A Bibliography Of English Military Books, Upto 1642 And Of Contemporary Foreign Works.
Cód:
491_9781443753050
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. WE know so well the value of a good Bibliography as those who have had to work at the same time on two topics, one of which has and the other has not been dealt with by a competent bibliographer. In the first case the student knows the obvious books, but he is fully aware that others exist, and it is his duty to find them. The preliminary labour of so doing is often enormous I have known would-be authors who found it so engrossing that they have finally produced nothing more than a list of sources, where they had intended to write a book. Those who are not so hint-hear, and who have got well to work on a hitherto neglegted subject, are always finding new authorities containing facts which make it necessary to delete whole pages of their manuscript. It has always seemed to me that, by some special perversity of fate, a traa of importance, which has hitherto escaped notice, invariabIy turns up just as the author has despatched the second revise of his proofs to the press. It is impossible, therefore, to exaggerate the debt which the specialist owes to chose who are good enough to make his way clear for him, by searching out all the scattered materials bearing on his subject. As one who, after working through the military aunals of the MiddIe Ages, is about to analyse the far more complicated Art of War of the Renaissance, I am myself bound to express my personal obligation to Mr. Cockle for his diligence and care in compiling this bibliography of English works bearing on War. A glance through his proofs was sufficient to show me dozens of interesting books which had not before came under my notice. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the English had a school af war of their own, entirely dependent on the use of their great national weapon, the long-bow. UnfortunateIy the tactics of this invincible English archery were not committed to paper by any scientific soldier they have to be gathered from the chroniclers, who were generally clerics, and
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