Mathematical Treasure: Raimondo Montecuccoli’s Memorie della guerra

Author(s):

Frank J. Swetz (The Pennsylvania State University)

Raimondo Montecuccoli (1609–1680) was born in Italy and served in the military of the Habsburg Empire. Renowned for his tactical victories, he had studied military science, Euclidean geometry, and Vitruvian architecture while a prisoner of war in 1639. Late in his career, he drew on those studies to prepare several works, including the influential Memorie della guerra (ca 1661), which was translated into multiple languages and adopted in the 18th century by Ottoman Turks who had lost battles to Montecuccoli. For example, a 1697 Spanish translation is in the Internet Archive:

1697 Spanish translation of Raimondo Montecuccoli's memoir on warfare. Fortification diagrams from 1697 Spanish translation of Raimondo Montecuccoli's memoir on warfare.

A 1704 printing in the original Italian from GoogleBooks (vol. 2) provides a table of the military arts:

Title page from 1704 Italian printing of Raimondo Montecuccoli's memoir on warfare. Table of military science from 1704 Italian printing of Raimondo Montecuccoli's memoir on warfare.

The 18th-century Turkish translation was titled Funun al-Harb and was made from a Latin translation titled Commentarii bellici. It may have been completed by the Hungarian-born polymath İbrahim Müteferrika (ca 1674–1745). This image showing instruments useful for determining cannon angles and ranges appeared in the Muslim Heritage blog in 2017.

Illustration of cannon and instruments from Turkish translation of Montecuccoli's Memorie della guerra.

Index to Mathematical Treasures

Frank J. Swetz (The Pennsylvania State University), "Mathematical Treasure: Raimondo Montecuccoli’s Memorie della guerra," Convergence (December 2022)

Convergence

Tags:

History of Mathematics