Eine Gruppe von Studenten der Ingenieurwissenschaften am Rochester Institute of Technology haben zwei Bücherräder nach Agostino Ramellis Vorbild gebaut. Im Youtube-Video “RIT’s Reading Wheel after Ramelli: How It’s Made” ist das Bücherrad uns seine Entstehung zu sehen (via blog.bibliothekarisch.de und atlasobscura.com):
“Agostino Ramelli, the 16th-century Italian military engineer, designed many contraptions for the changing Renaissance landscape, including cranes, grain mills, and water pumps. But his most compelling apparatus was one meant to nurture the mind: a revolving wooden wheel with angled shelves, which allowed users to read multiple books at one time. “This is a beautiful and ingenious machine, very useful and convenient for anyone who takes pleasure in study, especially those who are indisposed and tormented by gout,” Ramelli wrote in Le diverse et artificiose machine, his illustrated magnum opus of mechanical solutions. “Moveover, it has another fine convenience in that it occupies very little space in the place where it is set.””