Preface

[which] flourish in the present time, might also be adorned with this beautiful art. Therefore, I have spared no labor or diligence to promote this praiseworthy work with drawings and copperplate engraving an advanced printing technique using etched metal plates to produce much finer detail than traditional woodcuts, which was a technological novelty in Leipzig at the time. I did this primarily because I saw that this useful art of copperplate engraving and printing was, until now, almost foreign and unknown here in Leipzig, and I deemed it unjust that this praiseworthy city should lack such an art any longer.

Therefore—Honorable, Respectable, Highly Learned, Noble and Wise, Greatly-Favoring Gentlemen—I have first made a beginning with useful matters. In this first part of the Theater of Machines original: "Theatri Machinarum", I have presented the true foundation and understanding of scales and weights the principles of statics and how weight affects balance and motion, and how, from that same foundation, many kinds of ingenious machines original: "Machinæ" for lifting, pulling, and transporting can be constructed. These are presented with clear descriptions and explanations, as well as visual diagrams and the form of each machine in various copperplate prints.

This first part of the Theater of Machines I now herewith present original: "præsentiren" to your Honorable, Respectable, Noble and Wise Worships, with a most dutiful request that your Honorable, Respectable, Noble and...