Siegecraft - TerpConnect - University of Maryland

Introduction
The Anon. Byz.’s new method of presentation is intended to improve
his readers’ understanding of classical engineering descriptions, while
his inclusion of tenth-century material indicates his awareness of innovation.
The contemporary value of such a book is also attested by the
remark of Constantine VII, in describing for his son the items to be
included in the imperial baggage: “books on mechanics, including siege
machinery and the production of missiles and other information relevant
to the enterprise, that is to say wars and sieges” (bibl¤a mhxanikã,
•lepÒleiw xonta, ka‹ belopoiÛkå ka‹ ßtera èrmÒdia tª Ípoy°sei ≥goun
prÚw pol°mouw ka‹ kastromax¤aw). 50 At the same time, however, it is
clear that some items in the text would seem to have only antiquarian
interest (e.g., the ram of Hegetor, the largest from antiquity) and others,
although derived from the classical sources, are of questionable value
(e.g., the inf latable leather ladder from Philo Mechanicus and the raft of
Apollodorus). The utility of the works is also compromised by the Anon.
Byz.’s errors.
Editorial Principles
K. K. Müller’s and Alphonse Dain’s studies of the manuscript tradition
of the two texts associated with “Heron of Byzantium” convincingly
established the archetype value of Vat. gr. 1605; it led Dain to recommend
a new edition based on it. Dain also noted the sound state of the
text in the Vaticanus and proposed that there were few intermediaries
between the original and this copy. His description of Vat. gr. 1605,
coupled with those of Müller and Cyrus Gianelli, leaves little to be
added. 51 The manuscript is parchment, 258 mm x 210 mm, with 58
50 Trans. J. Haldon, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Three Treatises on Imperial Military
Expeditions (Vienna, 1990), 106, lines 196–98.
51 C. Gianelli, Codices Vaticani Graeci: Codices, 1485–1683 (Vatican City, 1950),
260–62. Gianelli noted that the final folio contains the designation “AND,” taken to be
the bookmark of Charles of Anjou, suggesting that Vat. gr. 1605 may have been among
the books given to the pope after the battle of Beneventum; see also P. Canart, “Le
livre grec en Italie méridionale sous les règnes Normand et Souabe: aspects matériels
et sociaux,” Scrittura e civiltà 2 (1978), 103–62, esp. 149 n. 113, and N. Wilson, Scholars of
Byzantium (Baltimore, Md., 1983), 214. However, A. G. Bagliani, “La provenienza
‘angioina’ dei codici greci della biblioteca de Bonifacio VIII,” Italia medioevale e umanistica
26 (1983), 27–69, esp. 43–44, has argued persuasively that the abbreviation is not to be
connected with Charles of Anjou and “sembra essere destinata a rimanere misteriosa e
sibillina.” I am grateful to an anonymous reader for this last reference.
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