Flow velocity measurement in Italy between Renaissance and Risorgimento

A review of the main instruments developed in Italy over more than two centuries to measure flow velocity of experience is presented, highlighting the relation with the development of hydraulics as a physical–mathematical science from the seventeenth century. The number and variety of Italian velocity meters partly reflect the vitality of a tradition, characterized by political polycentrism and rivalry among the individual cities and universities. In other aspects, the invention of ever-newer measuring instruments corresponds to the attitude of many of the early Italian hydraulicians, who interpreted hydraulics as a science of nature, based almost exclusively on observation and experience, which requires rather the gift of intuition than mathematical deduction. This work is part of a project of the BEIC Library and of the University of Milan, which will make available digital versions of hundreds of Italian historic texts of hydraulics on the portal www.beic.it.