04: The long way from "modulus" to "model"

 

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”Modulus” has been in use for 2000 years

The Indo-European root of “modulus” and “modus”: med- means measure, to measure

The Latin verb „modulor“ and the noun „modulus“ were used in music and rhetoric as well as in architecture, mostly meaning rhythm and measure

„Modulus“ has been absorbed into modern European languages at different times and by various routes

The complicated genesis of the Italian word "modello”

„Modello“ arrives in French, German and English

Since 1600: Continuous change of wording and spelling

1555-1660: Mental design as model

Since 1800: Technical use of model

Explosive spread of the concept of model

 

 

 

“The meaning of a word is its use in the language”

“What we do is to bring words back from their metaphysical to their ordinary use”

“A main source of our failure to understand is that we do not command a clear view of the use of our words”

            Ludwig Wittgenstein: “Philosophical Investigations”, 1953, §§ 43, 116, 122.

 

 

”Modulus” has been in use for 2000 years

 

The word "model" and the things we call "model" are a fascinating subject. Therefore we can say that "model history is culture history".

 

In "model" many meanings flow together, e. g. of Latin "modulus", "forma" and "exemplar" as well as "imago" "effigies" "species" and "simulacrum", and finally "cera" (Fig. 15).

Dealing with "models" we can learn a lot.

 

 

The Indo-European root of “modulus” and “modus”: med- means measure, to measure

 

The word „model“ derives – via French „modèle“ and/ or Italian „modello“ - from the Latin word „modulus“. „Modulus“ is the diminutive of „modus“ (Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, 1879; Walther von Wartburg, 1966, 18-19). Both words have the same basic meaning: „measure“, „measuring“.

The Latin „modus“ for his part traces back to the Indo-European root „med-„ (Julius Pokorny, 1949; William Morris, 1969; Joseph Twadell Shipley, 1984; Calvert Watkins, 1985) that likewise means „measure“, „to take appropriate measures“ (Fig. 16).

 

In proximity of “modulus” and “modus” we find according to the Indo-European root the words:

·        in Latin: meditor, modestus, moderare, modius (Julius Pokorny, 1949)
modicus, meditari, meditatum; medicina; etc. (Joseph Twadell Shipley, 1984)

·        in English: modal, mode, model, modern, modicum, modify, modulate, module, modulus, mold, mood, moulage; accomodate, commode, commodious, commodity (William Morris, 1969).

 

 

The Latin verb „modulor“ and the noun „modulus“ were used in music and rhetoric as well as in architecture, mostly meaning rhythm and measure

 

"Modulus" was not used very much in ancient Rome (Fig. 17). It occurs shortly after 40 BC with Horace and Varro. Besides „modulus“ for „a unit adopted as a standard of measurement“, Horace (Fig. 18) has also some meanings in music: the verb „modulor“ (to make music; versify) and the „modulator“ (one who makes up tunes). The use of „modulor“ and its variations in music as well as in rhetoric has already been initiated already by Cicero (55-44 BC; Fig. 19) and Vergil (in the 5th and 10th Eclogue; 42 and 39 BC).

In Varro’s „De re rustica“ (Fig. 20) we find „modulus“ only twice in the meaning „rule“ and „limit“.

 

Horace coined the formula „metiri se quemquem suo modulo ac pede“ („to be content with his own condition“ or: „that each man’s shoe be made on his own last“), Apuleius (Fig. 21) formulated „pro modulo meo“ („according to my power“). The homo “moduli bipedalis“ (Horace) ist a wight two feet high or a titch.

 

Vitruvius and his translators

 

The well-known architect Vitruvius used „modulus“ in his Ten Books on Architecture (around 23 BC: Fig. 22) usually as an architectural standard, namely the radius of a column, but also for an interval or a sequence of intervals in music. In addition he uses the verb „modulor“ for regulating sounds and make music, and the variation „modulatio“ twofold: for the calculation of measurements from a standard unit (e. g. Liber 5, Caput 9, 2-3), and for inflection of tone (e. g. 5, 4, 3). For paragon and copy as well as for small-scale devices Vitruvius uses „exemplar“ or "exemplum".

In the first translation into the Italian language by Cesare Cesariano in 1521 “exemplar” and “exemplum” are translated in all cases by “exemplario” or “exemplo”. Only the next complete translation by Daniele Barbaro in 1456 has for the “exemplar” of paragraph 5 in Caput 16 of Liber X: “modello”.

