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

the dodrine of Galileo, says Robins,* like the rest, ignoring Alaba,
*' many theories of the motions of military projectiles, and many
tables of their comparative ranges at different elevations, were published
;
all of them egregiously fallacious and utterly irreconcilable
with the motions of those bodies, although some of them were the
labours of such who had spent the greatest part of their lives in employments
relating to the Artillery. Such were the tables of Ufano,
Galeus, of Ulrick, etc., taken notice of by Blondel." ^ On reading
Galileo's treatise on the theory of projeftiles, Evangelista Torricelli^
developed many of the mechanical principles as first set forth by
him ; but it remained for Robins to supply what these two writers
knew to be still wanting in their theories.*
There has been some argument as to who was the first to write
on modern fortification. The Spaniards claim the honour for
Escriva ; but as the question turns on a lost MS., it is a difficult
one to resolve ; at all events, if not before Diirer, Escriva wrote at
the same time.^ But if, as Marini ^ believes, Macchiavelli, in the
MS. entitled " Relazione d'una visitafatta per Fortificare Firenze"
(anno 1526),^ means by " torri " what we call "bastions," the
honour rests with him. Another remarkable MS. on the subject
is Giangiacomo Leonardi's, which was written about a quarter of a
century after Macchiavelli's, but, unlike his, was never published,
however tardily. Leonardi is commended by Lanteri, and Promis
calls him " one of those extraordinary men of whom Italy during
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was so full." Renowned in
his own time, since his death he has been almost entirely forgotten.
'
Benjamin Robins, F.R.S., "New Principles of Gunnery", London, 1742, 8",
p. xlii.
» « L'Art de jeter les Bombes ", La Haye, 1685, 12°, bk. ii.
'
In his work entitled " De motu gravium naturalitur descendentium et projectorum",
Florence, 1644, 4°.
*
Wilson's Preface to the 1805 ed. of Robins's " Gunnery ", p. xxx.
*
Almirante, " Bibliografia Militar ", p. 269.
'
Introdudion to Marchi's " Architettura Militate", Rome, 18 10, fol., vol. i.,
p. 59-
'''
Not printed till 1782.
xxi