APOLOGETICS The title "Apologétique" here serves as a formal defense or justification of the author's chosen method and style.

...put into this collection anything that is subject to the laws of the aforementioned arts. Since we desire to teach familiarly those who are ignorant of them, and have no need to insert the use of a square or other geometric instruments—which they could not easily understand, and which would be of no use to those who already have knowledge of them. Therefore, we have reduced everything to such easy terms, such well-known precepts, and such a common method, that even the most ignorant will be able to profit from it and understand the most hidden things. To further facilitate their understanding, and so that they may be self-taught original: "Autodidactes" (or masters without a teacher), we have spared no expense to provide them with almost as many figures as there are chapters and subjects treated, regarding both machines and artificial fires artificial fires: specialized incendiary weapons, such as fire-arrows or "Greek fire" variants, used in early modern warfare. This is because such figures serve as examples and powerfully move the faculties of the intellect, providing the spectators with a clearer understanding of the thing proposed.

Thus, we have refrained from writing about the method of forming battalions; our design does not extend to teaching the duty of a soldier toward his captain, and even less to treating the means of making artillery with its proportions, gunpowder, or its various compositions; nor the gear of either practice, nor many things necessary in the military art. This is because everyone should already know what he must do in his specific duty. Instead, we have given various means for attacking and defending...