Theater of Machines, Volume II

there are now many innumerable ways by which one should seek and discover water, I will leave it to rest there for the sake of brevity. Only this I must still mention: since Vitruvius considers these waters that have their source toward the Septentrione north/the north wind, or midnight, to be the best in taste and the healthiest because of their coldness, yet others are reckoned as healthy that spring up toward the rising of the sun and the south and have their outflow; therefore, such are often quite clear and, for the sake of their purity, lighter, whereas the northern ones, because of their heaviness and coarseness, are unhealthier. But much is written in Vitruvius, Pliny, and other writers about the testing of water, of which I will make no mention here, but rather make a beginning by raising the water through all kinds of artificial machinas machines, so that we may finally reach the milling works and the