10 Facts About Giovanni Branca

Giovanni Branca was an Italian engineer and architect, chiefly remembered today for what some commentators have taken to be an early steam turbine.

From 1616 Giovanni Branca was employed at the Sacra Casa in Loreto.

Giovanni Branca was made a citizen of Rome in 1622.

Giovanni Branca designed many different mechanical inventions, a collection of which he dedicated to Cenci, the governor of Loreto, Ancona.

However, where Besson's book had been beautifully illustrated with engravings, Giovanni Branca's book was a small octavo volume illustrated with relatively poor quality woodcuts.

Unlike earlier authors, Giovanni Branca did not claim to be the creator of many of the machines and in one instance is even uncertain over how the machine in question is supposed to work.

Giovanni Branca suggested that it might be used for powering pestles and mortars, grinding machines, raising water, and sawing wood.

Giovanni Branca's Manuale d'Architettura, published in 1629, was a practical guide for planning and construction and is considered the first "pocket" architectural handbook.

Giovanni Branca communicated with Benedetto Castelli and references his work in the last chapter of the Manuale, a chapter about rivers.

Castelli, often considered to be the founder of the field of hydrodynamics, wrote to Giovanni Branca urging him to defend himself against naive or interested parties such as the Venetians who had rejected Castelli's opinions as to why their lagoons were silting.