Biography of Tito Livio Burattini (1617-1681)

Tito Livio Burattini (known also as Tytus Liwiusz Boratini or Boratyni), interesting for us mainly in the context of his calculating machine (see calculating machine of Burattini), created in the late 1650s, was born on March 8, 1617, in an old family of the local rural nobility in Agordo (province of Belluno)—a small mining town in northeastern Italy.

Almost nothing is known about his childhood, with the exception of the fact, that he had a younger brother—Filippo (born 1620), and that in 1630s he studied in Padua and Venice, winning a comprehensive knowledge of mathematics and physical sciences, architecture and others.

Burattini early became a travelling scholar and in 1637 he went abroad to Egypt, where he stayed until 1641, working for some time as an assistant of the English mathematician and astronomer John Greaves (1602-1652) (see the nearby image) with his famous work on the pyramids, crowned by his important book Pyramidographia (1646). In 1639-1640 they measured several pyramids (especially the Great Pyramid of Giza), obelisks and monuments, trying to classify them, and drew up plans of several towns, including Alexandria, Memphis and Heliopolis.

After returning to Europe in 1641, Burattini settled for some time in Germany, but in 1642 was invited to serve at Polish Royal Court in Krakow. He accepted the proposal and settled in Poland with his younger brother Filippo. Here he found good friends like Stanislaw Pudlowski (a pupil of Galileo and Professor at Jagiellonian University), Johannes Hevelius (a prominent Polish astronomer), and others, and worked together with them on various scientific topics.

In 1645 Burattini returned for some time to Italy, then travelled again to Egypt, before to settle permanently in Poland in 1647. The new Polish queen Marie Louise de Gonzague was a high-ranking and keen patron of sciences and arts and invited many European scientists to settle in Poland.

Burattini lived in Poland up to his death, serving to the 4 Polish Kings—Władysław IV, Jan II Kazimierz, Michał Korybut and Jan III Sobieski as an architect, engineer, mechanic, diplomat, etc. He wrote several books, carried out experiments of optics and astronomy, manufactured lenses for microscopes and telescopes, constructed devices of various types, designed several important buildings, performed several diplomatic missions ordered by his patron Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga, took part in military missions and battles, etc.

In 1650 Burattini was appointed as a Regis Poloniae Architectus (Polish Royal Architect) and directed the construction of the royal palace at Krakowskie Przedmieście in Warsaw. He carried out also restoration works at Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw (see the photo below). In Ujazdowie he arranged the first Polish astronomical observatory, in which he discovered the spots on Venus in 1665. In 1660 Burattini was appointed as a financial secretary of the Royal Court.

Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, Poland (Photo: Marek and Ewa Wojciechowscy)

In 1647 Burattini presented to the Polish King Władysław IV a treatise entitled Dragon Volant (Flying Dragon, see the sketch below) with drawings of a complex ornithopter. The King showed particular interest and despite the difficult for Poland wartime, ordered a working model to be produced. In the same 1647 a small 150 cm model, carrying a cat as a passenger, was demonstrated before the Polish Court. Burattini was granted 500 talers from the Royal Treasury for the construction of a full-size machine.

The machine was ready in May, 1648, provided with 4 pairs of wings, mounted in tandem and a large folding parachute. The machine had a crew of three, and obviously no one can suggest that it really flew, despite of the fact, that Burattini even maintained, that he would fly from Warsaw to Constantinople (some 1700 km) inside 12 hours:-) Despite this funny statement, most historians believe, that Dragon Volant is the most important milestone in the development of "heavier-than-air" flying machines between Leonardo Da Vinci in the end of 15th century and Sir George Cayley in the early 1800s.

The news of the flying models constructed by Burattini and about plans of implementation of the machine itself circulated among many European countries. What remains today is a treatise by Burattini Il volare non e impossibile, and two drawings of the flying dragon, one of which was sent to be assessed by Blaise Pascal.

A sketch from the treatise Dragon Volant by Burattini

In 1657 Tito Livio Burattini (together with his brother Filippo) participated in the Polish-Swedish War under the command of general Stefan Czarniecki, with the rank of captain, commanding a company of infantry recruited at his own expense.

1658 was a very successful year for Burattini. In compensation of his service to the Polish King, he was granted a diploma and a nobleman title, and received a lease of the royal mint in Krakow (later he launched mints in Ujazdowski Castle and in Brest-Litovsk). This grant drew substantial profits, but later (in 1662 and 1668) will bring him charges of embezzlement, which he however managed to fend off. In the same 1658 Burattini married Teresa Opacka (1630-1701), a young woman from the famous Polish family Opacki, daughter of the prominent Polish nobleman Zygmunt Opacki. The family will have 6 children (4 sons and 2 daughters).

In his famous book Misura Universale, published in 1675, Tito Livio Burattini first suggested the name meter as the name for a unit of length. He chose the word meter after metron, a Greek word for measure. Burattini's meter was a universal unit of measurement, based on the length of a pendulum, beating one second. He named this unit metro catholico, which simply means universal measure. Burattini actually was not the first to propose the adoption of a decimal metric system, but he was the first to advance a project that received wide attention and was the one, who first suggested the name meter for the basic unit of length.

In 1666 Burattini built a bridge over the Vistula for the army. After a short difficult period in his life in the late 1660s, following the death of his patron Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga, Burattini again got in favor of the Polish Crown and in 1670s he was appointed as a commander of the fortress of Warsaw.

Burattini was a known scientist for the time and hold a busy correspondence with the some other famous scientists of his time—for example Ismael Boulliau, Athanasius Kircher, and many others.

In Poland Tito Livio Burattini managed to establish himself not only as a scientist, but also as a businessman and diplomat, to become a rich and powerful man, to began a family. His end however was miserable—he died poor and sick on 17th of November, 1681, in Vilnius.