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

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Collation. Tp., A2, without illustration of encampment.—Ded,, A3.
Arms of Digges, A4.—Col., A42, " Imprinted at London by Richard Field
dwelling in the Blaclce-Friers neere Ludgate. 1590.", with printer's device
above.—Sigs. in 4% A-Z, Aa-Pp. — 35 11. to p.
Copies. B.M. i
Trin. Coll. Camb. ; R.A.I. ; Lambeth.
Contents. One of the best of the military works of the time. De Morgan
("Arithmetical Books") says of the first part, "There is a brief and good
treatise on Arithmetic, and some Algebra of the school of Recorde and
Scheubel." Book II., chaps. 10-13, contains calculations for the use of officers.
Digges describes in full the duties of officers of all ranks, and also the precautions
to be taken preparatory to forming a camp, giving the method of
encamping as pradlised by the Ruyters. On p. 376, ed. 1590, he recommends
that the horses of Argolotiers should be strong enough to carry in
addition a " footshot," or musketeer, a suggestion which may be taken as
fore-shadowing the employment of Mounted Infantry. A list is given of
35 offences punishable with death " in everie armie "
; also the Laws and
Ordinances issued by the Prince of Cond^ during the Civil Wars in France
and, in the 2nd ed., a reprint of those issued by Leicester in 1586 (v. No. 33).
In chap. 7 of Bk. III. are propounded ** Certain Questions in the Art of
Artillery, by Mathematical Science, joined with experience, to be debated
and discussed," for answers to which see the " Pantometria " (2nd ed.,
p. 181), and Norton's "Art of Great Artillery" (London, 1624).
The impression of 1 594 has two supplements : (I.) " An Addition to
Stratioticos concerning great ordnance," a fragment of a larger
work never
printed, in which five errors in the science as propounded by certain gunners
are pointed out ; and (II.) " Another addition concerning Invasion. ... A
briefe Discourse what orders were best for repulsing of forraine force, if at
any time they should invade us by sea in Kent, or elsewhere," reprinted
in a pamphlet compiled by Thomas Adamson in 1680, fol. The second
" addition " is said to have been written in opposition to two communications
on the same subjedl presented in MS. to the Privy Council by Sir Walter
Raleigh,^ and was answered by Sir John Smythe. Just before and immediately
after the Armada, appeared a considerable number of these pamphlets
on the best means of repelling invasion. The majority were never printed,
but the MSS., or transcriptions, of many are to be found in the B.M.
Digges criticises Santbech, Ruscelli and others, who, he says, attempted to
write on the science of gunnery, without having a knowledge of mathematics.
On the other hand, Tartaglia, although an excellent geometer, failed even
in the first principles, and so in his whole discourse, from want of practical
experience ; as, for example, in his statement that the greatest range was to
be obtained with an angle of 45°, which is true only if the projedlile were
fired " in vacuo ; " and, also, in his theory that the final arc described by a
Bibliog. of Sir W. Raleigh, by J.
N. Brushfield. Plymouth and Exeter, 1886.