Papers by Lilia Campana Halff
Dumbarton Oaks papers, 2019
Dumbarton Oaks Papers (Harvard University Press) , 2019
In 1744, the Venetian sea captain Gerolamo Maria Balbi (1693– 1761) presented the Senate with a p... more In 1744, the Venetian sea captain Gerolamo Maria Balbi (1693– 1761) presented the Senate with a project to build a galea alla ponentina (" galley of Western design ") that would join the Venetian fleet based in Corfu. The Senate approved Balbi's project hoping that the galley of new design would restore Venice's maritime reputation after the losses of the war against the Ottomans in 1718. The construction of the galley by the Venetian shipwright Giovan Battista Fausto lasted more than two years and was sent to Corfu in 1746. However, the newly built galley proved to be unseaworthy due to its faulty design and was sent back to Venice where it lay abandoned in the Arsenal until its dismissal in 1753. This article discusses Balbi's galley, which offers a unique glimpse into the technical experimentation in ship design in the Arsenal during the last decades of the Republic of Venice.
Institute of Nautical Archaeology Annual, 2009
Institute of Nautical Archaeology Quarterly , 2008
Institute of Nautical Archaeology Annual, 2011
Institute of Nautical Archaeology Quarterly , 2008
Institute of Nautical Archaeology Quarterly , 2011
Institute of Nautical Archaeology Quarterly , 2012
Book Reviews by Lilia Campana Halff
their purchase for the library of the University of Salamanca. Philologically, Aldus's fivevolume... more their purchase for the library of the University of Salamanca. Philologically, Aldus's fivevolume set of the works of Aristotle (1495-98) was enormously influential, some of its texts being used as one of the models for future editions. In the next essay, Escobar explores the attempts of sixteenth-century Spanish humanists to publish an edition and translation of Aristotle's opera omnia, a project launched by Cisneros, taken over by Hurtado de Mendoza during the Council of Trent, but never materialized. Additionally, the influence of Aldus had an impact on the education of Phillip II. Sánchez Molero argues that the well-attested presence of Aldine editions in the library of the Spanish king reinforces the thesis that he received a truly humanistic education before the religious intolerance of the second half of the sixteenth century. Other topics in this collection include the impact of Aldine bindings, the Aldine editions of Greek works in Hurtado de Mendoza's library, the gradual use of the Aldine semicolon by Spanish printers, and the Aldine books in the library of the Cathedral of Córdoba. To conclude: these essays are an important contribution to book history in sixteenth-century Spain, and are a must read for anyone interested in intellectual history, reception studies, and material culture.
Renaissance Quarterly, 2011
Renaissance Quarterly , 2019
Renaissance Quarterly, 2019
Conference Presentations by Lilia Campana Halff
Renaissance Society of America - Abstract, 2008
Generally, it is assumed that Italian women played a very limited economic role during the Renais... more Generally, it is assumed that Italian women played a very limited economic role during the Renaissance. While it is recognized that they might act as suppliers of capital or as workers at the lowest levels of manufacturing, it is often not realized that they could also function as independent merchants and entrepreneurs. The "merchantesses" of Renaissance Venice demonstrate that this was possible and that women could achieve a relatively important role in the local economy as traders and as organizers of production in certain industries.
