Introduction
Typography
- Fonts
- Text and image
- Technopaegnia
Woodcuts
Cinematic visual logic
- Moving bodies
- Double page spread
- Filmic sequences
Architecture
Gardens and landscapes
Other editions
Mysterious messages
Eros and metaphor
Technical innovations
External links
Technical innovations
Among the extraordinary features of the Hypnerotomachia is the expertise it displays in describing the ingenious mechanical principles involved in the functioning of various wind and hydraulic powered technical inventions. For instance, in the mobile "fontana a termini," or perpetual fountain, which also fascinated Leonardo da Vinci. (see pp. 116-121 of L. Lefaivre’s Leon Battista Alberti’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili). Copyright © 1997. The MIT Press. All rights reserved.
Fontana a termini,
and in the wind-powered twirling trumpeter,
and, in addition, in the sprinkling joker,
set into action through the action
of a leaver concealed in the floor
in front of it.