Everything about Konrad Kyeser totally explained
Konrad Kyeser (
1366 – after
1405) was a
military engineer, author of
Bellifortis (c. 1405), a book on siege engines popular throughout the 15th century. Originally conceived for
king Wenceslaus, Konrad dedicated the finished work to
Rupert of Germany.
Kyeser, a native of
Eichstätt, was trained as a physician and lived at the court in
Padua before he joined the crusade against the Turks which ended in disaster at the
Battle of Nicopolis of 1396. Kyeser was in exile in a mountain village of
Bohemia during the reign of
Sigismund in 1402 to 1403. In this time, he began to write his book on the
military arts. The book is the most prominent
illustrated treatise on military engineering of the
Late Middle Ages. There are at least twelve surviving 15th century manuscript which copy, excerpt or amplify the work. One of these is the
Thott Fechtbuch of
Hans Talhoffer (1459).
The book is divided into ten chapters:
- cars
- siege engines
- hydraulic engines
- elevators
- firearms
- defensive arms
- wondrous secrets
- fireworks for warfare
- fireworks for pleasure
- auxiliary tools
The
diving suit presented in the book has precedents reaching back to the 12th century and to
Roger Bacon. The book also has the earliest known depiction of a
chastity belt. Kyeser counts the
artes magicae among the
mechanical arts, and his work contains various applications of magic in warfare.
The original codex is kept in the
Göttingen University library (Cod. Ms. philos. 63).
Editions
Götz Quarg (ed.), facsimile of the Göttinger MS Philos. 63, VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf (1967)
Udo Friedrich (introduction), Fidel Rädle (trans.), Bellifortis, Codices figurati - libri picturati, Lengenfelder, Munich (1995), ISBN 3-89219-303-7. (facsimile of Cod. Ms. philos. 64 und 64a Cim.)
electronic edition (CD ROM), facsimile of Cod. Pal. lat. 1994, Palatina manuscripts of the 12th - 15th centuries, Belser, Wildberg (2001) Further Information
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