Faust Vrančić: 400 years after the publication of his work Machinae novae
Faust Vrančić: 400 years after the publication of his work Machinae novae

Summary/Abstract: Faust Vrančić (Šibenik 1551 - Venice 1617) was one of the most versatile Croatian humanists-polymaths who, with his scientific, intellectual and diplomatic-political activities during the transition from the 16th to the 17th century, left an indelible trace not only in Croatian but also European science and culture. Since his opus includes philosophical, linguistic, historical, hagiographical and natural scientific works in Latin and Croatian, he is the subject of research of a wide circle of experts from various scientific disciplines. This article presents, from several aspects, Vrančić’s most famous work, the techn(olog)ical manual Machinae novae and examines, in a scholarly manner, his importance for the development of technology and contribution to the European intellectual culture of that period. The article also explains Vrančić’s education and coming of age into one of the foremost techn(olog)ical writers of that period and analyses the most important characteristics of the structure and contents of Machinae novae through which Vrančić acquired worldwide fame. The methodology and content of the work is compared with the Western Renaissance scientific/scholarly and techn(olog)ical tradition.

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