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Ballistics in Renaissance Science

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Book cover Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy

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Abstract

This entry discusses the historical legacy in innovations of ballistics as they relate to warfare in Europe between 1300 and 1700. It primarily deals with the problems of smoothbore gunpowder weapons (both artillery and small arms) and the ways in which commanders and artillerists adjusted their strategies and tactics to account for the limitations of accuracy and unreliability of these weapons. Also discussed are modern comparative studies of early modern gunpowder small arms and early modern scientific and mathematical studies of the trajectory of gunpowder weapons.

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References

Primary Literature

  • Anonymous. Feuerwerkbuch. Munich. Bayerische Staatsbibiliothek. Cod. germ. 600. Ca. 1400–1420

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  • Fronsperger, Leonhard. 1573. Kriegsbuch. Vol. 3. Frankfurt: Feyerabend.

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  • Galilei, Galileo. 1638. Discorsi E Dimonstrazioni Matematiche: intorno à due nuoue scineze Attenenti alla Mecanica & i Movimenti Locali. Leiden: Elsevirius.

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Secondary Literature

  • Ekholm, Karin. 2010. Tartaglia’s ragioni: A maestro d’abaco’s mixed approach to the bombardier’s problem. The British Journal for the History of Science 43 (2): 181–207.

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  • Hall, Bert. 1997. Weapons and warfare in renaissance Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Patrick Brugh

Authors
  1. Patrick Brugh
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Correspondence to Patrick Brugh .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Philosophy a. Cultural Heritage, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia Dept. of Philosophy a. Cultural Heritage, Venezia, Italy

    Marco Sgarbi

Section Editor information

  1. Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany

    Matteo Valleriani

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Brugh, P. (2018). Ballistics in Renaissance Science. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_902-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_902-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

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