The French translation by Jan Martin in 1547 has “exemplaire” and “exemple”, but in Liber X, Caput 16: “modelle”. The German translation of Rivius (1448) has “Muster oder Model”.

 

Expanding the meaning of “modulus”, but for most models was used “exemplar”

 

Tibullus (ca. 20 BC; Fig. 23), Pliny the Elder (77 AD; Fig. 24), Gellius (around 150; Fig. 25) and Apuleius (around 170) used „modulor“ resp. „modulatus“ and „modulus“ for sounds or voices in rhetoric and music, meaning harmonious and rhythm. In addition Pliny and Gellius used „modulus“ also in the realm of medicine for the pulse of the blood (“arteriarum pulsus … in modulos certos”).

 

In his “Two Books on the Water Supply of the City of Rome” (100 AD) the politician and writer Sextus Julius Frontinus (Fig. 26) used the word „modulus“ ca. 30 times as „a pipe of specified diameter used to control the rate of flow of water, an adjutage“ (P. G. W. Glare, 1982). More general we can say: „moduli“ are standardized pipes available in 25 sizes.

 

Around 200 AD the church father Tertullian (Fig. 27) used „modulus“ at least in seven works and with different meanings, expanding them to include the little figures used by sculptors, for example as a basis for a marble sculpture („inde circino et plumbeis modulis praeparatio simulacri, in marmor, in lutum uel aes uel argentum, uel quodcumque placuit deum fieri, transmigratura“; NAT. I, 12, 9).

 

Later „modulus“ has been used several times also by Ausonius (around 350), Ambrosius (before 400), Augustine (around 400), Paulus of Nola (around 400) and Fulgentius (around 500). Then the use diminishes. But it is used, although not very often, until 1750, when Latin was quite generally dropping out of learned discourse.

 

Francis Bacon has written his “Novum Organon” (1620) in Latin see below, as well as Leibniz his “Ars inveniendi” (1669) and “Atlas universalis” (1678).

Some scholars, for instance mathematicians as Carl Friedrich Gauss, wrote another 100 years in Latin, and the Catholic Church used this language in the Vatican Council of 1962-65.

 

It is worth to know, that until the very end of the Middle Ages the Latin „modulus“ never has been used for small-scale models, architectural models or artist’s models – as far as we have written evidence (see: Du Cange, 1885; Franz Blatt, 1969; Ronald Edward Latham, 2001; Cesare Guasti, 1857 – Fig. 28). Those who wrote in Latin used as the Old Romans „exemplum“ (since Plautus, around 200 BC) or „exemplar“ (since Lucretius and Cicero, around 50 BC) – see P. G. W. Glare (1982; Fig. 29). This word has been used generally for all objects in the range of paragon and copy (what we like to call „model“ today) – see: Paul Lehmann, Johannes Stroux (2007).

 

 

„Modulus“ has been absorbed into modern European languages at different times and by various routes

 

In most of the European languages – e. g. Italian, French, English and German - the development and use of the word model and its cognates, as well as the use of synonyms, is nearly the same.

 

Since the year 1000 „modulus“ has been absorbed into modern European languages at different times and by various routes (Walther von Wartburg, 1966) (Fig. 15).

 

mould

1) German took up „modulus“ according to Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1886) already in the times of Charlemagne (not testified), at least around the year 1000 as “Modul” and „Model“ on the one hand in the abstract sense as rule, pattern, form, example, on the other hand as industrial or artisan moulds. Nice examples of “Model” we find in the courtly lovesongs.

 

In German baking tins, printing forms, stamps and molds are partly named "Model", partly "Modell" (in Switzerland also "Foermli", i. e. little forms).

The embossed or formed things however are seldom called "Modell" (a rare example is artistic castings) or "Model" (e. g. in Switzerland "model bacon" and "es Moedeli Anke", a piece of butter in the form of an ingot).

 

French reduced „modulus“ to „modle“ (before 1100), “molle” (1165) „mole“ (1235) and „moule“ (1260), which came into English as „mould“.

It is nice to see that in English came first the abstract meaning, namely “distinctive nature as indicative of origin” (1225); it took another hundred years until the meaning became concrete in the sense of a hollow form or pattern (1320). It is further nice to see that both, the hollow form and the moulded object (e. g. cheese, pudding), are called “mould” till today.

