The Role of Maps and Plans in the Tactics of Polish and Lithuanian Armies until the Beginning of the Rule of Stephen Báthory

In this paper, the author analyses cartographic activities that directly affected the course of an armed conflict. Classic instances of such activities include the production of documents for the purposes of a siege or the preparation of an army for a battle, as well as plans of setting a military camp or the upbuilding of defence fortifications in a city or a fortress. The author analyses them in the chronological order, beginning with the earliest mentions concerning the use of maps in tactic actions until 1576.

The first theoretician to have connected cartographic activity with military tactics was Szymon Marycjusz of Pilzno. He presented his theses in a work entitled De scholis seu academiis libri duo printed in 1551. The evidence collected indicates that in the first half of the 16th century people did not know how to use cartography for tactical military purposes. Military large scale cartography had different methodological rudiments than medium scale or small scale maps. The fundamental methodological assumption in the creation of plans consisted in leaving the pictorial manner (of landscape topographic accounts) for the sake of making a circuit around the area drawn. This had been previously postulated by Stanisław Grzepski who referred to Albrecht Dürer, while descriptions of such a solution date back as far as to the accounts of Maciej Stryjkowski from the 1570s. The precision of large scale military maps required the use of mathematical knowledge (namely, geometry). A need emerged for a special professional group of people measuring the height, width and depth of objects. The application of mathematics in the army was postulated as early as in 1555 by Albrecht Hohenzollern, while a group of professional military engineers was first described by Stanisław Sarnicki in Księgi hetmańskie (where he refers to them as metator castrorum).

The use of cartography in the conduct of a siege in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began in the 1560s. It was then that Albrecht Hohenzollern made an exemplary isometric projection of a besieged city. The year 1568 brought a plan of the attack on the Uła castle made probably by Maciej Stryjkowski.

In this paper, the author analyses cartographic activities that directly affected the course of an armed conflict. Classic instances of such activities include the production of documents for the purposes of a siege or the preparation of an army for a battle, as well as plans of setting a military camp or the upbuilding of defence fortifications in a city or a fortress. The author analyses them in the chronological order, beginning with the earliest mentions concerning the use of maps in tactic actions until 1576. 

The first theoretician to have connected cartographic activity with military tactics was Szymon Marycjusz of Pilzno. He presented his theses in a work entitled De scholis seu academiis libri duo printed in 1551. The evidence collected indicates that in the first half of the 16th century people did not know how to use cartography for tactical military purposes. Military large scale cartography had different methodological rudiments than medium scale or small scale maps. The fundamental methodological assumption in the creation of plans consisted in leaving the pictorial manner (of landscape topographic accounts) for the sake of making a circuit around the area drawn. This had been previously postulated by Stanisław Grzepski who referred to Albrecht Dürer, while descriptions of such a solution date back as far as to the accounts of Maciej Stryjkowski from the 1570s. The precision of large scale military maps required the use of mathematical knowledge (namely, geometry). A need emerged for a special professional group of people measuring the height, width and depth of objects. The application of mathematics in the army was postulated as early as in 1555 by Albrecht Hohenzollern, while a group of professional military engineers was first described by Stanisław Sarnicki in Księgi hetmańskie (where he refers to them as metator castrorum). 

The use of cartography in the conduct of a siege in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began in the 1560s. It was then that Albrecht Hohenzollern made an exemplary isometric projection of a besieged city. The year 1568 brought a plan of the attack on the Uła castle made probably by Maciej Stryjkowski.