Vittorio Zonca

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title: "Vittorio Zonca" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1568-births", "1603-deaths", "italian-engineers", "italian-male-non-fiction-writers", "italian-science-writers"] description: "Italian engineer and writer" topic_path: "people/1560s" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittorio_Zonca" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Italian engineer and writer ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Pompeo_Targone's_field_mill_in_Zonca's_treatise_of_1607.jpg" caption="[[Pompeo Targone]]'s [[field mill]] in Zonca's treatise of 1607"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Field_mill_in_the_Chinese_Qiqi_tushuo,_1627.jpg" caption="Adaptation of Zonca's field mill in the Chinese book ''[[Qiqi Tushuo]]'' (1627), by [[Johann Schreck]] and Wang Zheng"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Zonca_endless_screw_and_winch.jpg" caption="Endless screw and winch, in Zonca's treatise of 1607"] ::

Vittorio Zonca (1568–1603) was an Italian engineer and writer. He wrote the Theater of machines, which was published in Padua in 1607 four years after his death.

Some of his plates were translated into Chinese by Johann Schreck and published in the 1627 Chinese book on European mechanical arts Diagrams and explanations of the wonderful machines of the Far West.

Works

• Vittorio Zonca Novo Teatro di Machine et Edificii, Padua 1607.

Notes

References

• Arnold Pacey The Maze of Ingenuity: Ideas and Idealism in the Development of Technology MIT Press, 1992
• Francis C. Moon The Machines of Leonardo Da Vinci and Franz Reuleaux: Kinematics of Machines from the Renaissance to the 20th Century Springer, 2007
• Joseph Needham, Ling Wang, Gwei-Djen Lu Science and civilisation in China Cambridge University Press, 1965

References

1. Pacey, Arnold. (January 1992). "The Maze of Ingenuity: Ideas and Idealism in the Development of Technology". MIT Press.
2. Moon, Francis C.. (29 October 2007). "The Machines of Leonardo Da Vinci and Franz Reuleaux: Kinematics of Machines from the Renaissance to the 20th Century". Springer.
3. Needham, Joseph. (2 January 1965). "Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering". Cambridge University Press.

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