Brilliant Minds Neded: a Multi Barrel Illustration of 1511

[Matchlock]

Hi there,

Many thanks to all of you for your esteemed contributions which have added various new impulses to my understanding!

As to the historical person of Flavius Vegetius Renatus: He was a Roman military theoretic, who lived around 400 a.D.

Like all ancient Roman and Greek cultural motifs, the Italian and German Renaissance (nomen est omen!) of the 16th century took up the ancient military devices again, copied and modified them to meet contemporary technical standards and needs. Thus, the anonymous author of these Renaissance technical and military books assumed the name of the ancient Roman author, indicating at the same time his will to continue and update the work of his predecessor.

As early as 1466, another early Renaissance author named Roberto Valturio published modernized copies of the original Roman author's works illustrated by colored contemporary woodcuts. I attach a few of them and you will see that Valturio and F.V. Renatus were kindred minds.

What was actually new to the Renaissance re-born works was their profuse illustration with woodcuts made by contemporary artisans. As has been observed in replies to this post, the author of a Gothic or Renaissance book was never identical with the illustrator(s).

Thanks again, all of you are brilliant and discussions like this are an important enrichment to our forum!

Best,
Michael