The October Books
Announcing the 7th book in the History subscription
Castalia Library is pleased to announce that the October-November-December 2024 book for Castalia History will be A Bibliography of English Military Books up to 1642 and of Contemporary Foreign Works. With an Introductory Note by Charles Oman. Edited by H.D. Cockle.
This is an beautiful book that is an absolute must-have for any librari who appreciates military history. It contains summaries, samples, images, and descriptions of 450 books dealing with military history published in English between 1489 and 1642, some of which are translated classics that will be familiar, most of which are totally unknown, and some of which are now lost entirely, in addition to 500 books published everywhere from Augsburg to Zurich.
Only 250 copies were ever produced by Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. in 1900; Castalia Library managed to obtain two of them, numbers 34 and 167, because the first one we found was missing two pages.
Here is a typical listing of one of the 950 books included in the bibliography:
21. [Fifteen-seventy-seven.] [Polman, John.]
All the famous Battels that haue bene fought in our age throughout the worlde, as well by sea as lande, set foorth at large liuely described, beautified and enriched with sundry eloquent Orations and the declaratios of the causes, with the fruites of them. Collected out of sundry good Authors, whose names are expressed in the next Page. Imprinted at London by Henry Bynneman [for] Francis Coldocke, [1586.]
Black letter. Quarto.
Title on Ai. — Dedicated to Sir Christopher Hatton by the printer — Hazlitt, "Handbook," 474; and Herbert, 922 and 989. — Licenced to Henry Bynneman 1 July. 1577.
The introduction by Sir Charles Oman is characteristically excellent, and indeed, suffices to serve as an explanation for why we chose the book beyond its scarcity and the beauty of the interior.
It is impossible, therefore, to exaggerate the debt which the specialist owes to those 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 annals of the Middle 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 come under my notice.
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the English had a school of war of their own, entirely dependent on the use of their great national weapon, the long-bow. From the day of Falkirk to that of Flodden the archer, when properly handled by his commanders, discomfited all who, on horse or on foot, came up against him. Unfortunately 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 often unable to describe with clearness or accuracy the fights of which they have to tell. Just as laymen and professional soldiers began to write, the predominance of the long-bow was ceasing. Roger Ascham's Toxophilus (1545) has already to take the defensive against the incoming of firearms, and Sir John Smythe (1590), when he enlarges on " he great sufficiency, excellency, and wonderfull effectss of archers" in his Discourses, is the champion of a cause that had already been lost. Though many of the militia who had been called out against the Armada in 1588 were still armed with the bow, yet before 1600 Sheriffs and Lords-Lieutenant had begun to refuse to put into the ranks any man bearing the old national weapon. Roger Williams and Barwick had demolished all Sir John Smythe's old-fashioned theories.
It is a thousand pities that we have not any literary survivals from the earlier contentions between the advocates of the bow and the arquebus, which must have begun a full century before Smythe and Williams engaged in their controversy. The smaller firearms had been seen in England ere the Wars of the Roses came to an end: they had figured at the second battle of St. Albans and at Stoke Field. Yet they failed to make much way on this side of the Channel till the reign of Henry VIII. was far advanced. Their advocates must have argued in vain, for two generations, against the conservatives who trusted in the clothyard shaft alone; but not a word of the dispute has descended to us.
If you begin subscribing to Castalia History in October, you will receive a copy of A Bibliography of English Military Books up to 1642 and of Contemporary Foreign Works bound in cowhide. A print run of 650 units is anticipated, but will not be decided until the end of the year.
In other Library and Castalia House news:
The September-October Library book is JANE EYRE by Charlotte Brontë.
The HYPERGAMOUSE crowdfunding campaign has passed its first stretch goal and the second stretch goal has been announced. Librari may be interested to know that a leatherbound edition is one of the rewards.
The Castalia Bindery officially moved into its new location today.
Due to the flood in Tennessee, it is possible that the shipment of the bound volumes of WAR AND PEACE, and the binding of STUDIES IN THE NAPOLEONIC WARS may be delayed.
We have reached out to the bindery there, but have yet to hear how they’re doing yet.I’ve spoken with the bindery there, and while their power has been spotty, they’re fine and they’re dry.
