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

After Hero the Younger and Nicephorus Phocas there is a gap
in military literature of over three centuries. The connedling
link between antiquity and modern times is Colonna*s " De
Regimine Principum", composed in Latin in 1285, and translated
into Italian in 1288. The latter part treats of manoeuvring, the
attack and defence of places, etc., so that he divides with de Meung
the honour of being the first modern author to treat of military
matters. But there is no trace of a new system to be found in the
treatise ; it is taken entirely from Vegetius, from whom, as well as
from Polybius, Frontinus, Modestus, and .^lian, are compiled all
the early books on ta6tics. They were written, moreover, not by
soldiers, but by scholars, such as Robert Valtur ; who, however, as
Promis puts it, *' had this advantage over men of the sword, that,
versed in the history of the Greeks and Romans, they had, in theory,
a far deeper acquaintance with the laws of discipline and strategy
than had those Captains to whom war was not a branch of learning,
but a profession."^
Indeed, the title, "De re militari", so frequent
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, sufficiently indicates
how fully the ideas of the time had reverted to the ancient
teaching. The first hint of change, so far as tallies are concerned,
comes in with Macchiavelli, whose most worthy successors in this
branch are Du Bellay (or rather de Fourquevaux) and de La Noue.
On medieval machines of war the earliest authority is Robert
Valtur. Paolo Santini may be said to be the first writer on artillery
; his MS., which dates from the year 1450, containing drawings
of ordnance, powder mines, and receipts for fire-balls and
hollow balls filled with powder; while Lampo Birago is the
second. The MS. of the latter, which was written in 1454,
earliest known treatise exclusively on artillery, and contains an
is the
*
P. 35. By the word " discipline"' was formerly understood training or skill in
military affairs generally j military skill and experience j the art of war; drill.—See
Murray's £)/V.
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