Le Machine

Book Reviews Le Machine: Bollettino deWIstituto Italiano per la Storia della Tecnica. Edited by G. Polvani. Vol. I. Florence: G. Barbera, 1967. Pp. 61. L. 700 per number, L. 5,000 per year’s subscription with membership of Institute. As the editor of the new Italian journal for the history of technology observes, periodicals in this field are still to be counted on the fingers of one hand. So it is very pleasant to welcome a new recruit to these limited ranks, and especially to see the Italians, who have given so much of value to our technology, now attain that stage in the study of its history that demands a regular outlet for publication. Le Machine is in the first in­ stance the bulletin of the Italian Institute for the History of Technology, and as a bulletin, it contains a certain amount of information directed at the Institute’s membership, advising them of activities and, in this first issue, publishing its statutes. However, it is intended to develop into a regular journal, containing research articles and discussions of general interest in the field. To start with, publication is expected to be occa­ sional, but it is hoped to produce regular numbers as a “true and proper journal dedicated to this discipline,” presumably as circulation grows. Since contributions are invited in English, French, Spanish, or German, besides the main language of the bulletin, it is evidently hoped that it will reach an international public and that it will offer a place for articles submitted from abroad, doubtless not confined to Italian history. Of course, the first number is largely devoted to material establishing and justifying the journal’s position. It opens with an editorial “presentazione ” by Professor Polvani, Rector of the University of Aldan and President of the Institute, in which he explains the appearance of the bulletin in this seemingly ambitious format. Two other “ideological” articles follow. L. Bulferetti, “I primi passi di un’iniziativa per illustrate le fonti della storia della tecnica in Italia” (pp. 3-10), outlines the recent growth of interest in the history of technology in Italy from the setting up of a committee to publish source material in this field, and surveys current work, and its possible consequences. If Italy seemed at one time to lag behind a little in exploiting the wealth in her many archives and libraries, it was only a temporary delay. Several major sources and studies either have been lately published or are now in progress. But with all the activity now under way, there is still some complaint of the dif­ ficulty of tracing material and of continued neglect of the technological element by general historians: Bulferetti instances the failure to include scientific and technical papers in collected writings of leading thinkers and publicists of the Risorgimento

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