Vigevano, Guido da, approximately 1280-approximately 1350
Title:
Liber acquisitionis Te[r]re Sa[n]te de ultra mare : [Christi] no[m]i[n]e invocato : Regi Francie i[n]tytulato.
Alternate Title(s):
Liber acquisitionis Terre Sante de ultra mare
Published / Created:
1375.
Physical Description:
1 v. ([52] pages, with 2 blank pages) : ill. ; 29 x 22 cm.
Collection:
Rare Books and Manuscripts
Copyright Status:
Copyright Undetermined
Related Content:
View a selection of digital images in the Yale Center for British Art's online catalogue
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/orbis:4510397
Classification:
Archives & Manuscripts
Notes:
Guido da Vigevano (ca. 1280-ca.1349) was the personal physician to Joan of Burgundy, consort of Philip VI in the 1330s. Philip had twice pledged to lead a crusade to recover the Holy Land and, although he never did, Guido da Vigevano was so concerned how best to protect the king's life during the dangerous and unhealthy adventure of a crusade that he wrote a treatise called (in translation) Treasury of the King of France for the recovery of the Holy Land beyond the sea. The first part of this work is devoted to rules of health suitable for elderly warriors (Philip VI was then 42 years old) and the second half to siegecraft.
Contents:
Contents (translated into English): 1. In what manner the soldiers assaulting cities, towns and castles ought to protect themselves from the arrows of the Saracens and build protective screens to be carried on horses -- 2. Of the way of making posts and brattices, for the purpose of taking cities, towns and castles, to be carried in rolls on horses -- 3. Of the way of making bridges on dry land for placing on the walls of cities and castles, to be carried on horses -- 4. Of the way to capture towers, however high they may be -- 5. Of the way to make assault-ladders and to carry them on horses -- 6. Of the way of making assaulting-castles which are erected against the walls of cities and higher than the wall and carried in pieces on horses -- 7. Of the way of making bridges over waters, carrying them in pieces on horses, and placing them in the water in one hour -- 8. Of the way of making boats for navigating all waters of the sea and of carrying them in rolls on horses -- 9. Of the way of riding upon water -- 10. Of the way in which infantry may cross great waters -- 11. Of the way of making a fighting-car [or tank], driven without the aid of wind or animals, an carried in pieces on horses, for throwing great forces into disorder -- 12. Of the making of another fighting-car, driven by the wind without animals, which rushes with great violence over the field disordering a large army with very few men, and which can be carried in pieces on horses.
Subject Terms:
Vigevano, Guido da, approximately 1280–approximately 1350. | Philip VI, King of France, 1293–1350. | Siege warefare -- Medieval, 500–1500. | Military weapons -- Medieval, 500–1500. | Military engineering -- Medieval, 500–1500. | Cranks and crankshafts -- Medieval, 500–1500. | Crusades -- 13th-15th centuries. | Military art and science -- Medieval, 500–1500. | Phillipps, Thomas, Sir, 1792–1872 -- Ownership. | Libri, Guillaume, 1803–1869 -- Ownership.
