[Incipit a2r:] Opera De Facti E Precepti Militari

Valturio, Roberto

Published by Boninus de Boninis, de Ragusia, Verona, 1483

First Vernacular Edition: the first illustrated technology book, the first military dictionary in a modern European language and an extraordinary mirror of princes. Valturio composed On Military Matters in Latin between 1455-60 at the request of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417-68), the wily nobleman, poet, arts patron and fiercely successful general-for-hire who ruled Rimini. The work originally appeared at Verona in 1472. Paolo Ramusio (c. 1443-1506) edited and translated the text for the present splendid edition, which he dedicated to the non-Latin-literate Roberto di Aragonia, a professional soldier then in the employ of Venice. LEONARDO DA VINCI OWNED A COPY OF THIS EDITION, FROM WHICH HE SKETCHED WAR MACHINES, ENTERED PASSAGES INTO HIS COMMONPLACE BOOK, DREW ARTISTIC INSPIRATION AND COMPILED HIS OWN ITALIAN-LATIN GLOSSARY OF MILITARY TERMS. On Military Matters is the most comprehensive humanist treatise on warfare. It instructs princes in strategy, command, logistics, troop movements, sieges, fortification, spies, spoils and alliances. It is also an early printed contribution to the literature of arithmetic. The famous illustrations - more technically precise than the first edition's - show revolving gun turrets, platforms and ladders for sieges, war chariots, cannons, screws for breaking iron gates, catapults, incendiaries, pumps, hoists, battering rams, crossbows, shells, a wind-powered wagon, paddlewheels, battleships, inflatable suits for crossing water, pontoons, foldable bridges, a sealed boat that could be partially submerged. The monstrous "Arabic machine" - a winged dragon on wheels - fired flaming arrows from its mouth to the enemy's terror. In this copy, a mid-16th-century reader boldly annotated the margins of one hundred pages, some three thousand words in all, principally in Books II, V, and VII. He focused on the humanist virtues of military commanders and the on the advantages and disadvantages of large armies. The same annotator began the table of contents, which another early reader completed. A third reader glossed seven printed pages with weaponry nomenclature. Innocenzi, The Innovators Behind Leonardo: The True Story of the Scientific and Technological Renaissance passim; Leonardo Da Vinci Master Draftsman ed. Bambach nos. 21, 49, 51, 52 & 89; ; Klebs, Incunabula scientifica et medica 1015.1; Ayala, Bibliografia militare-italiana 65; Sander, Le Livre à figures italien 7483 ISTC iv00090000; Goff V-90; see Smith's Rara arithmetica 9-10 and Printing and the Mind of Man 10 16th-century limp vellum (minor defects), 18th-century manuscript spine title on the spine, evidence of four pigskin ties. Seller Inventory # 00000002

Bibliographic Details

Title: [Incipit a2r:] Opera De Facti E Precepti ...
Publisher: Boninus de Boninis, de Ragusia, Verona
Publication Date: 1483
Edition: 1st Edition