The title of the book “Logometron architecturae militaris Freitagianae” , written by Andreas Alexander in 1665, is in Latin. This contrasts with the rest of the work, the subtitle and the original language, which are written in Old High German. From the title and the subtitle, which reads “Kunstmass der Freitagischen Bevestigung / Mit gnugsamer Erklärung des Gebrauchs und zugehörigen Theilungs-Tafeln auszgefertiget”, it can be inferred that this is a work about fortress construction, but also about architecture and building, mathematics and military.
The book has no list of contents, but it does have a “Vorbericht”, which sets the mood for the following text. It is about the history of the circle sector. After an introduction to the history of the circle sector I think the author describes the scales and tables of the instrument and what measurements it can perform. A few arithmetical problems follow. He then quickly introduces more complex problems involving military fortifications, geometry, and surveying.
Since the work is a mathematical manual, it has no illustrations, but it does have many geometric sketches.
I think the work can be described as a small paperback as it is a very small size at 10cm x 15cm and not much bigger than the palm of your hand. Because of its size, the book should have been useful to the builders of fortresses to be able to look up something directly on the spot. Another indication that the book was intended for everyday use is that the cover is very simple and not opulently designed. Another possibility would be a schoolbook, as it is divided into tasks and has many explanatory “Tafeln” and geometric drawings in the appendix.
Comment_19
I came across the book after typing “instrument” into the search bar. Because mine (Instrument zur Architektur – Andreas Albrecht) and this book deal with an instrument that helps designing and is shortly discussed. They both deal with proportions and measurements. Besides, they both work like a kind of manual. They are a good size for everyday use and probably serve as a small education book. They are both very handy and do not have many pages. In addition, both were written in the 17th century, mine in 1622 and this in 1665. Also striking is that both were mostly written in old High German.
This book doesn’t really work with illustrations, as my book mainly does, but has many geometric drawings.
#19 #21-921-168
Connections 33
I find this book quite similar to the book I read, which was “La militare architettura, overo fortificatione moderna, cauata dall’esperienza, e da varie maniere più pratticabili” by Pietro Ruggiero. It focuses on the same topic which is the architecture of military fortifications, but was written in Italian instead of German. It was written in around the same time as well, with Ruggiero book being written in 1661 and Alexanders in 1665. This being the case they would of course largely focus on the same type of baroque fortifications which were, largely thanks to advances in artillery technology the standard at the time. The book I read also largely focuses on arithmetics and contains many tables and diagrams, but in contrast to yours also features a couple of illustrations.
Hello! I searched for the word military, because my book also had to do with the military and this post showed up. I couldn’t exactly understand my book because it was written in french, but the word I could is military. Even though I only searched a book that had to do with military architecture, as I was reading your argument, i noticed more similarities between our books. For example my book was almost the same size. Also the geometric drawings and examples of possible numeric formulas to calculate measurements where there . I also came to the same conclusion that my book was intended for everyday use and possibly also on the go. Have a nice day!