In his book, Architectura Militaris, author Andreas Cellarius painstakingly merged and supplemented several texts on fortification construction in order to create a complete collection of information on the subject.
The first spread appears to be for entertainment purposes only; figures one to four show what looks like perfectly fortified castle islands, seemingly emerging from the rough waters of the ocean. But at the same time they are representative of what makes this, by nature rather technical reference book, especially interesting and enjoyable: beautifully accurate hand drawings which can be found throughout.
In spreads two and three however, Cellarius goes on to carefully detail the exact construction and necessary measurements to build a certain type of ditch – once again accompanied by graphics and illustrations, thereby retaining the practical purpose of Architectura Militaris.
