Origens da máquina itabirana: de Lucrécio a Newton

Abstract

Looking for the origins of the world machine as an idea, we can find them back to the 1st century BC, passing through several moments of universal history: in Science, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Descartes, Newton, among others; in Literature, Lucretius, Dante, Camoes, and Drummond, who published the poem “The Machine of the World” for the first time in the 1951 book Claro Enigma . While Dante and Camoes build the machine of the world as a sign of discovery and fascination, and while, for the Italian, the machine appears from the self-purification, and, for the Portuguese, as a reward for his achievements, Drummond is faced with the fantastic explanation of the whole, which deviates him from the wonder and character of conquest of a supreme good.