 

Already Francis Bacon wondered: in “Sylva Sylvarum” (1626; §502):

It is a Curiosity to haue Fruits of Diuers Shapes and Figures. This is easily performed by Moulding them, when the Fruit is young, with Moulds of Earth, or Wood.”

And Charles Dickens (“Sketches by Boz”, 1836, 1st ser. I, 293) observed:

“Moulds of jelly vanish like lightning”.

 

„Moulding“ we find in English in the sense of forming, fashioning since 1327 for „a raised or incised ornamental contour or outline“; in architecture since 1448; and as ornament on wood or metal since 1679.

„Mollage“ we find in French since 1415; „moulage“ since 1680 (terme de potier). In English „moulage“ appears first in 1886; in German around 1850 (Thomas Schnalke, 2004).

 

see also:

chap. XXIV: Mould &/or cast

 

modulation

2) In Italian „modulazione“ appears before 1342 in the sense of „parlare, cantare, suonare armoniosamente; variazione regolata“. „Modulation“ is found in French since 1365; in English since 1398 and in German since 1571. The meanings are „changement d’intensité dans l’émission de la voix“ and „chant d’allégresse, harmonie“ and „the action of singing or making music“. Later the meaning was expanded to: forming something according to due measure and proportion.

The use of the English words modulate (since 1557 or 1567) and modulation in telecommunication starts 1908. The other languages followed soon.

 

see also for various definitions:

chap. XI: Shape, regulation

 

module

3) In Italian "mòdulo" appears in the 13th century in the sense of the Vitruvius' column measure. "Module" appears in 1547 in French and in 1583 (or 1586) in English.

We note that in English “module” is not only used for measure or unit or standard, but also for design, architectural model, image, example. For example the scientist and architect Robert Hooke denoted the model of his friend Christopher Wren for the rebuilding of St Paul’s cathedral in his Diary at June, 5, 1675 (edited only in 1935) as “module” (Paul Kent, Allan Chapman, 2005, 3f, 177; see also Allan Chapman, 2005, 222 with comment 310f).

 

In the strict sense as measure “module” held itself through the times, e.g. in techniques (with gear wheels) and in mathematics (logarithms, congruencies, Abel groups, etc.).

The use of "module" for a standardized construction unit emerges in 1946 in English and expanded rapidly into the other languages.

 

modulus

4) Vitruvius’ architectural standard “modulus” was translated in English first with "modulus" (1563), later sometimes with "model" (1598) and „module" (1664).

As another terminus technicus the word „modulus“ has been contrived in 1712 by Roger Cotes and introduced in the English mathematics in 1722 with his posthumously in Latin published “Harmonia mensurarum”. In English texts “modulus” was introduced by the French expatriate Abraham de Moivre: In the second edition of his “Doctrine of Chances” (1738; Corollary 6) he marked “Modulus” as a coefficient, in the third edition (1756; Appendix VI) he refers to Cotes’ “modulus”.

 

"Modulus" is still used today in various meanings in mathematics and physics. The “American Heritage Dictionary” has:

“in physics: A quantity that expresses the degree to which a substance possesses a property, such as elasticity [e.g. Hooke, 1660/78, Young 1807].

in mathematics: The absolute value of a complex number.
A number by which two given numbers can be divided and produce the same remainder.
The number by which a logarithm in one system must be multiplied to obtain the corresponding logarithm in another system.”

The “Oxford English Dictionary” has in addition:

“A constant multiplier, coefficient, or parameter involved in a given function, transformation, etc.” - with three specifications.

 

For slightly different definitions see:

chap. X: Measure

 

In Italian and French there seems to be no “modulus”.

But we have in Germany used by the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss the specific mathematical term “modulus” in his Latin written “Disquisitiones arithmeticae" (1801). Eduard Heine (Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik, 34.4, 1847, 286) used as one of the first scholars “Modulus” in German. Later Gauss’ successor on the chair in Göttingen Peter Gustav Lejeune-Dirichlet used in his posthumously edited “Vorlesungen über Zahlentheorie” (1863) “Modulus” and “Modul” as synonyms.

 

At about the same time we find in German “modulo” (e. g. by Ernst Eduard Kummer: “Zur Theorie der complexen Zahlen” in Journal für die reine und angwandte Mathematik 35.4, 1847, 322, 351) as well as in French and English (1887).

