Instruction on the Fortification of Cities

Another method for making a bastion.

Suppose the location on the city wall where it is to be built is determined, and once that end is sketched out in the ground plan, one foot of a compassesoriginal: "cirkel" should be placed at the corner of the city wall and that same spot marked with an A. Afterward, the compasses should be opened with the other foot to a width of 200 feetoriginal: "schuch" (shoes), a standard unit of measurement roughly equivalent to a modern foot., and a semicircular line should be drawn out toward the ditch. In front of this round line, the ditch should be made 250 feet wide from the bastion and be built with a straight masonry wall 50 feet deep. In other places, however, the ditch remains as it was before.

This round wall at the front of the bastion should be laid 15 feet thick at the bottom of the ditch, but 10 feet thick at the top. The outer line of the wall rises in height during construction; likewise, the laying of the stones should follow the high perpendicular angle that will support the vaulting mentioned hereafter. However, the inner line of the wall should stand upright. From the semicircular wall, straight walls of equal thickness should be extended backward on both sides according to the round measurement, passing through the city wall behind point A for a length of 200 feet. Then, from one end to the other, a transverse wall should be built as thick as necessary so that this bastion is completely enclosed. Let the mark for this transverse wall be a C in the center.

Afterward, another upright semicircular wall should be drawn from point A, 70 feet thick and 50 feet wide, inside and behind the outer round walls. This should be reinforced with strong pillars as high as necessary to help support the vaulting. Thus, there will be enough width and space between these two walls for the flanking defensesoriginal: "streich weren," defensive positions designed to fire along the face of a wall to repel attackers. all around. From each end of this semicircular wall, a straight wall should also be led in equal thickness up to the city wall.

Two large gates should be placed out of the city at both ends of the hindmost transverse wall. Through these, one may build a passage under the earth to the flanking defenses, strongly vaulted, high, and wide enough. In this bastion, 15 embrasures should be distributed equally down in the ditch and prepared for heavy artillery. Smaller narrow windows should also be distributed equally between the large cannons, through which one may fire with handguns or hackbutsoriginal: "hocken," an early type of heavy portable firearm supported by a hook-like projection..

Within the city wall, 10 transverse vaults should be laid out equally and all made sturdy; thus, a side between the powerful arches will be slightly less than 30 feet long. These powerful arches shall be 4 feet thick, always standing crosswise to one another. There are 9 such sections between the two thick side walls in the first row. These same two walls take up 30 feet of thickness on both sides. This makes a total sum of 400 feet. Such sturdy vaults should be extended as far as the city wall as necessary. The stairs should be placed at the back at both ends of the transverse walls, above the two gates that lead to the flanking defenses; however, everything should be walled off so that no vault is disturbed by it. The steps should be 12 feet long so that there is enough room for people to pass one another. Each staircase should also have a landing in its middle 7 feet wide before the next section begins.

This previously described ground plan shall be raised as follows: First, the round forward wall of the bastion shall be raised 40 feet high from the bottom of the ditch, and the half-part in front of the city wall should be lower than the ground outside the ditch. But within the city wall, the two side walls should be raised to the height of the bastion, and the walls should taper at the top according to the outer slope. The rear transverse wall should also be equal in height to these two. All measurements of the inner round walls should be followed, and they should be raised 70 feet high from the bottom of the ditch in equal thickness and should be closed and end directly into the city wall on both sides. Inside these upright round walls, the bastion should be filled out up to the city wall.