A bibliography of English military books up to 1642 and of ...

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Quarto.
Collation.
Mus. Cat.
Copies.
Tp., Ai.— Sigs. in 4', A-B.—See under " Invention " in Brit.
B.M.
Contents. The author alludes to Neade's " ingenious device of screwing
bow and pike together," and recommends that, for trial of his own weapon,a bull
should be tied to a stake, or let loose on a common, to be shot at by archers,
when *' haply the madding of the enraged beast would teach some profitable
stratagem for war." The B.M. copy has a MS. note, probably the author's
own: "The author of the Invention and the ensuing Treatise did publish
both some fewe months since j
could objedl against the use of fyre shafts.
the better to discover what men (with reason)
And though much hath ben sayd
(as in all noveltyes) by scrupulous men ;
yet more confirmed by this experiment,
he thinks the thing not only usefull in itselfe,
but that the seasonable
demonstration in these times, will make it acceptable to his Countrymen.
For as Racquets among the french, so Bowes and Arrowes are the natural!
passions of the Englishman."
Ex-
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amples.
In fauour of Mathematicall
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Students. Newly written in
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I
French, and
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Englished by the Authour
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Tho: Malthus.
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118. Sixteen-twenty-nine. Malthus, Francis.
A Treatise Of Artificial
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Fire-Works Both for Warres
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I
and Re- creation : with divers plea- sant Geometricall ob-
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serua- |
tions Fortifications, and Arithmeticall
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Printed for Richard Hawkins, and are \
to be sold at his Shop in
Chancerie lane neere
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to Serleants Inne. 1629.
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Odtavo.
Collation. Engraved emblematic frontis., signed " T. Cecill ", has short
title, "A treatise of Artificiall Fireworkes by T. Malthus. London for
Richard Hawkins in Chancery Lane 1629."— Tp., A2.—Pref., A3-6.
Verses, A7.—Cts., S4-7.—Diags. and fine engravings.—R.H., varied.
Sigs. in 8% A-S j A8 and S8, blank.
Copies.
Contents.
B.M.
This work, though in advance of anything so far written on the
subject in English, does not attain to the standard of Thibourel and Appier.
Yet it is with foreign treatises it must be weighed, for Malthus received his
training in pyrotechnics abroad. He describes and illustrates the manufacture,
uses, etc., of mortars, grenades, fire arrows, and petards, and he explains
the manner of charging the last, a detail that even Ufano and Thibourel
had failed to understand. As for other writers, they had penned whole
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