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

^ "' learning, and died about 1574. The eldest son of Thomas was also very
r^
learned : he was Sir Dudley Digges, and was Master of the Rolls to Charles I.
He died about 1639."—(MS. note in compiler's copy.) Thomas himself,
who was one of the first mathematicians of his age, was Muster-Master
General to the English forces in the Netherlands, a post obtained for him by
his patron, Leicester. It was thus he gained his knowledge of military
organization.
17. Fifteen-seventy-two. Vegetius, Flavlus.
The Foure bookes of Flauius Vegetius Ranatus, brieflye
contayninge a plaine forme, and perfe(5l knowledge of Martiall
policye, feates of Chiualrie, and whateuer pertayneth to warre.
Translated out of lattine, into Englishe, by lohn Sadler.
Anno. 1572.
Imprinted by Thomas Marshe,
^
Quarto. Herbert, 862.
Contents. Vegetius dedicated his work, ** De re militari, lib. v **, to Valentinian
II. He himself states that it is derived from the commentaries of
Cato, Celsus, Trajan, Hadrian, and Frontinus. " His gravest defeft is that
he confounds periods and usages, the ancients with him signifying sometimes
the Romans in their early days, sometimes in the palmy days of the Republic,
and sometimes in the times immediately before his own." ^ But he is considered
a great authority on what concerns the Romans, and no writer has
written of that system without mentioning him. " He is, as it were, an immense
bridge," says Almirante, " uniting antiquity with modern times. Notwithstanding
grave defe6ls, he has had the good luck and the glory of surviving
the shipwreck of the middle ages, and of being reverently imitated during
the renaissance, being one of the few classics that have come down to us
complete." It was Egidio Colonna who, in 1284, first brought Vegetius
into vogue, by taking him as his model and guide in the "Principium
Regimine," which may be called the first modern work on the military art,
while, in the same year, by command of Jean, Count of Eu, Jean de Meung
translated him entirely. For 250 years after this revival he remained one of
the most popular of writers. [V. No. i.] The five books are thus divided:
Bk. I. On the levying and training of recruits.—Bk. II. On the legion, its
organisation, rank of officers and men, and their arms.—Bk. III. On tadlics j
the last chapter of this book consisting of thirty-two " maxims of war."—Bk.
IV. On fortification and the attack and defence of places ; on machines of
war.—Bk. V. On the navy.
^
Nisard's " ColledHon des auteurs latin," Paris, 1851.
16