 

 

The complicated genesis of the Italian word "modello”

 

Around 1330: poor evidence for “modellus”

 

The derivation of Italian „modello“ - and hence French „modèle“ and English „model“ - from vulgar Latin "modellus" is a common fiction - despite many reference books affirm it (Fig. 30). "Modellus" occurs neither in the dictionaries of Blatt nor Niermeyer, nor Faber and Forcellini. Only Du Cange (1875) has three passages, dated ca. 1330/40: „modellus“ is used twice in a military treatise of an Italian author for battering ram (wall crusher) and once in the records of a Parisian cloistre for bottle (Fig. 31). Latham (2001) found another occurence in a household inventory of 1327 in Ireland interpreted as a „vessel, mould“ (in the 1965 edition it was a „cheese-mould“ – Fig. 32).

Likewise we have a singular appearance of Italian „modelo“ as baking tin or mould in a household inventory of Modena in 1347 (Fig. 33).

 

1355-1416 It. „modello“ and Lat. „modellus“ mean models or drawings

 

The formation of the word „modello“ took place in Florence. Fortunately an abundance of records concerning the construction of the Dome have been preserved in Italian as well as in Latin – nearly 500 documents from 1294-1421 (Cesare Guasti, 1887) and another series of documents for the construction of the Cupola (Cesare Guasti, 1857). Many accounting records, notes, contracts and invitations for competition submissions have been written down simultaneously in both languages. So we can follow the development of some words as well as of the respective objects (Howard Saalman, 1964; Rolf Bernzen, 1986 = B, Fig. 34; Roland Müller, 1988; Andres Lepik, 1994, 27-38, 59-89, 139-141).

It seems that Latin “modellus” and Italian “modello” developed parallel, not consecutive.

 

For the first time in 1553, under capomaestro Francesco Talenti, a wooden model is mentioned for the Campanile, two years later a model for the choir chapels and a part of the nave (B, 77, 81ff, 319f). At that time, the artisans as well as the chronists didn’t have a terminus technicus for a 3D-model. For this they used in Italian “disegniamento” and “asempro” (i. e “esempio”), since 1366 also “piccola chiesa”, in Latin since 1366 “ecclesia parva” and “exemplum” (B, 98, 231).

Indeed the Italian word “modello” has been used for the first time in 1355 and 1357 for a three-dimensional object („i modelli delle colonne“ - see Andres Lepik, 1994, 30-33, 182-183), but no longer in Florence for the next 60 years (Fig. 33).

 

However in the year 1392 a 3D-model prepared by master Heinrich von Gmünd for a column of the Dome of Milan has been denoted as “model” and likewise a model of a vault for the same Dome by Simone da Cavagnera (Andres Lepik, 1994, 46-48).

 

In Florence from 1367 to 1416 the new Italian words “modello” and “modeglio” were used only for 2D-drawings, since 1366 in Latin accompanied by “desingnum seu modellum” or simply “modellus” (B, 91). “Desingnum” (Lat.) and “disengno” (It.) are used labile, sometimes for model, sometimes for drawing (B, 96-111). Between „disegniamento“ and „modello“ emerges 1367 “rilievo” (It.) resp. “relievum” (Lat.) for vertical plan, perhaps also for 3D-model (B, 99-103, 111), e g. in a mixed Latin-Italian phrase: “pro desingno i’rilievo per eos factos in dicto operi” (B, 100).

 

Only since 1417: “modello” and modeglio” as well as “modellus” are solely used for architectural models

 

After exactly half a century the use of the words changed radically: Since 1417 Italian „modello“, ”modelo” and “modeglio” as well as Latin “modellus” are used for 3D-architectural models (B, 123ff), especially for the master’s Filippo Brunelleschi various models for the Cupola of the Dome of Florence and for the elevators and cranes necessary to build it (for marvelous reconstructions see Howard Saalman, 1980, 108-134).

The relatedness to the former use of the words has been made sometimes by the formula „modellum sive disegnum“.

In some rare architectural protocols and notes Latin “modellus” has been used till the 16^th century. In contrast we find “designum” in 1436 as drawing (B, 143).

