The Circulation of Science and Technology

Bookwheel, from Agostino Ramelli's "Le diverse et artifiose machine," 1588.

The circulation of science and technology is not an automatic process. Ingenious techniques are needed to make the locally attached scholar a cosmopolitan character with simultaneous access to multiple sources of knowledge. Machines themselves may incorporate sophisticated knowledge as suggested by the epicyclic gearing arrangement that keep the books at a constant angle adapted by Ramelli from astronomical clocks. The bookwheel, by displaying the mathematical prowess of the Italian military engineer, works as an excellent metaphor both of the deep relations between science and technology and of the highly demanding task of putting them in circulation.