The Great Art of Artillery, Part One

TO THE READER.

...formerly and are even now elsewhere.

Finally, the SEVENTH and last book of this latter part is dedicated by us to the Catholic Pyrotechnic Instrument. This, furthermore, is our new invention, by which our universal science is comprised, and this one instrument surpasses many others and performs the duties of all. For with its help we calibrate the orifices of cannons and balls; we investigate the weights of cannons; we find the mutual ratios of all metals to one another, weights, and measures, both of liquids and of dry things, and of intervals. Likewise, we direct, elevate, or depress cannons and mortars; we have before our eyes the forces of the cannons in projecting balls expressed in triple direction, namely horizontal, common, and maximum elevation. We see the lengths, widths, and thicknesses of the carriages, as well as the heights of the wheels, and the proportions of the axles and modules noted there. Furthermore, we measure the distances of places, and the heights and depths of objects. We transfer flat figures from paper to the field, or from the field to paper. Finally, we resolve many Geometric, and certain Astronomical and Geographical problems. But all these things will be made plain in their own places, and they will make our words worthy of faith.

Now, however, before we descend to treating the first part of our Artillery, the reader must be preoccupied with certain things: and most especially, we must beg for indulgence so that if we have slipped anywhere, he may candidly grant it to us and excuse it, not unmindful of that saying: "no talent has pleased without indulgence." Nevertheless, it would be fair that whoever reads these things of ours should weigh not the words, but the matter more thoughtfully: nor should he pass judgment before he experiments with what is proposed by us, as they say, by his own hand original: "proprio marte"; then, discovering the truth, he will perhaps be more fair to our studies. Nevertheless, if in any place we have not done what we intended, every candid person ought to refer that to the imperfection of human nature: for indeed, for us it is enough to have willed in great things. I say great: for this work deals with a great matter, and with the great rules of an art that is indeed Great and admirable, because they are military; how much this discipline surpasses all others, it should be hidden from no one. Great also are these efforts of ours, because they involve a matter which demands knowledge of very many sciences and crafts, in each of which it is right that only a very few excel in many things. Again, if you weigh the novelty of the thing, we go to treat of Great and difficult things. What we propose is entirely new, because it has been explained by no one before us in this order, by this method, and with these rules: nor do we know of anyone who, having at any time consecrated something to public utility in this matter, ever looked to that goal, or aimed at that target to which we, aiming with God’s favor, have perhaps not strayed far from. We do not deny that many things are found here which have been discovered by others: for I am not so wicked and shameless as to wish to enjoy the labors of others as if they were my own, and to claim praise for them. Yet we have not so pieced together this work of ours from the inventions of others who were in this art before us, that many things of our own have not been added, as will become known to those who experience it. Furthermore, if we trace things to higher sources, we find that nothing is said that has not been said before: but this is most true, that all others superior to us in age, who were Pyrotechnicians, have only pressed their footsteps in this path. What we have achieved beyond them, let a fair arbiter see: what the age following us will judge, another shall decide. For we are not unaware (to speak with Lipsio Justus Lipsius, a Flemish scholar) that where a work has once been undertaken, and as if fragments or brambles have been removed, a thronging occurs, and the very latest ones derive for themselves even the praise of those who came before.

Since, furthermore, we are not unaware of how those who are about to bring their first writings to light as a first-born child are subject to those most unfair cares and railings: we, even before we descended to writing these things, by the singular providence of God, for the perhaps better state of our affairs, were always surrounded by a numerous crowd of friends. But nevertheless, we were always mindful of that saying, that virtue does not grow without an adversary, and he is miserable who has spent his life without an adversary. And so, as always, so now most especially, we utterly despise such people: whom, if we had ever feared, we would have long ago perished badly: nay, we think highly of them, because we are made great by them: he has perished miserably to whom they wish well; for only misery lacks envy: and an honest man should always hope for envy: for in this...