The Use of a Particular Form of the Parallelogram Law of Forces for the Building of Vaults (1650–1750)

One of the principal, if not the only, interests in the history of mechanics of Clifford TruesdellTruesdell, Clifford A. as well as of Edoardo BenvenutoBenvenuto, Edoardo, was to understand how people discovered fundamental notions, laws and principles. The history of the study of stability of a vault under its own weight during the period 1650–1750 was important for the discovery of other fundamental notions. This chapter aims to account for I, examining how the study of that problem contributed to the knowledge of fundamental mechanical notions.