What is Mariano Taccola?
[[File:Taccola first piston.jpg|thumb|right|250px|{{Center|First drawing of a [[piston]] by Mariano Taccola}}]] '''Mariano di Jacopo detto il Taccola''' (1381 – ca. 1453), called Taccola ([[Jackdaw|the crow]]),{{efn|In [[Italian language|Italian]] the name translates into [[English language|English]] as 'jackdaw', which is a [[bird]] in the [[crow]] family. The name traces back to his grandfather.<ref name=Prager3.4/>}} was an [[Italians|Italian]] [[artist]], [[engineer]] and [[Manager|administrator]]. He lived during the early [[Renaissance]] [[wikt:period|period]]. He wrote two important [[book]]s, ''De ingeneis'' and ''De machinis''. These [[Drawing|hand-drawn]] books have [[drawing]]s of many new (for his time) [[machine]]s. There are also [[description]]s of the machines. [[Leonardo da Vinci]] and other people used his books in the later Renaissance. == Life == Mariano Taccola was born in [[Siena]] in 1381.<ref name=Moon131.133>Francis C. Moon, ''The Machines of Leonardo Da Vinci and Franz Reuleaux: Kinematics of Machines from the Renaissance to the 20th Century'' (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007), pp. 131–133</ref><ref name=Treccani>{{cite web |url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/mariano-di-iacopo_(Dizionario_Biografico)/ |title=MARIANO di Iacopo |author=Gerardo Doti |date=2008 |website= |publisher=TRECCANI, LA CULTURA ITALIANA |accessdate=7 May 2015}}</ref> His father was a [[wine]] [[merchant]] named Jacopo.<ref name=Prager3.4>Frank D. Prager; Gustina Scaglia; Mariano Taccola, ''Mariano Taccola and his Book De ingeneis'' (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1972), pp. 3–4</ref> His mother's name was Madonna Nofria (Bacci).<ref name=Treccani/> The name he was given at his [[baptism]] was Mariano Daniello.<ref name=Fane136>Lawrence Fane, 'The Invented World of Mariano Taccola: Revisiting a Once-Famous Artist-Engineer of 15th-Century Italy', ''Leonardo, Vol, 36, No. 2 (MIT press, 2003), p. 136</ref> Taccola himself used the name Ser Mariani Jacobi decti.<ref name=Fane136/> He had many different jobs.