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

|
by Peter |
Whyte- home
| (.'.)
| f[
Willyam Seres. ^ Cum priuilegio ad impri-
I
| |
mendum
Imprinted at London, by
solum.
I
Anno. 1563.
I
Black letter.
Collation.
Ocaavo.
Tp., Ai.—Ded. to Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, A 2-4.—Cts.,
K1-3.—Col. :
" t[ Imprynted at London, by Wyllyam Seres, dwellinge at
the West end of Paules, at the sygne of the Hedgehogge (.•.) 1 Cum
privilegio ad imprimendum solum. Anno 1 563.**, K4.—R.H. : "Onosandro
Platonico."—Sigs. in 8', A-K4. — 30 11. to p.
Copies. B.M.i Bod.
Contents. Strangely varying opinions have been held of Onosander;
Guischardt calls him a foolish dreamer, and considers that he must have lived
in the time of Vegetius, for the sole reason that, had he written after that
author, he would most certainly have copied from him j on the other hand.
Marshal Saxe regarded him with the greatest reverence. " It is only just,"
says Almirante, in reviewing these opinions, " to allow to Onosander the
Platonic a priority in treating military affairs
from a moral and elevated or,
as one might say, from a philosophic point of view ; for which it is not
indispensably necessary to have passed one's life in a camp ; and this being
granted, we may tolerate a few technical errors, as well as some confusion in
chronology."
Onosander was first put into a modern tongue by Fabio, or Tobia, Cotta
in 1546 J
and it is this translation^ that Peter Whitehorne turned into English.
Whitehorne had gained some military knowledge while in Turkey, by
looking on at the " martiall affayres and doings of the Turks." In his
version, Onosander's suggestions for a sham fight run as follows :
" I
woulde deuide [the army] in two partes, and then without weapon bring
them close together to fayght, distributinge the light dartes, and the slite
partisans : and if paraduenture there shalbe nere some plowed fielde, lette
theym faight wyth the cloddes of earth, and let the souldiers use harnes of
Bulles lether, if they may haue it." The contents of the treatise may be
put under the heads : choice of the general j councils of war j declaration
of war ; marches j camps ; drilling j forages ; spies ;
guards and sentries j
sacrifices ;
pursuit j
gaining information ; hours for meals ; encouraging
troops J
battle formations ; signals to be used in reconnoitring j
preparations
for, and after, a battle ;
sieges.
Earliest printed eds.: in Gr. and Lat.—Romae, 1494, 4°; Parrhisiis [1506],
8° (the Pref. of this ed. bears date 1506 and the Col., 1504, probably that of
trans.); Basileae, 1541, 8°; ibid., 1558, 8"; Noribergae, 1595, 8°; Lutetiae
Parisiorum, 1598-99, 4°: in Fr.—Paris, 1546, fol.j Paris, 1605,
4** (by de
Vigen^re): in Germ.—Meiiitz, 1532, fol.; and others more recent.
* Reprinted, Milano, 1862, 8°.
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