1. HIST 285, Technology in Historical Perspective Department of History & Politics, Drexel University Professor Lloyd Ackert Lecture 1: “Technologies of the Court, 1450-1600” I. Introduction A. Course themes B. Mechanical worldview C. Court patronage

2. II. Patronage politics and science/technology A. Medici family B. Machiavelli and Da Vinci C. City States

3. III. Applications of technology A. Warfare B. Entertainment C. Civil D. Dynastic displays

4. Joachim Friess was a German goldsmith who became master goldsmith in 1610 in Augsburg.Renaissance Augsburg was, after Nuremberg, the greatest of the German manufacturing and commercial cities, and a ready supply of silver enabled its guild of goldsmiths to fashion great numbers of richly ornamented vessels for export. This automaton, in which the goddess Diana, designed in late Mannerist style, is seated on a hollow-bodied stag with a removable head, functioned as a drinking vessel. A mechanism in the base causes the automaton to roll about on a tabletop in a pentagonal pattern and then stop; the person before whom it stopped would have to drain the contents. Diana's quiver and arrow and the jewels set in the trappings of the stag are modern replacements. http://www.wga.hu/html/f/friess/diana_st.h tml

5. IV. Characteristics of the period A. Three dimensional art and technical drawing 1. Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) B. Perspective technique

6. V. Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) A. Early life 1. Andrea del Verrochio B. Florence Cathedral 1. Dome

7. Da Vinci Biography, cont’d. C. Ludovico Sforza D. Luis XII, King of France E. Francois I 1. Lion automaton

8. VI. Historical method and resources A. Da Vinci’s notebooks 1. Francisco di Giorgio 2. Four types of technical projects B. Da Vinci website: www.museoscienza.org/english/leonardo

9. VII. Printing A. Four components 1. Moveable metal type a. Johann Gutenberg 2. Paper 3. Oil-based ink 4. Presses

10. B. Literacy 1. Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation 2. Information explosion 3. Scholastic debates

11. VIII. Technology and tradition A. Comparing technology transfer in China and Europe

12. IX. Mining A. Prince-practitioners 1. Georgius Agricola, De re metallica (1550)