Ser hechura deengineering, loyalty and power networks in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Resum

In this book, the collection Juanelo Turriano Lectures on the History of Engineering is publishing part of the results of a project in which the Fundación Juanelo Turriano has been the concerned entity: the R&D+I project El dibujante ingeniero al servicio de la monarquía hispánica. Siglos XVI-XVIII: ciudad e ingeniería en el Mediterráneo - DIMHCIM (AEI/FEDER/UE) [Draughtsman engineers serving the Spanish monarchy in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries: city and engineering in the Mediterranean - DIMHCIM (AEI/FEDER/UE)], - HAR2016-78098-P funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.The book is organised around three main axes for reflection: Nobility and engineering, Creations of and Between power and knowledge, which present the chapters in which Spanish, French and Italian specialists study the relations that existed between the engineers and power in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The guiding theme is the expression «ser hechura de», which we find defined in Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española [Treasury of the Castilian or Spanish Language] by Sebastián de Covarrubias in 1611: Hechura: para dar a entender que un señor ha valido a cualquier persona, y le ha puesto en estado y honor, decimos ser este tal hechura suya [Creation/Making: to signify that a nobleman has sponsored somebody, and given him status and honour, we say that this person is his creation or of his making]. The possibility of collecting in one book case studies that involve a large part of Europe, allows a comparison of how the necessary loyalties were ensured, the engineer’s dependency regarding the networks of power, the shared knowledge, or the role of the nobility, all of which represents a new approach to the history of engineering in the Early Modern Era.