Las máquinas del tiempo

by Carlo M. Cipolla, Guillermo Piro (Translator)

How did a time-keeping device affect the growth of crafts guilds and the scientific research that led to the Industrial Revolution in Europe? Why were Chinese Mandarins enchanted by the intricate workings of clocks but uninterested in their time-keeping function? While European life quickly became regulated by the ticking of town clocks, Asia retained its seasonal cycles of time and initially resisted the idea of living life by the clock. Clocks and Culture is a brief history of the changes wrought by and on Europe and Asia over four hundred years due to technological advances in time-keeping and the rise of a clock-centered culture.

Breve y famoso ensayo en el que se recorre la historia de la invención y de la difusión de las máquinas del tiempo, es decir, los relojes, primeros aparatos de precisión que, en sintonía con la exigencia del Occidente medieval y moderno, escanden los tiempos de la vida social. El autor describe desde los talleres medievales, hasta el laboratorio de relojes creado a finales del siglo XVII en el palacio imperial de Pekín.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, History Of Science, China

140 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Carlo M. Cipolla was an Italian economic historian. He was born in Pavia, where he got his academic degree in 1944.

As a young man, Cipolla wanted to teach history and philosophy in an Italian high school, and therefore enrolled at the political science faculty at Pavia University. Whilst a student there, thanks to professor Franco Borlandi, a specialist in Medieval economic history, he discovered his passion for economic history. Subsequently he studied at the Sorbonne and the London School of Economics.

Cipolla obtained his first teaching post in economic history in Catania at the age of 27. This was to be the first stop in a long academic career in Italy (Venice, Turin, Pavia, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Fiesole) and abroad. In 1953 Cipolla left for the United States as a Fulbright fellow and in 1957 became a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Two years later he obtained a full professorship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_M....

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one I read a long time ago - it was a real surprise - the title doesn't sound very promising, but it was fascinating. The development of reliable time-keeping devices had a revolutionary impact on society, and we’re unlikely to grasp the significance from our perspective on this side of the revolution without a book like this. It was a good read, and an enlightening one.

[Leonardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un estudio clásico en más de un sentido, "Las máquinas del tiempo" de Carlo M. Cipolla estudia la relación de la medición del tiempo, la fabricación de relojes y el cambio de las relaciones comerciales y políticas dentro de Europa y entre este continente y Asia. La primera parte estudia la manera en que la fabricación de relojes (y, por tanto, la medición del tiempo) se fue volviendo un arte cada vez más preciso en Europa, como los relojeros dejaron de ser una subsección del gremio de los herreros y como las innovaciones tecnológicas en el campo de la relojería iban de la mano con los cambios en la situación política y económica del continente. En la segunda parte del libro, Cipolla estudia el cambio de las relaciones entre Europa y Asia: como la primera fue ganando la superioridad política, económica y comercial sobre la segunda, gracias a la innovación tecnológica, de la cual los relojes formaron parte importante, aunque de manera más simbólica que directa, ya que su presencia se viera limitada a fungir como regalos y curiosidades para potentados asiáticos y, antes del siglo XX, no se viera reflejada en la vida cotidiana, ni en la concepción del universo, por parte de la población en general. El libro también incluye un apéndice sucinto sobre el funcionamiento básico del mecanismo de un reloj.

[Raúl Oyola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adoro la claridad —que, por cierto, no sacrifica la extrema rigurosidad— de Cipolla, se le siente muy cercano a pesar del talante de una obra como esta. Sin duda es un libro muy curioso y desde luego imprescindible para abordar el tema del tiempo y los relojes.

[Skallagrimsen]

If you're interested in a deeper understanding of the medieval origins of modernity and European global hegemony, this brief, brilliant book is well worth your time.

[Denis Vasilev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Книга аналогичная его же парусам и пушкам. На примере часов показывается суть и разница технологического развития Запада и Востока

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are better, more comprehensive histories of timekeeping. I prefer Landes' REVOLUTION IN TIME, or Dohrn-van Rossum's HISTORY OF THE HOUR. Although, like those books, Cipolla does not really give a sense of the contentiousness of the emergence of the modern time system, or how slowly clocks were accepted as the arbiters of time.

[Paul Van Cleave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read on the history of clocks. That said, prologue is pretty breathtaking too where Cipolla outlines his understanding of European history. Lines in sand are drawn and no real proof is given. But he tells you where he stands. The author’s tone comes through again and again throughout the book. For example, he’ll site an example. Then say the source “exaggerated.” Before clawing back some truth. He seems to relish sources that overstep, and then puts it into the context of the time.

I learned a bunch about Verge-and-Foliot Escapement clocks—the precursor to pendulum clocks (invented by Christiaan Huygens in 1650). Marvelous text about craftsmen vs scientists (random trail and error vs scientific method trial and error). How clock makers weren’t a separate, skilled occupation until much later. They were metal workers, carpenters, other trade. Either accidental repairers of clocks, or part time enthusiast.

