Anatomical machines Giuseppe Salerno, an anatomist from Palermo, around 1763. Some legends, disproved by modern studies, account for the direct involvement of the prince in the building process, while in fact he only bought them. A contract, found in the notary archive of Naples, states that di Sangro provided to Salerno metal wire and wax for the work. They were described in detail for the first time in the "Breve Nota" (short note), an 18th-century guide to Palazzo di Sangro and its neigh chapel. It also accounts the existence of a third machine, a fetus complete with placenta: it was exposed together
18th-century French literature the originality and importance of their ideas and for their literary talent; writers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Diderot and Beaumarchais, whose ideas are still quoted today. They used their novels and plays as weapons which profoundly changed their society, while expressing their own personalities and feelings. Thanks largely to these writers, in the 18th century French became the language of culture, political and social reform all across Europe, and as far away as America and Russia. 18th-century French literature 18th-century French literature is French literature written between 1715, the year of the death of King Louis XIV of France,