The mathematical and military sciences in Renaissance England

Abstract

The Renaissance saw the evolution of troop management, fortification and artillery into 'mathematical' sciences and those who practiced these tasks into 'mathematical practitioners'. These terms have been allowed to imply that these areas were deeply theoretical, whereas they varied from theoretical to simply numerical. Gunnery, in particular, tended towards the latter. Practitioners of the simpler mathematics, however, gained by being able to connect their action to the more impressive study of 'the mathematicks'. Future work must recognize more critically the distinction inherent in the term 'mathematical' when applied to the arts of the Renaissance.