Pirotechnia

Originally printed in 1540, this classic work on the field of metallurgy marked the beginning of a true technological literature.

Biringuccio's Pirotechnia is the earliest printed work to cover the whole field of metallurgy. Originally printed in Venice in 1540, this was the first book to deal with the applied metal arts and processes of ore reduction and to describe the techniques which had been in development since the bronze age.

Written by a master craftsman in a time when knowledge was kept alive by the spoken rather than the written word, this classic marked the beginning of a true technological literature, with both craftsmanship and science united by a writer's pen to form a record of an important facet of man's achievement as a stimulus to further advance. After the publication of the Pirotechnia, many followed Biringuccio's example, and as a result of this growing literature of technological practice and experimental fact, science eventually became the concern of the educated man.

Cyril Stanley Smith is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, and author of A Search for Structure: Selected Essays on Science, Art, and History (MIT Press paperback).