 

The instable use of the words continued. As examples we find in the later protocols of repair of the Cupola of the Dome of Florence: „quinque modellis vel modulis“ (1507) and „omnes modellos et designamenta necessaria“ (1513). A further example ist provided by Carmen Bambach Cappel (1990, 1992 – Fig. 35):

„Soderini's "Io vorrei facessi uno modello, o vogl[i]amo dire disegno, di quella cosa vi scripsi," in a letter of 24 July 1518, or Rosselli's "àne fatto fare uno ischizo o vero disegno di detta fac[i]ata," in a letter of 4 February 1526, suggest a self-conscious attempt on the part of artists and non-artists to use artistic terms correctly.“

 

1450/60: The architectural theoretician Alberti uses in Latin ”moduli” instead of the new “modelli”

 

Inexplicably the exile-Florentine polymath Leon Battista Alberti introduced some years later the old word „modulus“ instead of the new „modellus“ for drawings as well for architectural models.

 

In his authoritative treatise „De pictura“ (written in 1435, printed 1540 – Fig. 36) Alberti used twice the word „exemplar“ (III, 56 and 59) and twice „moduli“ (III, 61). The first is used for the artist’s model – the famous case of the Greek painter Zeuxis -, the latter for drawings. In his own translation of the book (1436; printed 1547 – dedicated to his friend Brunelleschi) he translated the first with „essempio“, the second with „modelli“.

 

In his architectural work „De re aedificatoria“ (published in Latin posthumously in 1485) Aberti uses both, „exemplar“ (e.g. Liber IIII, chap. II; 1755, ed. 1955, 68; Liber VIII, chap. III, 1755, ed. 1955, 166) and „moduli“, sometimes also the strange formula „modulis exemplaribusque“  (Liber II, chap. I-III; Liber IX, chap. VIII-X), for architectural models (Fig. 37 and 38).

 

The translation of Alberti’s book in the Italian language took place only in 1546. The second translation of 1550 uses for both the words „modegli“ and „modelli“ resp. „modegli & esempi“ (Besides that Alberti uses „exemplum“ and „exemplar“ simply for example.)

The only French translation was achieved in 1553 by Jean Martin, who had translated before (1547) Vitruvius’ treaty; he published it under nearly the same title. The first translation in English was only 1726. Many editions were printed of the 1755 translation by James Leoni.

 

Antonio Averlino, detto Filarete (Fig. 39), used in his “Trattato di architettura” (written 1461-64) for architectural drawings “congetto” and “disegno”, for models “modello” as well as “disegno rilevato” (Bernzen, 1986, 219-229, 232).

 

Since about 1470: Leonardo da Vinci used various different models

 

In “Life of Leonardo da Vinci” Giorgio Vasari in 1550 wrote:

 

“And he practised not one branch of art only, but all those in which drawing played a part; and having an intellect so divine and marvellous that he was also an excellent geometrician, he not only worked in sculpture … but in architecture, also, he made many drawings both of ground-plans and of other designs of buildings; and he was the first, although but a youth, who suggested the plan of reducing the river Arno to a navigable canal from Pisa to Florence. He made designs of flour-mills, fullingmills, and engines, which might be driven by the force of water; and since he wished that his profession should be painting, he studied much in drawing after nature, and sometimes in making models of figures in clay, over which he would lay soft pieces of cloth dipped in clay, and then set himself patiently to draw them on a certain kind of very fine Rheims cloth, or prepared linen; and he executed them in black and white with the point of his brush …

 

… And he was continually making models and designs to show men how to remove mountains with ease, and how to bore them in order to pass from one level to another; and by means of levers, windlasses, and screws, he showed the way to raise and draw great weights, together with methods for emptying harbours, and pumps for removing water from low places, things which his brain never ceased from devising.”

 

After 1505: Michelangelo uses “modello” in more than fifty letters

 

According to Clare Bambach Cappel (1990, idem 1992 – Fig. 35) Michelangelo Buonarotti used “modello” in more than fifty letters, but not always clearly. She explains:

“In approximately thirty-four letters of the Michelangelo correspondence the term modello and its variants, modelo, modegli, or modelli, designate more or less clearly a three-dimensional model … In approximately twenty other letters the use of modello is less definite, though here, too, it can be argued that the reference is to three-dimensional models rather than drawings.”

 

Various times Michelangelo used the formula “disegni e modegli” and “desegni et modeli”. Admittedly he uses also „exemplar“, e. g. in his well-known poem „S’egli è che n dura pietra“ (1440-44):

„E par ch’esempro pigli

ognor da me, ch’i’ penso di far lei.“

(and I seem to keep taking myself

as a model, whenever I think of depicting her).

