fl. 1330s?

Italian Inventor and Physician

To judge from his writings and drawings, Guido da Vigevano (sometimes referred to as Guido Vigevano), was one of the most colorful figures of medieval technology. Along with Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), he is credited for developing the concept of a tank, and is also cited as the man who first conceived the idea of an automobile.

Most of what scholars know about Guido comes from his masterwork, Texaurus regis Franciae, which he presented to Philip VI of France (r. 1328-1350) in 1335. By that time the numbered crusades to the Holy Land had long since ended with the fall of Acre (now in Israel) to the Muslims in 1291, but "holy wars" of one form or another would continue until a few years after the Turks' capture of Constantinople in 1453. Certainly many Europeans still expected to be called to...