Fountain Engineers Through History

Fountain Engineers Through History Frequently serving as architects, sculptors, designers, engineers and discerning scholars, all in one, fountain creators were multi-faceted people from the 16th to the later part of the 18th century. During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci illustrated the creator as an imaginative genius, inventor and scientific virtuoso. With his immense fascination about the forces of nature, he explored the properties and motion of water and methodically annotated his examinations in his now famed notebooks. Innovative water exhibits full with symbolic significance and natural charm converted private villa settings when early Italian fountain designers combined resourcefulness with hydraulic and gardening expertise. The humanist Pirro Ligorio offered the vision behind the wonders in Tivoli and was distinguished for his virtuosity in archeology, architecture and garden design. Well versed in humanistic topics and established technical readings, some other fountain makers were masterminding the extraordinary water marbles, water properties and water antics for the numerous mansions around Florence.

Rome’s Early Water Transport Systems

Rome’s Early Water Transport Systems Aqua Anio Vetus, the first raised aqueduct assembled in Rome, commenced providing the men and women living in the hills with water in 273 BC, even though they had relied on natural springs up till then. Outside of these aqueducts and springs, wells and rainwater-collecting cisterns were the lone technological innovations readily available at the time to supply water to areas of high elevation. Starting in the sixteenth century, a unique system was introduced, using Acqua Vergine’s subterranean sectors to deliver water to Pincian Hill. As originally constructed, the aqueduct was provided along the length of its channel with pozzi (manholes) constructed at regular intervals. Rome’s Early Water Transport Systems 495443391.jpg

During the roughly 9 years he possessed the property, from 1543 to 1552, Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi made use of these manholes to take water from the channel in buckets, though they were previously established for the purpose of cleaning and servicing the aqueduct. It seems that, the rainwater cistern on his property wasn’t enough to fulfill his needs. That is when he made a decision to create an access point to the aqueduct that ran underneath his property.