 

 

„Modello“ arrives in French, German and English

 

The Italian word "modello" arrived

in French (1542) as "modelle" and "modèle",

in German (1548) as „Modell" and

in English (1570) as "modell" and "model",

whereby the variety of meaning expanded rapidly into the present-day abundance, including patterns in the mind and examples.

 

The first evidence in English is found in the preface of John Dee to a translation of Euclid’s’ „Elements”:

“Now, all those thinges, which Vitruuius in his Architecture, specified hable to be done, by dubbling of the Cube: Or, by finding of two middle proportionall lines, betwene two lines giuen, may easely be performed. Now, that Probleme, which I noted vnto you, in the end of my Addition, vpon the 34. of the 11. boke of Euclide, is proued possible. Now, may any regular body, be Transformed into an other, &c. Now, any regular body: any Sphere, yea any Mixt Solid: and (that more is) Irregular Solides, may be made (in any proportiõ assigned) like vnto the body, first giuen. Thus, of a Manneken, (as the Dutch Painters terme it) in the same Symmetrie, may a Giant be made: and that, with any gesture, by the Manneken vsed: and contrarywise. Now, may you, of any Mould, or Modell of a Ship, make one, of the same Mould (in any assigned proportion) bigger or lesser.“

 

With different delays to the nouns the related verbs followed:

·        in German: modeln; modulieren; modellieren

·        in English: mold or mould; modulate or modulize; modelize or model

·        in French: mouler; moduler or moduliser; modeler

·        in Italian: modanare; modulare; modellare.

 

 

Since 1600: Continuous change of wording and spelling

 

In English

 

The continuous change in the usage shows up beautifully in English where not only the word “model” was used for models of buildings, machines and landscapes, but also “modell”, "moddel" and “module".

 

Shakespeare used model more than a dozen times in various meanings, e. g. in the sense of an architect’s set of designs and or of a person that is the likeness or „image” of another, and in different spellings, e .g. “modle” (1597), “model” (1598), “modill” (1604) and “Modell” (below, each times the first two lines, in the Folio edition of his works 1623 – for more see Fig. 40):

“Giue me some Inke, and Paper, in my Tent:

Ile drawe the Forme and Modell of our Battaile”

(1592 Richard III V iii - Quarto 1, 1597, has: forme and modle of our battel)

“When we meane to build,

We first suruey the Plot, then draw the Modell”

(1597 Henry IV I iii - Quarto 1, 1598, has: the model)

“I had my fathers Signet in my Purse

Which was the Modell of that Danish Seale:

(1600 Hamlet V. ii. 51 - Quarto 2, 1604, has: modill)

 

In general writing „modell” with two “l” was used in the English language until 1750.

 

„Mould“ has been written also written like French „moule“ and „mole“ as well as „mowle“.

 

In 1620 Francis Bacon (Fig. 41) writing his “Novum Organon” in Latin (i.110 and 124) uses „modulus“ both for printing type, and for attempts to „copy the world in the human mind“ – and for the latter also the acquainted „exemplar“.

“For I lay foundations in the human intellect for a true pattern of the world (verum exemplar Mundi) as we actually find it and not as someone’s own private reason hands it down to him. And this cannot be achieved unless we undertake a most painstaking dissection and anatomy of the world. But I proclaim that the botched and (if you like) apish patterns of worlds (Modulos vero ineptos Mundorum) which men’s fancies have thrown together into philosophical systems should be utterly destroyed” (Bacon, 1620, i 124).

 

The first translation of Bacon’s Novum Organon into English was more than a century later, in 1733 by Peter Shaw. He has “a true Model of the World” and “ridiculous Mock-models of Worlds”. The first authoritative translation is James Spedding’s of 1858. He translates also for „exemplar“ „model“ but for „modulus“ „image“. The most recent English translation by Graham Rees with Maria Wakely (2004; see above) has in both cases „pattern“.

 

In 1627 the Editor of Bacon’s New Atlantis opened his foreword with the words:

“This Fable my Lord devised, to the end that He might exhibite therein, a Modell or Description of a Colledge, instituted for the Interpreting of Nature, and the Producing of Great and Marveilous Workes for the Benefit of Men …

Certainely, the Modell is more Vast, and High, then can possibly be imitated in all things; Notwithstanding most Things therein are within Mens Power to effect.

His Lordship thought also in this present Fable, to have composed a Frame of Lawes, or of the best State or Mould of a Common-wealth …”

In the Latin edition, published 11 years later we read e. g.: „modulum quendam et descriptionem“.

