The 18th Century Bible on Dutch Canal and Dam Construction: Tileman Horst Theatrum Machinarum, 1737

JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 461

Tileman van der Horst and Jan Schenk produced the Theatrum Machinarium Univesale*, one of the most celebrated works on the construction of all those elements so necessary to keeping life dry in Amsterdam 9the place of the book’s publication).  It was perhaps the most important work then produced on dikes, sluices, dams, weirs, canals and swing-bridges, the very elements of existence in Holland.  Jan Schenck was the engraver of this work, which may also be the most accurate and the most sumptuously illustrated book of its type in Holland in the 18^th century—the technical aspects of the rendering was just superb. In the image (which is a detail of a detail of a larger folding plate) I reproduced at left and below we see that Schenk and Horst weren’t kidding around in their treatise:  what we see here is the elevation for a plan showing the laying-in of pilings for a larger structure.  This is still tricky business today in Amsterdam, given the soil structures on which the city is built, some of these pilings go down hundreds of feet.  This group of about fifty men is certainly struggling with something big; but just how big it is I do not know.  (They do look rather well-dressed for being about to muck around in the foundation area of a structure.) And this draws my attention to the planks on which they all stand; the boards seem just enormous, looking to be two feet wide and several inches thick, and long.  I’d be very curious to know where this lumber was coming from, as I feel it certainly wasn’t local.

*Theatrum Machinarum Universale.. of Keurige Verzameling van .. Waterwerken, Schutsluizen, waterkeringen, ophaal- en draaibruggen. Printed in Amsterdam., by Petrus Schenk en Zoon, 1757-74.  Illustrated with 50 engravings on 47 partly folding plates.