The Kriegssbuch & the art of warfare by the Landsknechts in the 16th Century

Our volume, the first in a series that we have chosen to entitle The Art of War of the Landsknechts in the Sixteenth Century, is the result of the collection and study of several contemporary works published around the middle of the sixteenth century. Albrecht von Brandenburg-Ansbach’s Kriegssbuchs (c. 1550-1555) can be read as the foundational military 'Grundgesetz' of the early Prussian principality: a hybrid between Princely mirror, war-theoretical tract and highly detailed ordinance for a territorial army in formation. It codifies, comprehensive of command, arms administration and military justice, and in doing so translates late medieval Teutonic traditions and new Reformation era political theology into the language of a confessional territorial state preparing for Ottoman war. This and other famous German and imperial treatises from the same period, such as those by Leonhardt Fronsberger, Konrad Kyeser’s Bellifortis, and illustrated chronicles from Switzerland and Germany, form the basis of our volume on the art of war in this crucial period in world history.