 

 

In German

 

For English „mould“ the German words are mostly Model, but also Modell and Form.

 

In German both "Model" and "Modell" were used for architectural models. The meaning rapidly expanded to include patterns, examples and artist’s models. The uncertainty of spelling, either with one “l” or with two, continued - analogously to the English language - for a long time, till around 1800.

 

In the first transation of Vitruvius’ Ten Books of Architecture in German in 1548 Walther Rivius used for „modulus“ in the sense of measure: „Model or Messstab“.

 

Inspired by Vitruvius and Leonardo da Vinci the Swiss architect Le Corbusier developed, in World War II, the “Modulor”, an architectural yardstick, based on a human figure 1.83 meter (6 feet) tall.

 

 

1555-1660: Mental design as model

 

As soon as the word „model“ was established in the European languages mental designs were also marked as models, including:

• the reformation (“il modello di Martino Lutero” by the Italian monk Giacomo Moronessa 1555)

• the “new Theorick” of Copernicus (by Thomas Digges 1576)

• the “Decameron”, the 100 stories by Giovanni Boccaccio, was presented in English under the title „The modell of wit, mirth, eloquence, and conversation“ (1620-25)

• Francis Bacon’s fable "New Atlantis" (1627) by the editor William Rawley

• Valentin Andreae’s vision of a scholarly society „Christianapolis“ (1619) in the English translation (1647) as „A modell of a Christian Society“

• René Descartes’ "Discourse on Method" (by himself, 1637, and by Christian Huygens, 1650 as „modele du monde“)

• "The German Principality” of the Cameralist von Seckendorff (1656)

• James Harrington’s utopia „Rota“ (1660) as „A model of a free-state, or eqall common-wealth“.

 

On the other side many ideas that today were regarded as models were not denominated as such. Persistent rivals of the concept of “model” were (see: Fig. 14):

“hypothesis”, „thesis“ and “system” as well as "theory" and “philosophy” - and sometimes „metapyhsics“-, „treatise" and „principles".

 

Other rivals include in another perspective “representation”, “analogy” and “metaphor” - not forgetting "image" and "imagery".

 

 

Since 1800: Technical use of model

 

Of technical importance for various kinds of modeling were since about 1800:

·        Machines and motors

·        Standardization and serialization

·        Dyes and plastics

·        Recording tapes, discs and films

·        Control, cybernetics and systems sciences

·        Mathematical logic and informatics

·        Robots, computers and electronics.

 

 

Explosive spread of the concept of model

 

In 1942see: Reflections on the use of models). The explosive spread of the concept of model is shown e. g. in the figures of the archives of the Deutschen Bibliothek in Frankfurt, concerning titles of books – most in German - using the words „Modell“, „Modellierung“, „Modellversuche“ and the like. We find per year the following amount of titless:

 

1950:     30

1960:     50

1970:   350

1980:   700

1990: 1100

2000: 1950

2004: 2300.

 

In the ten years 1990-1999 apperared more than 17.000 model titles, and in the five years 2000-2004 no less than 12.000. The conjoint online-catalogue of the biggest British libraries (COPAC) has for 1990-1999 more than 16.000 English titles (admittedly with many doublets).

 

1964-1979: Explosion of the literature on models

 

In the 1960s the literature on models exploded. According to Daniela Bailer-Jones and Stephan Hartmann (1999) there were two conflicting attempts:

·        one tried to conciliate formalistic and model theoretical approaches with the plurality of scientific practice

·        one offered alternatives to the view of logical positivism.

We may not suppress the fact that the use of concepts such as analogy, metaphor and representation – but also symbol, theory and realism - caused much confusion.

 

1980-89: construction of models – consequences of models

 

Since 1980 models are seen still more as substantial elements of scientific practice. "In many detailed investigations and case studies from different sciences is tried to understand how models function and how they are designed in scientific practice. In some cases one falls back to knowledge outside of the range of philosophy, in particular cognitive psychology.

Further is worked out, what are the consequences of the use of models for other philosophical questions, like the debates on realism and reductionism” (Daniela Bailer-Jones, Stephan Hartmann 1999, 856).

 

 

Bibliography

Nachschlagewerke für Begriffsgeschichte – history of concept

Architekturmodelle und Musterhäuser – architectural models and model houses

Modelle: Die 66 wichtigsten und informativsten Publikationen aus 6 Jahrhunderten

Modell: einzelne Sachgebiete - model: special topics