Agostino Ramelli (1531-circa 1610) - Italian military engineer and mechanic , “engineer of the most Christian king of France and Poland” Henry III , inventor of the Ramelli book wheel , a 16th-century rotating reading table, which he described in the book “Le various et artificiose machine” [ 1] (now considered the forerunner of hypertext ).
| Agostino Ramelli | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Date of Birth | 1531 |
| Place of Birth | |
| Date of death | about 1610 |
| A place of death | Paris , Kingdom of France |
| Nationality |  |
| Occupation | engineer , mechanic , inventor |
Biography
Led by Giacomo di Marignano, who was supposedly a student of Leonardo da Vinci , Ramelli studied mathematics, mechanics, and engineering. He served as captain under the command of the Duke Gian Giacomo de Medici. He later switched to French service. During the siege of La Rochelle (1572-1573), he successfully dug under the bastion and disrupted the enemy's fortifications, which made him popular with the commander of the Duke of Anjou, the future king of France, Henry III .
He worked in the field of fortification and practical mechanics.
In 1588, A. Ramelli published in Paris a bilingual (Italian and French) book, Treasury of the ingenious machines of the noble and famous Captain Agostino Ramelli, containing 195 detailed tables with accompanying comments and illustrations, in which he described the various machines, complex in their structure that are interesting from the point of view of kinematics , over 100 of which are water-lifting machines, including books wheel and water pump type crankshaft , which are considered the precursors of the rotary-piston to move in! ator Wankel .
According to the German mechanical engineering historian T. Beck, A. Ramelli collected in his book machines invented by Leonardo da Vinci and his school.