Galileo on hydraulics. Illustration of Italian astronomer, engineer and scientist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) advising the aristocracy of Florence on the design of hydraulic engineering and garden fountains in the 1610s and 1620s. Those he advised included Antonio de Medici and Galileo's patron Cosimo II de Medici (Grand Duke of Tuscany). Galileo, who had studied 'Pneumatics' by 1st-century Greek engineer Hero of Alexandria, was recognised as an expert on the subject. Artwork from 'Chaudieres et Machines a Vapeur' (1911) by French civil engineer Max de Nansouty (1854-1913), part of the 'Les merveilles de la science' series of 1867-1891 by Louis Figuier.