A decorative woodcut headpiece featuring symmetrical floral scrolls, foliage, and central blossoms.

BOOK ONE.

ON

DESIGNS.

DEFINITIONS.

1. We shall call it the Design when one simply draws the first lines from which the Ramparts begin from the outside.

2. A Redoubt is a small work, the Design of which usually represents a perfect Square. A Redoubt is a small, enclosed defensive work or "fortlet" used to protect soldiers outside the main defensive line.

3. A Star is a small work whose Design takes the shape of a star.

4. Defensibility is such an arrangement of each line of the Design so that one can damage from the side those who attempt to approach or attack it. This refers to the concept of "flanking fire," where defenders can shoot along the face of a wall to hit attackers from the side.

5. Half-defensibility is where one flanks only from one side; but Full-defensibility occurs from both sides at once.

6. A Half-Bastion is that which takes the shape of a trapezoid. The author uses the term "Boulevard," which in 17th-century French military architecture refers to a Bastion—a projecting part of a wall that allows for flanking fire.

7. A Fort with Half-Bastions is one that comes to be surrounded by the said Half-Bastions.

8. Full Bastions are those which are traced with four lines in the Design, and are attached to the fortified figure either with an angle or with a line; the latter shall be called Flat-forms. A "Flat-form" or Platform refers to a bastion with a flat face rather than a pointed angle.

9. A Fort is a work of medium size, which is not sufficient to defend itself against a Royal army: such as figures not yet of "Royal" scale, including the Square and the Royal Pentagon, including also the Royal half-Hexagon.

10. It shall be called a Royal Fort when the defensibility is no less than the range of a musket: in the Dodrantal, the defense is at three-quarters; in the Half-Fort, the defense reaches half of the Royal; and the Quadrantal has only the fourth part: other forts shall be called Intermediate Forts. The author is categorizing forts by the length of their defensive lines relative to "Musket Range"—the distance a soldier could effectively fire to protect the neighboring wall. Dodrantal is a Latin-derived term meaning three-quarters.

11. A Fortress shall be called a well-fortified work which is capable of offering resistance to a Royal army.

12. An Acute-angled Fortress shall be one where the angles of the Bastion are acute, such as the Hexagon and the following figures up to the Undecagon, which is the last of this enclosure. An Undecagon is an 11-sided polygon.

13. A Rectangular Fortress is that which has the angle of the Bastion at a right angle, that is to say, of ninety degrees: such as the following figures after the Dodecagon, which begins this new order. A Dodecagon is a 12-sided polygon.

14. A Regular Figure shall be called that which has equal sides and angles of the same magnitude, and upon each angle a Bastion, and all Bastions of the same size and likeness.

15. Ordered Irregular Figures shall be called those which are not surrounded by more than two kinds of Bastions: such as Oval figures, which represent the first type; and figures that have angles of the same magnitude but sides of different lengths, which are the second and third types.

16. Non-ordered Irregular Figures shall be those whose Bastions are mixed from more than two types of figures.