Hydraulic Engineering and the Study of Antiquity: Rome, 1557–70

This article investigates the relationships between hydraulic engineering and antiquarian studies in Rome in the long decade between the devastating Tiber River flood of 1557 and the completion of the repair of an ancient aqueduct, the Acqua Vergine, in 1570. The essay focuses on the physician Andre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRenaissance quarterly Vol. 61; no. 4; pp. 1098 - 1138
Main Author Long, Pamela O.
Format Book Review Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge The Renaissance Society of America 22.12.2008
Renaissance Society of America
Cambridge University Press
Subjects
Antiquarianism
Antiquity
Aqueducts
Bacci, Andrea
Cities
Engineering
Engineers
Environmental aspects
Flood damage
Floods
Historic artifacts
History
Humanism
Hydraulic engineering
Hydraulics
Italy
Ligorio, Pirro
Peto, Luca
Physicians
Popes
Repair
River water
Roman civilization
Sea water
Studies
Trevisi, Antonio
Works
Italy
Rome Italy
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Summary:This article investigates the relationships between hydraulic engineering and antiquarian studies in Rome in the long decade between the devastating Tiber River flood of 1557 and the completion of the repair of an ancient aqueduct, the Acqua Vergine, in 1570. The essay focuses on the physician Andrea Bacci (1524–1600), the engineer Antonio Trevisi (d. 1566), the jurist and Roman magistrate Luca Peto (1512–81), and the antiquarian Pirro Ligorio (ca. 1510–83). These individuals from both learned and practical backgrounds approached urgent problems of hydraulic engineering by studying ancient texts and artifacts, and they proposed solutions that were influenced by their study. This confluence of antiquarian study and engineering contributed to the development of empirical methodologies in the late Renaissance by making engineering part of a learned discourse.
ISSN:0034-4338
1935-0236
DOI:10.1353/ren.0.0320