I diversi approcci alla scienza idraulica di Carlo Fontana e Cornelius Meyer, con una nota su Ponte Felice

The different approaches of Carlo Fontana and Cornelius Meyer to hydraulic science, with a note on Ponte Felice The paper intends to identify potential contributions and acquisitions by Fontana and Meyer in the epistemological debate developed between mathematicians, philosophers, engineers and architects in the seventeenth century, and focused on the appropriateness or otherwise of the new physical-mathematical theories concerning the science of waters versus traditional engineering practices. After a general theoretical framework, it moves on to analyse two case studies. The first concerns the presence of Meyer to the visit of D’Adda and Barberini in 1693 concerning the long history of the Reno channelization in the Po, very interesting meeting point between schools and field testing. The second concerns the project of the same Meyer in the difficult stretch of the Tiber at Ponte Felice, where he tries to fight the constant erosion with the systems of containment and exploitation of land taken from the waters that are directly derived from the Dutch method.