founded 1757) in Paris has been part of the Bibliothèque nationale de France since 1934. History The collections of the library originated with the private library of Marc Antoine René de Voyer, Marc-René, 3rd marquis d'Argenson (1722–1787), installed in 1757 in the residence of the Grand Master of the Artillery, at the heart of the ancient Arsenal of Paris. The Arsenal itself was founded by Francis I of France, King François I in the 16th century, later rebuilt by Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully, Sully, and expanded by the architect Germain Boffrand in the 18th century. Paulmy had assembled a magnificent collection, particularly rich in medieval manuscripts and Printmaking, prints. In 1786 he also acquired the collection of the Louis César de La Baume Le Blanc, duc de la Vallière, but then sold the entire library to the Charles X of France, comte d'Artois. The library was Sequestration (law), seques ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of Naples, province-level municipality is the third most populous Metropolitan cities of Italy, metropolitan city in Italy with a population of 2,958,410 residents, and the List of urban areas in the European Union, eighth most populous in the European Union. Naples metropolitan area, Its metropolitan area stretches beyond the boundaries of the city wall for approximately . Naples also plays a key role in international diplomacy, since it is home to NATO's Allied Joint Force Command Naples and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean. Founded by Greeks in the 1st millennium BC, first millennium BC, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited urban areas in the world. In the eighth century BC, a colony known as Parthenope () was e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lambach Abbey
Lambach Abbey () is a Benedictine monastery in Lambach in the Wels-Land district of Upper Austria, Austria. History A monastery was founded in Lambach in about 1040 by Count Arnold II of Lambach-Wels. His son, Bishop Adalbero of Würzburg (later canonised), changed the monastery into a Benedictine abbey in 1056, which it has been since. During the 17th and 18th centuries a great deal of work in the Baroque style was carried out, much of it by the Carlone family. Lambach escaped the dissolution of the monasteries of Emperor Joseph II in the 1780s. In 1897/98, Adolf Hitler lived in the town of Lambach with his parents and attended the monastery school, where he saw the hakenkreuz used in decorative carving on the stone and woodwork of the building. He later used it as a symbol for the Nazi Party, placing it in a white circle with a red background for use as a flag. Cultural features Between Easter Sunday and 31. of October guided tours are offered every day at 14:00. The tour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jagiellonian University
The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in continuous operation in the world. The university grounds contain the Kraków Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university has been viewed as a vanguard of Polish culture as well as a significant contributor to the intellectual heritage of Europe. The campus of the Jagiellonian University is centrally located within the Kraków, city of Kraków. The university consists of thirteen main faculties, in addition to three faculties composing the Jagiellonian University Medical College, Collegium Medicum. It employs roughly 4,000 academics and provides education to more than 35,000 students who study in 166 fields. The main language of instruction is Polish, although around 30 degrees are offer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Klosterneuburg Monastery
Klosterneuburg Abbey () is a twelfth-century Augustinian monastery of the Catholic Church located in the town of Klosterneuburg in Lower Austria. Overlooking the Danube, just north of the present Vienna city limits at the Leopoldsberg, the monastery was founded in 1114 by Leopold III, Margrave of Austria, Saint Leopold III of House of Babenberg, Babenberg, the patron saint of Austria, and his second wife Agnes of Waiblingen, Agnes of Germany. The abbey church, dedicated the Nativity of Mary (''Mariä Geburt''), was consecrated in 1136 and remodeled in the Baroque architecture, Baroque style in the seventeenth century. The impressive monastery complex was mostly constructed between 1730 and 1834. Its foundations, including a castle tower and a Gothic architecture, Gothic chapel, date back to the twelfth century. Other older buildings still extant within the complex include the chapel of 1318 with Saint Leopold's tomb. From 1634 on, the House of Habsburg, Habsburg rulers had the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-largest in the European Union with a population of over 1.9 million. The Hamburg Metropolitan Region has a population of over 5.1 million and is the List of EU metropolitan areas by GDP, eighth-largest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. At the southern tip of the Jutland Peninsula, Hamburg stands on the branching River Elbe at the head of a estuary to the North Sea, on the mouth of the Alster and Bille (Elbe), Bille. Hamburg is one of Germany's three city-states alongside Berlin and Bremen (state), Bremen, and is surrounded by Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south. The Port of Hamburg is Germany's largest and Europe's List of busiest ports in Europe, third-largest, after Port of Rotterdam, Rotterda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghent University Library
Ghent University Library () is a university library located in the city of Ghent, Belgium. It serves the Ghent University community of students and scholarly researchers. History After Ghent University was founded in 1817, books confiscated by the state during the French period were given to the university. In 1942, the Book Tower ('' Boekentoren'') was opened, located next to the Blandijn, which houses the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy. Designed by Henry van de Velde, it has since been the chief architectural feature of the library. The library has evolved in recent years, focusing on decentralization and networking rather than a central facility. Some collections of books are to be found in the faculty libraries; but some books are conventionally gathered together in the university library. Digitization A range of electronic resources are available within the UGent network as part of a digital library. The Library has also joined with the Google Books Library Project in dig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
