Discourse on Mechanics.

A distinction must be made among these works: primarily, those things are learned, honored, and undertaken that are useful and necessary in common life. Those, however, that consist only in special reflection and perhaps in diligent labor, while certainly deserving their praise and admiration, provide neither use nor particular advantage in civic life. Nevertheless, these inventors and artists are, in view of the diligence they have applied, just as much to be praised and rewarded as those who have invented something useful.

Accordingly, our ancestors—the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Greeks, and Latins—learned the mechanical sciences and held them in such high honor, as well as the philosophical ones, that kings and princes, as well as the greatest and most learned sages of the world, were expected to know and learn them. We read of great princes who took pleasure in certain crafts and did not shy away from laying a hand to them themselves. Many others are famous for having dealt with many artificial, ingenious sciences derived from mathematical principles.

Thus, it is told of Ptolemy Philadelphus, an Egyptian king, that he was quite successful in very ingenious mechanical inventions and often, while setting aside the most important business, visited the workshops himself with the greatest pleasure, such as when he had a very artificially crafted golden altar made as a gift, among others, for the God of Jerusalem. Emperor Valentinian was famous for drawing and painting. Duke Albert IV of Austria took pleasure in wood carving, turning, and similar work; these princes, therefore, did not consider it a disgrace to practice crafts and take pleasure in them.

Demetrius Poliorcetes, a king in Asia, was conversely so diligent and eager in the invention and design of various war machines that he received the nickname Poliorcetes, that is, Urbium Obsessor Besieger of Cities, because of the war equipment he himself invented.

Gelon, the King of Syracuse, assembled an entire arsenal of all kinds of machines that were unusual and truly miraculous at that time through the diligent reflection of Archimedes. Not to mention many other princes and even entire republics that made themselves famous through mechanical sciences. Thus, various philosophers have also acquired immortal fame by creating great and manifold benefits for common and civic life through these sciences. Accordingly, Ctesibius cannot be praised enough for his applied diligence and sharp reflection, through which he invented so many useful tools for civic life. Heron of Alexandria is to be placed at the side of an excellent philosopher and mathematician, as is another Heron, who rightly kept the name of a Mechanicus mechanic because of his special insights, intelligence, and skill in mechanical sciences. For among all who were famous after the great philosopher, mathematician, and mechanic, Archimedes, he is the most excellent, although, even if he surpassed these others, he still did not equal the former in learning, understanding, and reflection. For Archimedes was born for learning by nature itself, as he possessed the mathematical, and indeed almost all sciences and arts, perfectly, and for that reason, he was unanimously recognized and declared by all scholars to be a great philosopher and mathematician, even though he did not want to be a practical mechanic.

Archimedes, Archytas, Eudoxus, both Herons, and some other mathematicians and mechanics rarely have their equal, who could assemble all kinds of tools—gnomonic,