“The beginning of modern hydraulics” (DSB) by Galileo Galilei’s pupil and friend
CASTELLI, Benedetto. Della misura dell’acque correnti. Rome: Nella Stamperia Camerale. 1628.
4to. Crushed green morocco by Brugalla, dated 1963, spine lettered in gilt, gilt turn-ins, gilt edges; pp. [2], 59, [1], engraved title page featuring a bridge over the Tiber River, engraved vignette of Barberini arms to second title, 11 woodcut in-text diagrams, woodcut initials, head-, and tailpieces (including a woodcut bee), printed correction slip to p. 48; spine and extremities a little sunned, front hinge partly cracked but holding firm; outer lower corner and upper margin of engraved title subtly repaired (not affecting printed area), some occasional, very light spotting, otherwise a very clean and crisp copy; annotation in an early hand in ink to p. 48 (trimmed, see below).
First edition of this seminal work of hydrodynamics, “the first book on water flow to have a mathematical basis” (Ashworth).
Benedetto Castelli (c. 1578-1643), born Antonio Castelli, adopted the name Benedetto upon entering the Benedictine Order in Brescia. Around 1600, he was transferred to the Monastery of Santa Giustina in Padua, where he met Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and became one of his most prominent pupils. Castelli assisted in the publication of Galilei’s Discorso intorno alle cose che stanno in su l’acqua… (1612) and was a tireless advocate for his master’s ideas (to him Galilei addressed his famous 1613 letter challenging the Church’s authority in matters of scientific enquiry). Yet Castelli also made a lasting contribution in his own right by laying the foundations of modern hydrodynamics, or the science of “running water”. Just as Galilei had formulated the mathematical laws governing motion on inclined planes, Castelli established the basic principles governing the quantity and flow of moving water. His students included leading physicists and mathematicians such as Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) and Bonaventura Cavalieri (1598-1647).
By late 1624, Castelli had relocated to Rome, where the newly elected Pope Urban VIII enlisted his help in resolving the complex hydraulic issues of the Reno River in the Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany regions. As the pope’s trusted mathematician, Castelli was sent to the flood-prone plains of Bologna and Ferrara, where the Po River’s sluggish gradient caused widespread marshland. Castelli proposed diverting the Reno into the Po through canalization – a plan never executed. In 1628, Castelli published his groundbreaking treatise, Della misura dell’acque Correnti (On the Measurement of Running Waters).The treatise is divided into two parts, dedicated respectively to Urban VIII and to the Cardinal-nephew Taddeo Barberini (1603-1647). The first part, Della misura dell’acque Correnti, sets out sixteen corollaries and thirteen appendices that address the incompressibility of water and methods for measuring flow. The second, more technical part, Dimostrazioni geometriche della misura dell’acque correnti, lays out three definitions followed by a rigorous mathematical treatment of the subject through axioms and propositions. With them, Castelli established the direct relationship between the cross-sectional area of a river and the velocity of its waters: an insight that proved essential for managing river floods and improving irrigation. He also examined the relationship between velocity and head in water flowing through an orifice.
The treatise, praised by Galilei, was expanded and reprinted several times during the seventeenth century. The first English edition appeared in 1661, translated by Thomas Salusbury from the third Italian edition; the first French edition, translated and edited by Pierre Saporta, was published in 1664.
Provenance: A nine-line manuscript annotation in Spanish, written in a contemporary hand and concerning water mills, suggests early ownership in Spain. This Spanish provenance appears to have continued until the book was rebound by the Barcelona binder Emilio Brugalla (1901-1985).
See: Ashworth, Scientist of the Day – Benedetto Castelli, Linda Hall, online; De Ferrari, “Castelli, Benedetto”, DBI, 21 (1978).
#2122166