Mathematical Treasure: Lorini's Military Fortifications

With the rise of more powerful artillery in Europe came the demand for better, stronger fortifications. Military engineers found a new area of applied geometry, the design of fortifications. Buonaiuto Lorini (ca. 1537-1611) was a Florentine nobleman and military engineer/architect. He spent much of his career in the service of the Venetian Republic. His major written work was the five-volume (later to be extended to six volumes) Delle Fortificationi (1592). This work went through several editions and translations to become a major reference on the subject of military construction. An image of the first text page for the 1597 edition is shown below.

A portrait of the proud author faces the page above.

The first few pages of the book are devoted to reviewing basic geometric concepts.

On page 13 is a diagram for a typical fort of this period. The drawing is to scale with the measurements given in bracci, plural for braccio, an Italian measure equal to the length of a man’s arm, or 66-68 cm.

On pages 30-31, the profile of a military situation is given where an attacking, entrenched force, is moving towards and firing at a fortified structure. Note the use of a grid screen to illustrate elevation. Is this a graph? Does the “graph” represent the situation depicted below it?

The images above are presented courtesy of the History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries.

Index to Mathematical Treasures