Abstract
A review of the main instruments developed in Italy over more than two centuries to measure flow velocity of experience is presented, highlighting the relation with the development of hydraulics as a physical–mathematical science from the seventeenth century. The number and variety of Italian velocity meters partly reflect the vitality of a tradition, characterized by political polycentrism and rivalry among the individual cities and universities. In other aspects, the invention of ever-newer measuring instruments corresponds to the attitude of many of the early Italian hydraulicians, who interpreted hydraulics as a science of nature, based almost exclusively on observation and experience, which requires rather the gift of intuition than mathematical deduction. This work is part of a project of the BEIC Library and of the University of Milan, which will make available digital versions of hundreds of Italian historic texts of hydraulics on the portal www.beic.it.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank BEIC for its financial support and technical collaboration within this project.