Renaissance Society of American - Abstract, 2009
a number of topics such as the golden ratio and the cosmic role of polyhedral solids. In its seco... more a number of topics such as the golden ratio and the cosmic role of polyhedral solids. In its second part, Pacioli focuses on architecture and Vitruvius's canon of proportion, which he interprets as the anthropomorphic and anthropometric matrix for the production of architectural space. In addition, Pacioli attempts to construe the male body as a model of cosmic beauty, which in turn can be described in a mathematical way. Thus, the Vitruvian homo ad circulum et quadratum becomes the divine apotheosis of basic geometrical forms. However, Pacioli also makes use of the metaphorical, narrative dimensions of the human body as practiced in architectural discourse of his time, linking his text in this way not only backward to Vitruvius, but also forward to Vesalius and the new Renaissance knowledge of empirical anatomy. danieL neWSoMe, the city University of new york, the gradUate center Beyond Harmonics: Leon Battista Alberti's Forgotten Proportions from De re aedificatoria This paper addresses the collection of Alberti's architectural proportions as described in his treatise De re aedificatoria and the problems of finding these proportions in actual buildings. The structural designs of Alberti have often been analyzed using the musically derived ratios he promotes in book 9 of De re, but these proportions are just a part of his larger theory. In the same part of the book he also describes numbers derived from the cube and numbers from the three principal mathematical means. Historians have typically ignored these other relationships favoring the Pythagorean intervals. When all of his mathematical derivations are included and the ambiguity of measurement is factored in, his system of architectural proportion includes more than it excludes. This paper describes the proportions that have been ignored and shows how most any building can demonstrate Albertian proportion. LiLia caMPana, texas a & M University Geometrical methods in Ship Design Used by Shipbuilders in the Venetian Arsenal from the Late middle Ages to the Renaissance In the late middle Ages, shipbuilding was mostly an empirical practice depending on the shipwrights' skill, which developed from acquired experience communicated orally from masters to apprentices, and fathers to sons. However, during this period practical shipbuilding knowledge began to be recorded in texts, and no longer limited to the tradition of oral transmission. Literary evidence suggests that, at least starting from the fourteenth century, shipwrights used a number of geometrical methods to ensure control over the final shape of a ship's hull with a fair degree of precision. Although it is assumed that shipwrights were generally uneducated craftsmen, the geometrical methods used in ship design involved a profound understanding of mathematical notions, such as algorithms and triangular numbers. This paper aims to explain as clearly as possible the geometrical methods used in ship design during the medieval and Renaissance periods in the Arsenal of Venice. By presenting several written sources, such as the unpublished Libro di Navigar (mid-fourteenth century), we attempt to demonstrate that shipbuilding was a complex craft dictated by geometric rules, which, during the Renaissance, found similar applications in the principles of architectural design and perspective in painting.
XXIII International Congress of History of Science and Technology, 2009
In the Late Middle Ages, shipbuilding was mostly an empirical practice depending on the shipwrigh... more In the Late Middle Ages, shipbuilding was mostly an empirical practice depending on the shipwrights' skill, which developed from acquired experience communicated orally from masters to apprentices, and fathers to sons. However, during this period practical shipbuilding knowledge began to be recorded in texts, and no longer limited to the tradition of oral transmission. Literary evidence suggests that, at least starting from the 14th century, shipwrights used a number of geometrical methods to ensure control over the final shape of a ship's hull with a fair degree of precision. Although it is assumed that shipwrights were generally uneducated craftsmen, the geometrical methods used in ship design involved a profound understanding of mathematical notions, such as algorithms and triangular numbers. This paper aims to explain the geometrical methods used in ship design during the Medieval and Renaissance periods in the Arsenal of Venice. By presenting several written sources, such as the unpublished Libro di Navigar (mid-14th century), we attempt to demonstrate that shipbuilding was a complex craft dictated by geometric rules, which, during the Renaissance, found similar applications in the principles of architectural design and perspective in painting.
History of Science and Technology Annual Meeting - Abstracts
Birds figure prominently in the stories we tell about the history of aviation, Daedalus and Leona... more Birds figure prominently in the stories we tell about the history of aviation, Daedalus and Leonardo daVinci being two of the most famous examples of humans who thought to imitate the flight of the feathered. But the story of the ways in which systematic studies of bird flight informed modern efforts to achieve heavier-than-air flight remains largely untold. This paper will bring to light the work of Louis-Pierre Mouillard, a French expatriate living in Cairo in the late nineteenth century. Mouillard spent decades observing the large, soaring birds of North Africa. These birds appeared to glide on wind currents without exerting force, suggesting a model for motorless, fixed-wing airplanes. Mouillard's book L'Empire de l'air, published in 1881, presented detailed verbal descriptions of bird bodies and their flight maneuvers, accompanied by precise measurements and abstract outlines of their bodies. Responding to those within the aviation community who thought flying without flapping an impossibility, Mouillard insisted that his birds furnished absolute proof that this feat was indeed possible. His careful study of bird forms was meant to furnish practical models for the design and construction of airplanes, and the book proved influential within the international aviation community, helping him securing the patronage of the esteemed American engineer Octave Chanute. Chanute promoted Mouillard's work to American and European aviation enthusiasts, and even funded Mouillard's construction of an airplane. Though largely written out of the history of aviation, Mouillard's was an important voice, offering credible testimony from a distance to flight without flapping.
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Papers by Lilia Campana Halff
Book Reviews by Lilia Campana Halff
Conference Presentations by Lilia Campana Halff