INVENTION, denotes the act of finding any thing new, or even the thing thus found. Thus we say, the invention of gunpowder, of printing, &c. The alcove is a modern invention owing to the Moors.
The Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, are of Greek invention; the Tuscan and Composite of Latin invention. Janson ab Almeloveen has written an Onomasticon of inventions; wherein are shown, in an alphabetical order, the names of the inventors, and the time, place, &c. where they are made. Pancirollus has a treatise of old inventions that are lost, and new ones that have been made; Polydore Virgil has also published eight books of the inventors of things, De Inventoribus Rerum.