che
bee compassed aboute with rivers, or with Fennes, as Mantua is and
Ferrara, or whiche bee builded upon a Rocke, or upon a stepe hille, as
Monaco, and Sanleo: For that those that stande upon hilles, that be not
moche difficulct to goe up, be now a daies, consideryng the artillerie
and the Caves, moste weake. And therfore moste often times in building,
thei seke now a daies a plain, for to make it stronge with industrie.
The firste industrie is, to make the walles crooked, and full of
tournynges, and of receiptes: the whiche thyng maketh, that thenemie
cannot come nere to it, bicause he maie be hurte, not onely on the
front, but by flancke. If the walles be made high, thei bee to moche
subjecte to the blowes of the artillerie: if thei be made lowe, thei bee
moste easie to scale. If thou makeste the diches on the out side
thereof, for to give difficultie to the Ladders, if it happen that the
enemie fill them up (whiche a great armie maie easely dooe) the wall
remaineth taken of thenemie. Therefore purposyng to provide to the one
and thother foresaid inconveniences, I beleve (savyng alwaies better
judgement) that the walle ought to be made highe, and the Diche within,
and not without. This is the moste strongeste waie of edificacion, that
is made, for that it defendeth thee from the artillerie, and from
Ladders, and it giveth not facilitie to the enemie, to fill up the
diche: Then the walle ought to be high, of that heighth as shall bee
thought beste, and no lesse thick, then two yardes and a quarter, for to
make it more difficult to ruinate. Moreover it ought to have the toures
placed, with distances of CL. yardes betwen thone and thother: the diche
within, ought to be at leaste twoo and twentie yardes and a halfe broad,
and nine depe, and al the yearth that is digged out, for to make the
diche, muste be throwen towardes the Citee, and kepte up of a walle,
that muste be raised from the bottome of the diche, and goe so high over
the toune, that a man maie bee covered behinde thesame, the whiche thing
shal make the depth of the diche the greater. In the bottome of the
diche, within every hundred and l. yardes, there would be a slaughter
house, which with the ordinaunce, maie hurte whom so ever should goe
doune into thesame: the greate artillerie that defende the citee, are
planted behinde the walle, that shutteth the diche, bicause for to
defende the utter walle, being high, there cannot bee occupied
commodiously, other t