Jean-Louis Pironio

About the creator

Jean-Louis Pironio works in the field of information and communication and is also an experienced photographer. Since 2008, together with his father Jean-Pierre, he has contributed to several projects and exhibitions supported by Artes Mechanichae. In 2008, he was part of the organizing committee of the exhibition Les Rêves mécaniques de Léonard de Vinci (Rombas, France). In 2010, he coordinated the construction of a 1:2 scale model of the anti-friction mechanism of the monumental bell “La Mutte” (Metz Cathedral, France), now on display at the Leonardo Museum in Vinci.

Also in 2010, he applied his manual skills to build several mechanical devices designed by Leonardo da Vinci for the exhibition Romorantin, le projet oublié (Romorantin, France). Later, for the 2013 exhibition Une idée, 1000 machines – De Léonard de Vinci à Jean Errard (Nancy, France), he created the first ever reconstructions of several machines designed by Jean Errard de Bar-le-Duc, a 16th-century military engineer and fortification designer.

His most recent work is the full-scale reconstruction of a functioning odometer designed by Leonardo da Vinci around 1495 (Codex Atlanticus, f.1.r), which was exhibited at the Louvre Museum in Paris on 20 September 2015 during a lecture titled L’œil de l’oiseau given by Professor Pascal Brioist. He is currently working on the creation of a didactic printing press based on the principles of Johannes Gutenberg’s original design.