ROBERTO VALTURIO (1405-1475)

De Re Militari was probably written between 1455 and 1460 and was circulated widely in manuscript for many years before being first printed in Verona in 1472. The work treats the art of war generally and from a historical point of view. Of the twelve books into which it is divided, the one on defensive and offensive weaponry is the most heavily illustrated. The kinds of siege warfare described and illustrated offered no startling new military techniques but rather described fifteenth-century military practice which still followed methods laid down in Roman and medieval times.

The significance of "On Military Matters" is that it is the first book printed with illustrations of a technical nature. A marvelous array of fantastic military and naval war machines including paddle wheeled ships, cannons, siege towers, pontoon bridges, gun turrets and battering rams with fanciful heads are included in some of its eighty-two woodcut illustrations. This work and its later reprints, of which the 1532 Paris edition is one, was the guide followed by many Renaissance military leaders.

Gift of the University of Delaware Library Associates