Composed Graphic Scales in the European Military Treatises and Manuals from the 17th to the 19th Centuries

This paper describes the results of an extensive research study on European military architecture treatises since the 17th century, which was aimed at identifying types, innovative aspects, and areas of application of composed graphic scales. Such scales, used in astronomical, cartographic, and fortification fields, take on the significance of a precision tool for project drawing and tracing on terrain in the executive field. Starting from the study by Amelio Fara on the graphic scale proposed by the military architect Raimondo Montecuccoli in the mid-17th century, the graphical analysis, carried out following the descriptions of the treatise writers, made it possible to hypothesize the steps of scale tracing, starting from a simple graphical scale, and to verify the measurement examples proposed by some authors. The methods of construction and use of such scales reverberated in the manuals used in military and engineering schools in the following century.