Tacquett, Andrew: Military Architecture, 1672

By the 1600s, armies and engineers had imagined and tested many different and effective ways to defeat city walls with one theme in common: blast them with cannon. A scientific treatise on how to do this is included in a 1672 volume called Military Architecture, which consists of three books in one and provides a powerful insight into the western technology of the time. Book 1 is “Military Observations or Tactics, put into the exercise of horse and foot.” Book 2 is “Military Architecture, the art of Fortifying Towns, with the ways of defending and besieging the same.” Book 3 is “The Complete Gunner of artificial fireworks.” Subjects covered include trigonometry, gunnery tables, artillery angles of fire, ranges of fire, etc. Also included is a table of squares and cubes, described as “very useful for resolution of questions in military affairs, whether ordering battalions or gunnery.” The mathematics of warfare drove the architecture of cities, and vice versa.