THE FIRST BOOK OF

VARIOUS QUESTIONS AND INVENTIONS

BY NICCOLÒ TARTAGLIA,

ON THE FIRING OF ARTILLERY,

AND OTHER VARIOUS

INCIDENTS THEREOF.

A woodcut fleuron ornament depicts stylized leaves and a central flower bud.

FIRST QUESTION ASKED BY THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS

A decorative woodcut initial 'D' features a man in classical or academic dress seated at a desk, likely representing the author.

DUKE. What are these reasons you say you have discovered, in your book dedicated to me, regarding the firing of artillery? NICCOLÒ. The proportion, and order of the shots, both distant and close, for any piece, and with any sort of ball. D. I do not understand you; speak more clearly to me, and give me an example. N. Wishing to exemplify this invention of ours to your Excellency, I am forced to speak first of that material instrument we discovered, illustrated at the beginning of our said booklet dedicated to you. This instrument is a square of wood, or some metal, made with diligence, similar to the figure b. a. c. written below, which has enclosed a quadrante quadrant, that is, a fourth part of a circle, similar to the figure b. i. g. k. This figure, or quadrant, b. i. g. k. is described with a compass from the center h. That is, by placing the immobile leg of the said compass in the said point h. (the internal angle of such a square) and rotating the other mobile leg through i. g. k., forming the said curved side i. g. k. of the said quadrant. Afterwards, one must restrict the said compass somewhat, and describe another curved line, equidistant to the first, which is the line e. f. And all that space which is between these two curved lines, that is, between the curved side i. g. k. and the curve e. f., must be divided first into twelve equal parts. These divisions must be drawn with a ruler that comes from the point h. (the center of the quadrant) to each of the said divisions, so that each division looks toward the said center h., as appears in the figure, and these twelve parts we shall call points.