Ladislao Reti, one of the world’s foremost authorities on Leonardo da Vinci and the recipient of the Leonardo da Vinci Medal of the Society for the History of Technology in 1972, died on October 25, 1973, in the Villa Archinto in Monza, Italy. At the time of his death Reti was engaged in editing the Leonardo manuscripts found in the Madrid Library in 1967; the work is scheduled to appear in 1974 in five volumes published by McGraw-Hill Publishing Company of New York City.
Born in Fiume in 1901 of a banking family, Reti received his degree in chemical engineering from the Vienna Polytechnic Institute and his doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Bologna. His lifework was a fusion of industrial chemistry, scientific research, and, eventually, historical studies. In the mid-1920s, Reti moved to Argentina, where he established Atanor Chemical Industries. Political difficulties later caused him to move and establish another company in Sao Paulo, which also proved to be a major factor in the development of the chemical industry in Brazil.
Reti’s success as an industrialist never caused him to depart from his interest in scientific research. He published a great number of research papers in the field of organic chemistry, but more and more he began devoting himself to the history of science and technology, first as a hobby and then, after his retirement from business, as a research associate at the Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana and as professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. In 1970 he became professor emeritus at UCLA.
Reti’s first contribution to Technology and Culture appeared early in its history (vol. 2, no. 1 [Winter 1961 ]): a review of Franz Hendrich’s Der Weg aus der Tretmuhle. But he soon began to contribute substantial articles to the SHOT journal. His article in the Summer 1963 issue on “Francesco di Giorgio Martini’s Treatise on Engineering and Its Plagiarists” was awarded the Abbott Payson Usher Prize of SHOT in 1964. This study, revealing Reti’s great knowledge of the manuscript sources of Renaissance science and engineering, showed how Francesco’s mechanical inventions were “plundered” by an entire school of engineers: Ramelli, Zonca, Strada, and others who found their inspiration in Francesco’s writings. Reti was able to trace the transmission of Francesco’s mechanical projects to Leupold in the 18th century and to a Chinese encyclopedia of 1727.
In 1965, Reti entered the controversy waged in the pages of Technology and Culture provoked by John S. Spencer’s article (vol. 4 [1963]) on “Filarete’s Description of a 15th-Century Italian Iron Smelter at Ferriere.” Other famous scholars had already joined the argument-Cyril Stanley Smith, Theodore Wertime, and Joseph Needham. In his “Postcript to the Filarete Discussion,” Reti wrote on horizontal waterwheels and smelter blowers in the writings of Leonardo da Vinci and Juanelo Turriano. Here Reti again revealed his vast knowledge of the works of Leonardo and of the Codex of Juanelo Turriano, the builder of the famous waterworks of Toledo, Spain. Reti’s attempt to measure the output of horizontal watermills built by Turriano stimulated Hans E. Wulff, author of The Traditional Crafts of Persia, to question Reti’s calculation of the power developed by the Spanish watermills in comparison with those in Persia, for which Wulff himself had gathered data (H. E. Wulff, “A Postscript to Reti’s Notes onJuanelo Turriano’s Watermills,” Technology and Culture 7 [1966]: 398—401).Wulff’scomments inspired Reti to a learned discussion, “On the Efficiency of Early Horizontal Waterwheels,” in the July 1967 issue of Technology and Culture.
In that same eighth volume of Technology and Culture (1967), Reti gave a fuller account of the Codex of Juanelo Turriano, to show the characteristics, contents, and importance of that neglected document. In collaboration with Alex Keller of the University of Leicester, Reti was preparing an edited translation of that work. However, Reti’s concentration on Juanelo’s Codex was shattered by a major historiographical event: the rediscovery of the “lost” Leonardo manuscripts in Madrid.
