Tafel in welcher alle gehorige Werck-zeuge zuer Kriegs-Kunst

A visual compilation of the principals of siege warfare from the early 18th century.

“Table in which all the tools belonging to the art of war, fortress construction and artillery, to siege and sites, fortresses and castles, in field boxes, army camps and camp sites, also all ship and sea materials are presented” [approximate title translation]

This spectacular diagram was published in Nurnberg around 1730 by Johann Baptiste Homann. It reflects the perennial struggle of generals and tacticians to surmount defensive capabilities with offensive weaponry. At the time of publication, the latter had the decided advantage, as the widespread implementation of gunpowder on the battlefield drastically changed the nature of fortifications.

The upper left is occupied by a theoretical battlefield that exhibits many military principles of siege warfare, with warships sailing offshore. The relationship between geography and fortification design is critical, as Homann illustrates. The rest of the sheet contains dozens of diagrams and plans that outline various means of fortification, personal armaments, war machines, and methods of attack. Form and function are often combined with accompanying captions. A fascinating and often bewildering variety of weapons are depicted, including the Sturmpfahl – apparently a wheeled post filled with grenades! According to the Clements Library at the University of Michigan;

“The introduction of gunpowder to late-Medieval warfare soon led to the development of powerful battering weapons that could easily demolish the tall, exposed masonry walls of castles. The defensive reaction was to lower the silhouettes of fortifications by excavating a deep (and usually dry) ditch in front of the walls of a city or fort and using the spoil for the construction of the walls and outworks that further shielded the main defenses from direct artillery fire. The outworks provided advanced positions for the defenders, while the ditch presented a formidable obstacle before the walls. Earth shaped into a gradual slope (a “glacis”) beyond the outworks also covered the walls from direct artillery fire.

Equally important was the design of a fortification on the ground. Viewed from above, the “ground plan resembled a star which was made up of a series of geometrically interrelated planes, the idea being to cover all the projecting parts of the fortifications by an effective cross fire” (Christopher Duffy, Fire and Stone). In short, there was to be no place for attackers to find shelter from the defenders’ cannon and musket fire as they approached a fort.”

Source: Clements Library