Short book and a quick read if you are a history buff

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

"[G]iven satisfactory conditions on the side of demand, a handful of craftsmen was all that was needed to make a great center of production. As I have already indicated, there were less than two dozen master clockmakers in Paris in the middle of the sixteenth century, and the masters who made Lyons a center of the clock industry were no more numerous. To destroy or to build up the industry it was enough to dismiss or attract a dozen craftsmen. We, today, are not so vulnerable at the level of horology, but at higher levels the selective massacre of a dozen scientists would bring more than one branch of science to a standstill." (64)

[Lina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Los japoneses contaban en en tiempo de manera distinta, con largos días de verano en seis horas y cortos días de invierno en seis horas. La burocracia y el clasismo chino fue (o ha sido) un obstáculo para su crecimiento tecnológico.
Nagasaki: puerta.
Kyoto: artesanos y nobles
Tokio: samuráis
Osaka: comerciantes.

Fue importante el reloj cuando se creó el cañón.
Los relojes sonaban, eso era.
A los chinos se los regalaban como juguetes, pero no tenían interés.
El reloj fue la primera máquina de precisión.



El primer reloj usó un foliot.

Este no fue el libro, del fondo de cultura económica, solo tiene lo de las máquinas de guerra.

[Gabriela Pirlo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered Carlo Cipolla as a teenager (forty years ago) and I became fascinated with his books. He was clear, easy to understand and his knowledge was so huge and eclectic, therefore his books were beautiful and enjoyable reading.
I love this little book, and I do believe it is a must read.

[Valerio Pastore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bello è bello, ma certe volte la sintesi non paga il giusto. Ci sono un po' troppe liste della spesa di nomi e date sparse qua e là, unitamente a fatti interessanti -spoiler: prima di ergersi a patria degli orologi, la Svizzera era la cineseria d'Europa inondando il mercato di merce a basso costo.

[Saray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carlo da lecturas cortas pero sumamente profundad, tal es el caso de Las maquinas del tiempo y de la guerra.

[Matteo Celeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5, in realtà...

[Maria Freeman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mainly a history of economics and mechanical development, very little on the actual cultural aspects of the argument.

[Sam Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good!

[Tajdin Turk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kısa sıkmayan ama bayağı iyi bilgiler veren kitap

[Skeptical · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have you ever thought about what time really is? Is time rooted in the physical world? Have you ever thought about the history of measuring time? Man has been attempting to master time and cut it up into finer and finer pieces since before recorded history. First there were the calendars agricultural societies used to track the sun, the phases of the moon, and the solstices and equinoxes. Then there were the sun dials, some of which measured hours and attempted to account for longitude. The water clocks and candles allowed men to measure time at night. Then there were the bells of the monasteries and town churches, followed by the fist clocks with only hour hands. And on and on and on . . . Now we measure time by keeping rhythm with the beat of the atom. When will it end?

Cipolla tells the interesting history of clockmaking from the middle ages through the renaissance. Some very interesting anecdotal stories here, as well as stuff for the history buff. But I also think Cipolla understates the importance of clockmaking and timekeeping. At some point, we as a people wrested control of time from nature and conceptualized it. This abstracting of time permitted us to put time to our own uses, define it for our own purposes -- an important moment in the history of man. Unfortunatey Cipolla does not spend the time on this that it really requires. Still, the book is a short read and enlightening.

[Andrey Babitskiy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short book about the clock- and watchmaking up to the year 1700. An eclectic essay rather than a book, I'd even say, but still a good read. According to Cippola, migration was the single most important factor behind progress in watchmaking in the XVI and XVII centuries. Many craftsmen either moved to more prosperous places, like England, or fled religious prosecution, being protestants. "In 1515, when the clock of the church of Saint-Pierre [in Geneva] got out of order, there was no craftsman in town who could repair it... by the 1680s there were more than one hundred masters and about three hundred workers who produced more than 5000 timepieces a year".

[Eliszard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Companion to Cannons and Sails, short and very legible essay. Great mix of social history, economic history, curiosities, and deep insights into the development of technology in different social, economic and cultural conditions. Interesting that as he makes a very anti-technological determinism argument, he cites Lynn White a lot. It's probably time to go to the source and read what was White argument exactly. Anyway, proof that academic writing doesn't have to be an endless punishment to read.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun little history essay about the development of mechanical clocks in Europe, and how they were perceived in Asia. It's not a comprehensive sociocultural history, nor is it meant to be, but rather an overview of clock development between the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, and resulting effects in Asia. If you're interested in clocks, time, and the history of science, I recommend it.

Here's an animation of the earliest type of clock gear, called a verge escapement with foliot: http://www.victoriaclocks.com/verge_a...

[Les Dangerfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief description of the development of clocks in Western Europe and their export to East Asia between 1300 and 1700. I was disappointed that the book doesn't have more about the impact of clocks on life and culture, as the title suggests there should be.

[Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good. A tad too short.

[Makomai · Rating 2 out of 5]

per quanto apprezzi Cipolla, questo suo libro e` troppo nozionistico. Solo per gli appassionati di storia degli orologi (cui consiglio peraltro "longitudine" di Dava Sobel, ben piu' intrigante)

[Abdullrhman Mahfoodh · Rating 4 out of 5]

History of Europe through clock development perspective, unique!

[Mckinley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent study of one thing, clocks and clockmakers. Very readable and quite enjoyable.