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1882
Volume 69, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 0017-0461
  • E-ISSN: 2507-0401

Abstract

Abstract

La lettera 25 della raccolta di Enea di Gaza, indirizzata ad un certo Giuliano, rappresenta una fonte unica per la storia dell’idraulica antica, la cui importanza sembra sia passata tuttavia inosservata. L’autore vi descrive un meccanismo per il sollevamento dell’acqua, cui sono state dedicate dagli studiosi soltanto poche e non esaurienti note filologiche esplicative (vd. soprattutto Loenertz). Attraverso un’analisi dettagliata dello scritto, lo studio propone di identificare la macchina descritta con la catena continua di secchi, un congegno piuttosto comune nelle campagne antiche, già noto sia dalle ricerche archeologiche che da altre fonti letterarie, quali Vitr. 10,4,4 e soprattutto la cosiddetta «seconda appendice», presumibilmente una traduzione/adattazione araba dell’opera sulla pneumatica di Filone di Bisanzio. La lettera di Enea costituisce pertanto l’unica descrizione greca esistente di questo modello di macchina.

Abstract

Ep. 25 in the extant letter collection of Aeneas of Gaza, addressed to a certain Julian, is a unique source for the history of ancient hydraulic, whose importance, however, seems to have passed unnoticed. The author depicts a water lifting device, to which only few and not comprehensive explanatory philological notes have been devoted by scholars (see especially Loenertz). Through a detailed study of the text, the article proposes the identification of the described machine with the bucket-chain, a pretty common device in the ancient countryside, already known both from archaeological inquiries and other literary sources like Vitr. 10,4,4 and especially the so-called ‘second appendix’, allegedly an anonymous Arab translation/adaptation of the work on Pneumatics of Philon of Byzantium. The letter of Aeneas is therefore the only extant Greek account of this type of machine.

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2025-12-07

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