Discourses on Fortifications

IT was also used for a long time to make bombardiere embrasures for artillery in the aforementioned flanks, and so open at the mouth—that is, on the outside—that one could from them clear the enclosure, the ditch, and also across the counterscarp the outer wall of a ditch; and these appear marked in the flank, C. Later, men having learned by experience that the more the embrasures uncover, the more they come to be uncovered from the outside, and consequently the more they are blocked and beaten, they were made in such a way that they would still uncover what I have said above, but they were persuaded to accommodate them also in such a way that, however much they were troubled by those on the outside, it could not be forbidden to them to clear the faces of the opposing bastions. Wherefore, for such an effect, there were made three different kinds, as is seen below: which, if they are various among themselves, nevertheless all have been made to one end. The embrasures of the first kind, which are seen in the flank, D, are wide at the mouth on the inside and the outside, and come to be narrow in the middle by the two curved lines; and by the shot, E, one can judge how from them one can beat the countryside. And when this is forbidden to them, one can see by the shot, F, that from it one could clear the face of the bastion, G, and the gunner, as far as they say, could not be struck by aim, being covered by the curvature of one of the two aforementioned lines and by the exterior angle of the bastion, G. And by the shot, H, one can also consider how one can defend the curtain the wall between two bastions, I. And what has been said of one of these embrasures is intended to be understood of the other in the same flank. The second kind of embrasure with the same intent is seen in the flank, K, with two lines per side, which form obtuse angles between them. The third is seen in the flank, L, where it is known that due to the openings of the embrasures, which on the side of the face of the same bastion are almost parallel with the curtain, M, the gunner would come to be covered, and he could through the openings of the inside of the embrasures uncover more to the outside, while the enemies could not prevent him. And they say there is also this other utility, that the air struck by the shot of the artillery, finding in the exit a wider opening step by step, would not cause with the tremor so much ruin to the surroundings of the embrasures, which, when they are made otherwise, quickly ruin themselves.

BUT because, when the parapets and embrasures are made of masonry, those shots of the enemies that could not enter the embrasures directly caused in every way, and especially in the corners built, such ruin that the defenders could with difficulty do their duty in that way, some thought to remedy this particular in one of the following ways. The first was that they should make projections in the embrasures, as is seen in the flank, N, which in truth would be of some help where the heavy shots could not reach. But where they did reach, the projections for the aforementioned reasons could bring more harm than good. The second way was that they should make a part of the flank protrude somewhat to the outside, which protrusion they called an orecchione a "big ear" or orillon, a projecting part of a bastion face; and this they did so that the embrasures that are near it would come to be more covered, and that those that are further away from it would still be troubled from fewer places. The place, that one cannot prevent the defense, especially if the parapets were of masonry, and if the embrasures, P, come to be more covered by the orecchione orillon, they come to serve even less, because the enemy, both outside and inside the ditch, in order to come under a face of a bastion, will be able, with shelters or by other ways, to secure himself from the embrasures, O, so much more easily because he cannot be beaten by the embrasures, P, nor hindered by them from walking through the ditch on account of the orecchione orillon, except when he were under the face of the bastion, Q, where, before he arrives, he could secure himself with earth or other things. Furthermore, if one wanted to defend the exterior angle of the bastion, Q—that is, the part below, just as is reasonable—the aforementioned embrasures would still come to be uncovered because of the scarpa a slope or glacis at the base of a wall that is given to the shelters, so much more in the part above, when a battery was made at the said exterior angle. But for...