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From Inventions
The glossary aims to include all instruments and machines invented from antiquity to the 18th century known to us through books, archival sources, and iconography, as well as the original instruments that have survived to our own day. Within a preliminary classification by typology, the items are presented in alphabetical order, listed by the name appearing in the sources. Clicking on an individual item opens an entry signed by one or more authors containing: name of the instrument, description of the instrument (component parts, scales of measurement, materials, etc.), historic introduction (epoch of the invention, inventor, success of the instrument, etc.), referrals (other names for the same instrument, or instruments similar in structure and function), primary bibliography (citing passages in which the name of the instrument appears and giving access to the digital resource when the text has been acquired in this format), secondary bibliography, illustrations (drawings, woodcuts, engravings and photographs of examples owned by the museum) with the relevant captions. To find a term appearing in the title of the entry or in the text itself, a search string is provided.
