Roberto Valturio

(1405–75), Writer on warfare. He was born in Rimini, and in 1438 moved to Rome, where he worked in the papal Office of Abbreviators as a legal draughtsman. He returned to Rimini and entered the service of Sigismondo Malatesta as an adviser and diplomat. In about 1450 he wrote a twelve-book treatise on the art of war, which was eventually published as De re militari lib. XII (Verona, 1472) with a dedication to Malatesta. The treatise is chiefly remarkable for the 82 woodcuts used to illustrate military machines; these illustrations, which may have been executed by Matteo de'Pasti, set a new standard for illustrated books. The text is a detailed analysis of warfare, and its humanist bias means that many of the illustrative examples are drawn from the campaigns of classical antiquity. There are also detailed discussions of strategy, tactics, weaponry, and the qualities of an ideal condottiere.

De re militari was widely influential in military circles. The Latin version was read all over Europe, and translations appeared in Italian (1483) and French (1532); it was an important precursor of Machiavelli's Della arte della guerra.