From the end of the 14th century onwards, the art of war and fortification became a popular subject for study. Treatises, guidebooks, and manuals were written and spread widely through a revolutionary method: printing with movable type. Invented in the mid-14th century by Johann Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, printing came rapidly into use throughout Europe. Great names of the Renaissance are not only artists and architects, but also early military theorists developing fortifications entirely adapted to firearms.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist involved in anatomy, botany, geology, mechanical engineering, armaments and fortifications. In 1483, he entered the service of the duke of Milan, Louis-Maria Sforza (nicknamed Ludovic the Moor), and worked for him as civil architect and military advisor until 1499. Leonardo designed weapons (giant crossbows, steam-guns, machine guns, mortars, breech-loading guns) as well as military engineering devices (an assault bridge, a wooden armored vehicle, a submarine and even a parachute). He studied ballistics and made many theoretical designs of fortresses, including round forts with several rows of casemates, caponiers.
And ravelins with rounded parapets.
Between 1502 and 1504, Leonardo was engaged by the republic of Florence as military counselor. He participated in the construction of the castle Imola in 1502, the fortress La Verruca in 1503, the fortifications of Piombino in 1504 and the castle of Milan between 1506 and 1513. From 1515 until his death in 1519, he was in the service of the king of France, Francois I.
Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1502) of Sienna was a civilian architect and an early theorist of fortification. In 1480, he published a treatise on that subject titled “Trattati del-I’architectura ingegneria e arte militare” (“Treatise on Architectural Engineering and the Military Art”) in which he presented interesting forms for forts and experimental shapes for towers, donjons and caponiers in order to improve flanking. From 1480 to 1486, the creative Giorgio Martini was in the service of the condottiere-duke Federico di Montefeltro, for whom he designed a palace and fortifications in Urbino. Francesco di Giorgio Martini participated in the construction of the fortress rocca of Mondavio, completed in 1492. In 1494, he entered the service of king of Naples and Sicily, Al-phonso II, and designed fortifications in Naples.
World History
