Theatrum machinarum molarium, oder Schau-Platz der Mühlen-Bau-Kunst…” is a book by Jakob Leupold, Johann Matthias Beyer and Jakob Born. The book is the last of the 9 Theatrum Machinarum volumes. It has the same cover as all the other volumes. A brown cover with an undecorated lid and spine, but there is gold and green decoration on the side. This cover makes the book seem very noble and only for chosen readers, but is this really so?
This volume is the only one of all nine that contains two parts. Accordingly, the book is also thicker than the others. The first part contains 25 chapters. In these articles, different types of mills are described in detail. The second part is a kind of collection of reports, expert opinions, legal decisions and other things. This part is much less clearly structured than the first part. It also has no clear separation by chapters. The drawings at the end of the book create a kind of third part since the rest of the book has no drawings at all. The book has strictly separated text and drawings. The pages of the book are completely filled with small letters. However, some pages have calculations, which creates a kind of hole in the full page and gives the calculation a special meaning. The empty space around the vertically aligned calcualtion shows that the book is very technical and this also becomes the focus. The decorations and symbols in the book not only on the cover but also on the pages make it seem noble and important. The content of the book is an encyclopaedic summary of the contemporary state of the art in millwrighting. This summary is still of enormous value today as it provides an accurate historical overview of technical advances. The authors go into detail about the technical achievements with a description, calculations and technical drawings. It almost seems like it can also be used as a guide to designing a mill, although the focus of the book is not on that. The execution of the book is. Mainly not aimed at the learned and experienced, but everyone has the opportunity to make use of the book. The technical terms are written in German and Latin, which makes it easier for laymen to understand the book. This means that normal, unlearned people can understand the book better, as they do not have to know Latin.
The three key words: structure, simplification, embellishment