Machines for the Siege of Ostend developed by Pompeo Targone and G Gamurini

Pompeo Targone's field mill in Zonca's treatise of 1607

Pompeo Targone (1575 – c. 1630), son of a Venetian goldsmith, was an Italian engineer in the service of popes

Clement VIII Pope Clement VIII ( la, Clemens VIII; it, Clemente VIII; 24 February 1536 – 3 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1592 to his death in March 1605. Born ...

and Paul V. He built the ciborium tabernacle in the Blessed Sacrament chapel of the

Archbasilica of St. John Lateran The Archbasilica Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the Lateran ( it, Arcibasilica del Santissimo Salvatore e dei Santi Giovanni Battista ed Evangelista in Laterano), also known as the Papa ...

, and one of the altars in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. Targone gained notoriety for his inventiveness as a military engineer in the

Siege of Ostend The siege of Ostend was a three-year siege of the city of Ostend during the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo–Spanish War. A Spanish force under Archduke Albrecht besieged the fortress being held initially by a Dutch force which was reinforc ...

(1604) and the

Siege of La Rochelle The siege of La Rochelle (, or sometimes ) was a result of a war between the French royal forces of Louis XIII of France and the Huguenots of La Rochelle in 1627–28. The siege marked the height of the struggle between the Catholics and the Pr ...

(1627-1628). Targone proposed to block the channel leading to the harbour of

La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle''; oc, La Rochèla ) is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. Wi ...

in order to stop all supplies to the city, but his structure was broken by the winter weather, before the idea was taken up by the Royal architect

Clément Métezeau Clement or Clément may refer to: People * Clement (name), a given name and surname * Saint Clement (disambiguation)#People Places * Clément, French Guiana, a town * Clement, Missouri, U.S. * Clement Township, Michigan, U.S. Other uses * ...

and the Parisian mason Jean Thiriau. Targone has also been credited with the invention of the

field mill Field Mill, currently known as One Call Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football ground in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England, and the home of Mansfield Town Football Club. It is the oldest ground in the Football League, hosting footb ...

Vittorio Zonca Vittorio Zonca (1568–1603) was an Italian engineer and writer. He wrote the ''Theater of machines'', which was published in Padua in 1607 four years after his death. Some of his plates were translated into Chinese by Johann Schreck and publ ...

's treatise on mechanical arts.Needham, p.255

Notes

References

* Joseph Needham, Ling Wang, Gwei-Djen Lu ''Science and civilisation in China'' Cambridge University Press, 1965 * Christopher Duffy ''Siege warfare: the fortress in the early modern world, 1494-1660'' Routledge, 1979 {{DEFAULTSORT:Targone, Pompeo Engineers from Venice Italian people of the Eighty Years' War

See also

Notes

References