Technica Curiosa
{{short description|1664 compendium of scientific and medical technologies published by Gaspar Schot}}
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Technica Curiosa was an early compendium of scientific and medical technologies. It was one part of a two-volume work, the other being Physica Curiosa, authored by the German Jesuit scholar Gaspar Schott and published in 1664 during the early stages of the Scientific Revolution.{{cite web|url= http://www.history.didaktik.mathematik.uni-wuerzburg.de/schott/Vorwort_Physica.pdf |title= Physica curiosa Vorwort an den Leser |date= |publisher= Deutsche Provinz der Jesuiten |author=Kaspar Schott |accessdate=August 25, 2020}}{{cite web|url= https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/schott-gaspar-1608-1666-technica-curiosa-sive-mirabilia-6216757-details.aspx |title= Technica curiosa, sive mirabilia artis, libris XII comprehensa. Nuremberg: Johann Andreas Endter, 1664. |date= |publisher= Christie's |author=Gaspar Schott |accessdate=August 25, 2020}}{{cite book|author=Gaspar Schott|title=Physica curiosa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xkJ0mgEACAAJ|year=1677|publisher=Sumptibus J.A. Endteri & Wolfgangi jun. haeredum, excudebat J. Hertz}}
Background of the writer
Schott was an attentive spectator at the demonstrations of Otto von Guericke's vacuum pump and subsequently began extensive experiments and studies on his own. He established a fruitful correspondence with von Guericke and published the earliest account on von Guericke's experiments on air pressure and the vacuum in 1657, titled Experimentum Novum Magdeburgicum as an appendix of his Mechanica Hydraulico-pneumatica. With von Guericke as co-author, he published a reviewed and more detailed account in the Technica Curiosa.{{cite web|url= https://www.pro-physik.de/sites/default/files/pdf/articles/2018-11/prophy16804article_ISSART16804DE.pdf |title= Experimente im politischen Raum |date= |publisher= Physik Journal |author=Gerhard Wiesenfeldt |accessdate=August 25, 2020}}{{cite web|url= http://emlo-portal.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/collections/?catalogue=caspar-schott |title= The Correspondence of Caspar Schott |date= |publisher= Early Modern Letters Online |author=Thomas E. Conlon, Hans-Joachim Vollrath |accessdate=August 25, 2020}}{{cite web|url= https://galileo.ou.edu/exhibits/curious-technology |title= Curious Technology |date= |publisher= University Libraries |author=Gaspar Schott |accessdate=August 25, 2020}}
Role in popularizing science
The work ranks among the early popular science publications and did much to inspire widespread interest in the sciences.{{cite web|url= https://technicacuriosa.com/ |title= Technica Curiosa |date= |publisher= John August Media, LLC |author= |accessdate=August 25, 2020}}
21st-century legacy
In 2017 an online platform, that serves as host for several American science magazines for a modern audience has been titled Technica Curiosa. The site incorporates the popular magazines Popular Astronomy, Popular Electronics, and Mechanix Illustrated, among others.