Bellifortis

Two volumes in original glassine in plain slip case. Hard covers. Quarto. Half vellum with titles in red. Volume one is a facsimile of the original with 173 diagrams. Volume two is a translation into German of the original Latin text. Small mark to spine of volume one. Very good. Bellifortis ("Strong in War", "War Fortifications") is the first fully illustrated manual of military technology, written by Konrad Kyeser and dating from the start of the 15th century it summarises material from classical writers on military technology, like Vegetius' De Re Militari and Frontinus' anecdotal Strategemata, emphasizing poliorcetics, or the art of siege warfare, but treating magic as a supplement to the military arts; it is "saturated with astrology", remarked Lynn White, Jr. in a review of the first facsimile edition. Bellifortis was written in Latin and contained many elaborate illustrations of war weaponry. The manual discusses machines and technology that were old and new. It described weapons such as trebuchets, battering rams, movable portable bridges, cannons, rockets, chariots, ships, mills, scaling ladders, incendiary devices, crossbows, and instruments of torture] The portrait of the author is called by its modern editor the first realistic portrait of an author since Antiquity. Many of the illustrations for the book were made by German illuminators who were sent to Eichstätt after their own ousting from the Prague scriptorium.