Mariano Taccola

**Mariano di Jacopo detto il Taccola** (1381 – ca. 1453), called Taccola (the crow), was an Italian artist, engineer and administrator. He lived during the early Renaissance . He wrote two important books, *De ingeneis* and *De machinis*. These hand-drawn books have drawings of many new (for his time) machines. There are also descriptions of the machines.  Leonardo da Vinci and other people used his books in the later Renaissance.

## Life 
Mariano Taccola was born in Siena in 1381. His father was a wine merchant named Jacopo. His mother's name was Madonna Nofria (Bacci). Taccola himself used the name Ser Mariani Jacobi decti. Taccola started his first book, *De ingeneis*, in 1419. He completed it in 1433. 

Taccola was one of the first artist-engineers of the Renaissance.  He invented a new way of making technical drawings.  This is called an exploded-view.  In these diagrams, an object's parts are shown separated and with indications of how they fit together. After Taccola died, his work was largely neglected until the 20th century. Only after 1960 were his works printed. This was based on the discovery of his original works in two museums. These s were much better than , which s had been familiar with. He once interviewed the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi and recorded it in one of his folios. Brunelleschi advised Taccola not to explain his inventions to others who did not understand machines. He said: "Therefore the gifts given to us by God must not be relinquished to those who speak ill of them and who are moved by envy or ignorance.  To disclose too much of one's inventions and achievements is one and the same thing as to give up the fruit of one's ingenuity... the ignorant and inexperienced understand nothing, not even when things are explained to them; their ignorance moves them promptly to anger; they remain in their ignorance because they want to show themselves learned, which they are not"

## Facsimile editions 
* J.H. Beck, ed., 1969, Mariano di Jacopo detto il Taccola, Liber tertius de ingeneis ac edifitiis non usitatis, (Milan: Edizioni il Polifilo), 156 pp., 96 pls.
(This edition reproduces Books III and IV of de Ingeneis)
* Frank D. Prager and Gustina Scaglia, eds., 1971, *Mariano Taccola and His Book "De ingeneis"* (Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press), 230 pp., 129 pls.
(This edition also reproduces Books III and IV of de Ingeneis)
*Gustina Scaglia, ed.,1971,  Mariano Taccola, De machinis: The Engineering Treatise of 1449, 2 vols. (Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag), 181 and 210 pp., 200 pls.

## Further reading 
* Donald Routledge Hill, 1996, *A History of Engineering in Classical and Medieval Times* Routledge
* Lawrence Fane, 2003, "The Invented World of Mariano Taccola", *Leonardo*, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 135–143
* Scott Christianson, 2012, *100 diagrams that changed the world*. A Plume Book/Penguin: New York, N.Y., p. 71

## Notes 
## References 
## Other websites 
* Institute and Museum of the History of Science – Online-Exposition about Taccola's drawings
* New York Public Library Digital Collection; Mariano Taccola
* The Archimededes Project; Database Machine Drawings Author:	mariano (taccola)