| De re militari | |
| 1472 |  |
| Robertus Valturius(c.1413-1484) | |
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Robertus Valturius was the technical advisor of Marchese Malatesta, who was the King of Dukedom Rimini, which was in Italy during the 15th century. Because several small states were fighting with each other in Italy at that time, one of Valturius’s main tasks was to manufacture various military instruments (weapons) for the King. Valturius published this book on military technology in 1460 by adding his own concepts. The book, which was initially distributed in the form of manuscripts, was first printed in 1472 with 82 illustrations and the book became the best seller at that time. Based on the illustrations of the book, we can understand that the technology that was used at that time for field battles included the castle-attack machines, tanks, turrets and pontoon bridges. We can also observe that the ideas have been used in modern technologies, including diving suits and submarines. Leonardo da Vinci, who was a technical advisor to Cesare Borgia, King of the Principality of Florence, owned the second edition of the book and adopted several ideas proposed by Valturius into his famous sketches of machinery. |
