Hydraulics in Renaissance Science

Abstract

Hydraulics is a technology and then an applied science using engineering and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. The Renaissance was a time of great intellectual growth and rebirth for Hydraulics. Progresses in hydraulics and hydraulic engineering achieved during Renaissance represent milestones in the history of hydraulics, due to the revival of classical influences and the rediscovery of classical sources by the humanists. The major advances in Hydraulics occurred in the Renaissance concerned hydrostatics, hydrokinematics, and experimental hydraulics, whereas, the major breakthroughs in Hydraulic Engineering concerned Navigation, Irrigation and Aqueducts. It follows that in sixteenth century hydraulics was still considered a craftsman’s product, and therefore still an art, but not yet a science, and this was to be the case at least until the middle of seventeenth century.