Outline restored the balance of arms in favor of the besieged, permitting maximum defense with relatively few defenders.
The new Italian system was further improved by the creation of an outer work called a ravelin (also named demi-lune or half-moon), which was placed in front of the curtain as a triangular independent island. Another important feature was the creation of the covered way, a continuous broad lane placed on top of the counter-scarp all around the fortress. It formed a first line of combat because the alley was “covered” by an uninterrupted breastwork. The crest of the parapet was aligned on the slope of the glacis to give grazing fire; defenders posted on the covered way gained a fire-range equal to the breadth of the ditch. The idea of protecting this outer lane beyond the ditch is attributed to the Italian military engineer Nicolo Tartaglia.
The Italian bastioned front was thus an ensemble of elements related by rules and geometric ratios. The unit could be repeated at will to form a fort or an urban enclosure. The outline of the front could vary endlessly in length and be connected according to various angles. Engineers dreamed up infinite variations, partly according to local circumstances (the need to adapt fortifications to the site) but also according to a sort of fashion created by currents, schools or movements. The latter phenomenon, particularly in 16th century Italy, gave birth to uncountable theoretical bastioned fronts and endless sterile disputes between engineers of opposing cliques.
The bastioned system was very costly and demanded a specialized corps of engineers with knowledge in artillery, geometry and mathematics. The art of fortification had become a science, resulting in the definitive disappearance of medieval private fortification and signalling the standardization of military architecture.
World History
