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P rinting transformed the writing about war in Christian Europe. Books strengthened the consciousness of a specific military tradition, not least as printed manuals, whether on gunnery, tactics, drill, siegecraft or fortification, all topics covered in this collection, spread techniques far more rapidly than word of mouth or manuscript. Manuals permitted a degree of standardisation that helped to increase military effectiveness and was important for cohesion and the utilisation of military resources. More generally, printing and literacy fostered discussion of military organisation and methods, and encouraged a sense of system, affecting and reflecting cultural assumptions.
Immerse Yourself in a Tour de Force of Military Literature
Immerse Yourself in a Tour de Force of Military Literature
Information was a key aspect of the shift towards consistency, regularity and uniformity in European forces as it encoded these characteristics and replicated them, which was a particular feature of the culture of print. Printing made it possible to disseminate reports, knowledge and opinion, rapidly and at great distance.
Philological work and the Printing Revolution were linked to the widespread ‘rediscovery’ and availability in Christian Europe of Classical texts, and this return to the past served to validate new emphases. Classical texts were reprinted, both in the original and in translation. These are present in this valuable collection, as with Aegidius Romanus, Caesar and Vegetius among the reprinting of Classical texts. There was also current work on the Classical period, as with Jacob von Wallhausen’s La Milice Romane (1616).
Contemporary Western warfare could be understood in part in Classical terms: the Greeks, Macedonians and Romans did not have gunpowder weapons, but their forces did have a mixture of infantry and cavalry, cold steel and projectiles. The large-scale use of the pike in many respects represented a revival of the Macedon phalanx. In his Libro dell’ Arte della Guerra (Art of War, 1521), Niccolò Machiavelli tried to update Flavius Vegetius’ fourth- or fifth-century Epitoma Rei Militaris (On Military Matters) by focusing on the pike and treating the handgun as similar to missile weaponry. Both pressure for continuity and calls for change were framed in terms of revival and, linked to this, defended by frequent backward-looking reference to the Classics. This practice continued to be the case, as with the writings of Marshal Saxe in the eighteenth century.
Highlights from the Auction
An alternative method toward modernity relied on experimentation in the shape of the Scientific Revolution, notably with ballistics. Contemporary writings on war reflected the sense that not only were there lessons to be learned, but that they needed learning. For artillery, there was a process of mathematisation through an engagement with ballistics. Theoretical and empirical advances greatly increased the predictive power of ballistics, and helped turn gunnery from a craft into a science that could, and should, be taught.
Fortification was a longstanding subject for publications that were designed to be educational. These related to defending and attacking positions, as in Jean Errard’s La Fortification Reduite en art (1600). Dedicated to Henry IV of France by a royal engineer, this beautifully illustrated work sought to tackle practical issues in fortification.
Another instance of superb illustration is offered by Henry Hexham’s The Principles of the Art of Militarie; practised in the Wars of the United Netherlands (1635-40), as in the diagrams of orders of battles. Like many of the other theoretical studies, Hexham’s work illustrates the importance of the examples of conflict so common in this period. Other excellent works on fortification in this collection include those by Deschales, Fournier, Freitag, Furttenbach, Maggi, Savery, and Vauban. Joseph Furttenbach’s Architectura martialis (1630) is made particularly piquant by appearing in Germany during the Thirty Years’ War. The wide-ranging nature of contemporary interest is also shown by translations. Thus, the Freitag volume on sale is a French translation, while Nicolas Goldman’s La Nouvelle Fortification was published in French in Leiden by the major Dutch publisher Elzevir. Its author, a Leiden mathematician, had been born in Wroclaw in what is now Poland but was then Silesia.
Nicolas de Fer’s Introduction a la Fortification (c. 1696-7) and Abel Boyer’s Draughts of … fortified towns of Europe (1701) are valuable compendia. Indeed, the collection’s strong emphasis on fortification offers a way to approach not only military history but also the changing morphology of towns. It is especially strong on Italian works on military architecture and fortifications, which reflects the major role of Italians in the field, notably, but not only, in the sixteenth century. Italian military architects worked not only for their own rulers but also for others, especially those of Spain as well as German princes. Boniauto Lorini, (1540-1611), the author of Le Fortificazioni (1596), was connected with the construction of the fortress town of Palamanova. A Florentine, he designed fortifications for Venice, France and Spain.
The English Civil War provides a range of publications that are well-worthy of attention. The English tradition continues into the late seventeenth century and the eighteenth, as with General Wolfe’s instructions. This continues into the nineteenth century with the valuable variety of the collection captured by works such as correspondence and papers relating to coastal militia in Suffolk in 1803-5, the period of peak concern about the possibility of Napoleonic invasion of England, as well as William Congreve’s treatise on his rocket system, and a sketch of Bengal troops on the line of march in Sind in the mid-century. The material on India is a reflection of the range of European military activity.
This was an aspect of change alongside the development in weaponry seen in particular in new fortification and in developments in ballistics. The very presentation of so much material in print was also a key aspect of change. Entrepreneurial opportunities were a cause of this development, and illustrations indicated this change. The Cottesloe collection provides a comprehensive introduction to the range of military publications in an important period of the European state system and an instructive one in European military development. The response to the potential of gunpowder was a major aspect of this development. This response included speculation over likely consequences and most appropriate reactions. The repeated character of much of the discussion poses a question mark against simplistic attempts to discern a ‘military revolution’ in all or part of the period. Instead, this rich collection testifies to continuities as much as changes. It reflects in particular the widespread engagement with the subject through the printed word.