Reti had long claimed that the bulk of Leonardo’s writings were missing and earlier had even initiated a search for the Leonardo manuscripts which he felt sure existed in the National Library of Madrid. His search had been fruitless, but early in 1967 it was revealed that the “lost” manuscripts had been found accidentally by Jules Piccus of the University of Massachusetts, a specialist in medieval Spanish ballads. As one of the world’s foremost Leonardo specialists, Reti was immediately called upon to verify the authenticity of these documents and was given the task of editing and publishing them by the Spanish government. For the last half-dozen years of his life, then, Reti was engaged in editing the “only still unpublished important collection of writings and drawings by Leonardo.” He concurrently edited The Unknown Leonardo, being published this year; this consists of essays by ten scholars (including Reti) on Leonardo’s influence in art, technology, music, horology, weaponry, etc., as shown in the Madrid codexes.
Reti published the first scholarly account of the material in the refound Leonardo manuscripts in the October 1967 issue of Technology and Culture: “The Leonardo da Vinci Codices in the Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid.” Even a sampling of the riches in these manuscripts led him to conclude that they gave great evidence of Leonardo’s originality in the solution of mechanical problems of all sorts.
Despite his intense preoccupation with the task of editing the massive Madrid collection, Reti still found time to illuminate other aspects of the history of technology. In an article on “The Double-acting Principle in East and West” (Technology and Culture 11 [1970]: 178-200), he ranged from Chinese exam pies of box bellows to James Watt, with great attention paid to Italian Renaissance technologists such as Ramelli, Francesco di Giorgio, and, of course, Leonardo.
By 1972 it had become clear to Reti that the myth that Leonardo had exerted no influence on the technology of his contemporaries and successors was false. His article on “Leonardo and Ramelli” (Technology and Culture 13 [1972]: 577-605) began an exhaustive documentation of the influence of Leonardo on Ramelli and contradicted the widespread supposition that Leonardo’s work had remained hidden in his “allegedly inaccessible and unreadable notebooks.” This article was part of Reti’s close investigation of Leonardo’s sources and the study of his influence. It demonstrated what had become a dominant theme of his research, namely, the confirmation of Leonardo’s “originality and transcendent genius.”
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Society for the History of Technology found it doubly appropriate to bestow on Reti its highest honor, the Leonardo da Vinci Medal. Not only had he made great original contributions to the history of medieval and Renaissance technology, but he was the leading Vincian scholar of our times. The medal was presented to Reti at the annual banquet of SHOT and the History of Science Society in Washington, D.C., on Friday, December 29, 1972. Only a week later Reti began feeling the effects of the brain tumor which was eventually to cost his life.
While expressing his great joy and happiness over the award of the Leonardo Medal, Reti, with characteristic modesty and humility, stated that he was not sure that he deserved it. Yet no award could ever have been more aptly named and bestowed on a more deserving recipient. Ladislao Reti’s memorial will truly consist of a corpus of great scholarship, including the posthumous publication of the Leonardo volumes and the Turriano Codex, and the great respect and love which he won from all who knew him.
Bern Dibner
Originally published as Bern Dibner, “Ladislao Reti (1901–1973),” Technology and Culture 15, no. 3 (1974): 440–42. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.1974.a892739.
Reti, Ladislao. “The Double-Acting Principle in East and West.” Technology and Culture 11, no. 2 (1970): 178–200. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.1970.a894148.
Reti, Ladislao. “The Leonardo da Vinci Codices in the Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid.” Technology and Culture 8, no. 4 (1967): 437–45. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/894396.
Reti, Ladislao. “On the Efficiency of Early Horizontal Waterwheels.” Technology and Culture 8, no. 3 (1967): 388–94. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/894436.
Reti, Ladislao. “The Codex of Juanelo Turriano (1500–1585).” Technology and Culture 8, no. 1 (1967): 53–66. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/894489.
Reti, Ladislao. “A Postscript to the Filarete Discussion: On Horizontal Waterwheels and Smelter Blowers in the Writings of Leonardo da Vinci and Juanelo Turriano.” Technology and Culture 6, no. 3 (1965): 428–41. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/894678.
Reti, Ladislao. “Francesco di Giorgio Martini’s Treatise on Engineering and Its Plagiarists.” Technology and Culture 4, no. 3 (1963): 287–98. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/894973.
Reti, Ladislao. “Leonardo and Ramelli.” Technology and Culture 13, no. 4 (1972): 577–605. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/893378.