Michael Chidester: Bellafortis

Kats, poisonous gas, trebuchets, armored vehicles covered in spikes, and magic--lots of magic; Konrad Kyeser's Bellafortis is an imaginative book that inspired the likes of Hans Talhoffer, and perhaps even Leonardo da Vinci. It's full of recreations of some of history's most obscure innovations, but these oddities weren't left to print, they were brought to life on the Renaissance and Medieval battlefields, and that's what we wanted to explore in this episode of l'Arte Dell Armi. To do so, we sat down with Michael Chidester to learn more about who Konrad Keyser was, and more about his fascinating work, Bellafortis. Images of Bellafortis: https://www.loc.gov/item/2021668178 To read Michaels work on Bellafortis, there is a free PDF download here: https://www.academia.edu/68328696/The_Bellifortis_of_Konrad_Kyeser_of_Eichst%C3%A4tt Check out HEMA Bookshelf here: https://www.hemabookshelf.com/ Join Michael's Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/michaelchidester Adendum: The siege where Alexander the Great supposedly used divers with diving bells was the siege of Tyre.