TO THE READER.

...horrendous and ingenious a machine. Neither walls, nor any enclosures, nor battle lines protected by iron are able to endure its violent strikes; but they are shattered, scattered, and leveled. With its roar, it equals or surpasses thunder; in its impetus, it does not yield to lightning. It is now clear that not only by nature, but also by art, can thunder and lightning be stirred up on earth, not just in the sky. If you consider the flame, the black smoke, and the intolerable stench, it imitates the underworld with such things. I have no doubt that Jupiter would have lost his empire long ago, and the collapsed walls of Olympus would have surrendered, had the Giants, equipped with such weapons, waged war against him.

Whatever good or evil has redounded to the human race from the invention of our Giant, our Art—which we are now accustomed to call ARTILLERY—deriving its origin from there, comprehends it. It arose from very small beginnings (as is common to all arts), as will eventually be taught at length, but, having progressed by stupendous means and finally elevated to the highest peak, it has earned the title of a GREAT ART. And in truth, if you correctly weigh what is currently being done in the world by its benefit, you will find such things that will cause you nothing but great admiration. Let us imagine for ourselves as many Marses and Herculeses as once stood intrepidly with the weapons of their time; if they were now to hear the lightning-like roar of our machines and see the effect, would not a certain stupor, mixed with fear, suddenly invade their souls, and dread overwhelm their minds? Even if they were to put on iron breastplates, or those coats of mail of the ancients, impenetrable to every kind of projectile; if they were, in short, entirely of iron, they would not endure the weapons our art teaches how to prepare, but would fall lifeless immediately. I say nothing of the most fortified cities; though their walls may be of bronze or adamant, our art will teach the method of breaking and grinding these down as well. You may arm your gates with iron plates as thick as you like, with hinges, bolts, enclosures, latches, and bars; add grates and the strongest chains, we break all these and make them burst apart in the blink of an eye. We shatter stags, hedgehogs defensive military obstacles, barricades, stakes, and suspension bridges. We overturn the most massive earthen mounds, indeed the very highest mountains in the world, from their foundations. We demolish and scatter the walls of houses and the entire structure of soft and graceful Architecture. We devastate cities with conflagrations. We stir up inextinguishable fires under and in the waters. We scatter and shatter naval fleets and sink them into the deep. We overwhelm so many thousands of men in a single moment with death. We fill the sea and the rivers, the earth and the air with flames and fire. Finally, we cause lightning, we thunder, and we throw the whole world into confusion. Yet, we accomplish these things, and indeed even more, relying on the rules of our art. Would you not, therefore, rightly and deservedly call it GREAT, and the mistress and architect of things that exceed human comprehension?

This alone is also, as it were, a compendium and a meeting in one of many liberal disciplines and mechanical arts. Here, the Arithmetician will find what to reduce to calculation with his notes; the Geometer what to measure with his instruments; the Natural philosopher subtle questions of natural things in which to exercise himself; the Mechanic what to weigh, lift, compress, and pull with his machines; the Chemist what to dissolve and coagulate with his fire; the Civil Architect his eurythmy and symmetry in the proportions and subtle dimensions of various structures and many works of this art. The Military expert will find the entire art of fortification; the Tactician the method of placing engines of war in open field battles among orderly ranks of soldiers; the Pneumatic and Hydraulic expert the admirable subtleties of the tubes and pipes by which breath or water is expressed and directed; indeed, it is hardly possible to exclude these two sciences from our art without sacrilege. Painters and Opticians are also tenants here with their arts. I pass over Historians and Poets and others, each of whom rightly owes a great deal to this art, or in turn draws from it. To which other of the mentioned arts, taken individually, is it permitted to practice such things as our own? But even if you combine several into one, if ours is missing, you will repent of your labor and expense if you have set yourself to perform the works of our art. As for the crafts and illiberal arts: here congregate Modelers, Sculptors, Casters, Stonemasons, Turners, Seal-makers, Bow-makers, Locksmiths, Blacksmiths, Polishers, Foil-beaters, Saddlers, Carpenters, Ropemakers, Cordwainers, Vintners, and six others, who all provide their labor according to the prescription of this most skillful Mistress.