Varia

Last but not least, we must discuss some dispersed items, which Adams and Waters classed under such topics as ‘Dictionaries and Bibliographies’, ‘Education’, ‘Gunnery’, ‘Health at Sea’, ‘Manning and Morale’, ‘Seamanship’ and ‘Shipbuilding’. These categories make eminent sense in the context of a bibliography that goes up to 1801, but for items published prior to 1641 they are much less relevant; I shall therefore limit myself to a selection. Curiously enough, Adams and Waters’s section on gunnery only lists one pre-1641 item when, in fact, there were a few more, especially if you take a slightly broader approach, as I shall do here.

In this subsection, which I propose to call ‘Military Technics’, we encounter some familiar names. William Bourne, besides writing almanacs, a work on measurements and the first English navigation manual, composed The arte of shooting in great ordinance […] for all sortes of seruitours by sea and by lande [STC 3419.7- 3420] in 1578 (repr. 1587). This was the result of personal experience, since he had

92

Capp, ‘Hopton, Arthur’, ODNB.

been a gunner himself. The same year he also wrote Inuentions or Deuises. Very necessary for all […] as wel by sea as by land [STC 3421].94 Although the work does not appear to have been printed until at least 1590; it covers, amongst other things, military and naval strategies. A more comprehensive military textbook is that of almanac makers father and son Digges. An arithmeticall militare treatise, named Stratioticos [STC 6848-6849], first printed in 1579 (repr. 1590), covers all aspects of forming and leading an army, as well as the mathematics involved in artillery and ballistics, and was dedicated to Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, to aid his proposed campaigns in the Netherlands.95

Two further authors followed in Bourne’s footsteps by writing on gunnery from experience. First is the soldier Thomas Smith (not to be confused with the East India Company Governor Sir Thomas Smythe) in 1600 with his The art of Gunnerie [STC 22855].96 It was revised in 1628 to include his Certain additions to the booke of gunnery, with a supply of fire-workes and published under the overarching title The complete souldier [STC 22856]. The other writer on this topic is Robert Norton, who, after his book on practical mathematics (see p. 32), published Of the art of great artillery [STC 18676] in 1624, which builds on and expands Thomas Digges’s work [STC 6848 and 6858]. His appointment as engineer of the Tower of London led to The gunner shewing the whole practise of artillerie [STC 18673] in 1628.97 These two works were then published together in the same year under the title of The gunners dialogue [STC 18674]. Lastly, there is the prolific author Gervase Markham.98 His

94 _{Waters, The Art of Navigation, 146-147.} 95 _{Johnston, ‘Digges, Thomas’, ODNB.}

96 _{Kelsey, Sean, ‘Smith, Thomas’, ODNB; Waters, The Art of Navigation, 256 and 471-472.} 97

Glozier, ‘Norton, Robert’, ODNB.

extensive corpus of texts, both literary and non-literary, counts a few works on military tactics, similar to Thomas Smith’s in both title and contents.99 These include The souldiers accidence. Or an introduction into military discipline of 1625 (repr. 1635) [STC 17388-17389], The souldiers grammar [STC 17391] of 1626, and in 1627 The second part of the soldiers grammar [STC 17392]. All three works were reprinted in 1639 under the title of The souldiers exercise: in three bookes [STC 17390].

Moving from gunnery and the military to health at sea, we find that John Woodall’s writings on surgery stand out. His first publication was the result of his appointment, in 1614, as first surgeon-general of the East India Company and appeared in 1617 as The surgions mate […] Published chiefly for the benefit of young sea- surgions, imployed in the East-India companies affaires [STC 25962].100 This work, according to Appleby ‘the first good medical textbook of its kind in England’, discussed instruments kept in the so-called ‘surgeon’s chest’, as well as how to use them.101 This was followed in 1628 by Woodalls viaticum […] for the yonger sort of surgions now imployed in the service of His Maiestie [STC 25964], which focused specifically on gunshot wounds. In 1639, these two works were republished, along with Woodall’s treatises on the plague and gangrene, as one work, entitled The surgeons mate or Military & domestique surgery [STC 25963] and the volume was dedicated to Charles I.

Besides works discussing the physical wellbeing of sailors and navigators, there are a couple of a more spiritual nature. These are John Wood’s The true honor of navigation and navigators: or holy meditations for sea-men [STC 25952], published in

99 _{Waters, The Art of Navigation, 473-474.} 100

Waters, The Art of Navigation, 292-293. 101 _{Appleby, ‘Woodall, John’, ODNB.}

1618 mainly for the East India Company’s men, and John Skay’s A friend to navigation plainely expressing to the capacity of the simpler so[rt] the whole misery or foundation of the same art [STC 22592], appearing ten years later.102 Skay had bought up the remainder of Thomas Addison’s books on arithmetic from his widow and set himself up as a teacher of navigation. His book is a mixture of Addison’s original and the Bible, intended for the poorest seamen, or, as Waters puts it, ‘hotch-potches of navigational lore and biblical texts [… a] jumble of quotations from the Psalms and navigational jargon’.103

There is just one original English-language work on shipbuilding in this period, Richard More’s The carpenters rule [STC 18075-18075.5], published in 1602 (repr. 1616) to help with the practicalities of ship repairs. However, two works are of a linguistic nature. The first was written by the former pirate turned naval officer, Sir Henry Mainwaring. His Sea-mans dictionary, written in the early 1620s but not published until 1644 [WING M551], aimed to provide and explain all terms, names, words, and anything else to do with seamanship.104 It was dedicated to the then Lord High Admiral, George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham. With a similar intent, Captain John Smith, drawing from his experience in exploring Virginia and New England (see p. 23), wrote An accidence or the path-way to experience […] briefly shewing the phrases, offices, and words of command [STC 22784-22785] in 1626.105 It was reprinted a year later as A sea grammar [STC 22794], and after several other

102 _{Waters, The Art of Navigation, 293-294.} 103 _{Waters, The Art of Navigation, 455-456.} 104

Harris, ‘Mainwaring, Sir Henry’, ODNB; Waters, The Art of Navigation, 465. 105 _{Waters, The Art of Navigation, 462-463; Morgan, Gwenda, ‘Smith, John’, ODNB.}

revised editions received from 1691 onwards the title The sea-mans grammar and dictionary.

Having thus established the context in which original English-language maritime books appeared, it becomes clear that certain areas are better represented in print than others. The mathematical side of navigation was thoroughly explored by English authors, whose various works served as inspiration for further publications by their friends and colleagues. The debate about magnetism and compass variation in particular was very lively. In the application of these mathematical and scientific theories, too, English authors did not shy away from publication in print of their many new designs as well as improvements of existing instruments. However, in the categories of navigation manuals and sailing directions, original English-language works are more sparse and it is in these cases specifically, that knowledge was imported from elsewhere in Europe. One way to achieve this in print was through translation.