A 500-Year-Old Tool Book Finally Gets Its First Full Reading
Tool book of a Nuremberg knight from 1505
In 1505, Nuremberg knight Martin Löffelholz began a 154-page book of tools, machines, and weapons—drills with interchangeable blades, a swivel chair on casters, a mercury-filled cradle. The original sits in Kraków, digitized and public, yet no one has ever read it in full. Engineer Dirk Schornstein is now transcribing and interpreting every page, using AI for groundwork and inviting craftspeople to help.
It has been fully digitized and is in the public domain - and yet in more than 500 years no one has ever read it in full.