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Burattini's flying dragon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

Clive Hart
Clive Hart*
Affiliation:
University of Essex
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Extract

Largely as a result of frequent written reports by Pierre Des Noyers, secretary to the Queen of Poland, mid-seventeenth century scientists took a great deal of interest in the aeronautical work of an Italian engineer, Tito Livio Burattini. Born in Agordo, north of Venice, on 8th March 1617, Burattini early became a travelling scholar. By 1637 he had reached Egypt, where he helped John Greaves with his famous work on the pyramids. Despite his youth, he appears greatly to have impressed Greaves, who referred to him, with slight inaccuracy, as ‘Titus Livius Burretinus, a Venetian, an ingenious young man'. In 1641 Burattini returned to Europe, spending a little time in Germany and travelling on to Poland, where he lived until 1645. In 1647, after a visit to his native Italy and a second period in Egypt, he settled permanently in Poland, where he attempted, soon after his arrival, to establish himself at the court of Wladislaw IV (30th May 1595-20th May 1648).

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 83 , Issue 823 , July 1979 , pp. 269 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1979 

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References

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