Bellifortis Bellifortis ( " Strong in War " , " War Fortifications " ) is the first fully illustrated manual of military technology , dating from the start of the 15th century . It summarises material from classical writers on military technology , like Vegetius ' " De Re Militari " and Frontinus ' anecdotal " Strategemata " , emphasising " poliorcetics " , or the art of siege warfare , but treating magic as a supplement to the military arts ; it is " saturated with astrology , " remarked Lynn White , Jr . in a review of the first facsimile edition . History of treatise . Konrad Kyeser wrote his treatise between 1402 and 1405 when he was exiled from Prague to his hometown of Eichstatt . Many of the illustrations for the book were made by German illuminators who were sent to Eichstatt after their own ousting from the Prague scriptorium . The work , which was not printed until 1967 , survived in a single original presentation manuscript on parchment at University of Göttingen , bearing the date 1405 , and in numerous copies , excerpts and amplifications , both of the text and of the illustrations , made in German lands . Design of the book . " Bellifortis " was written in Latin and contained many elaborate illustrations of war weaponry . The manual discusses machines and technology that were old and new . It described weapons such as trebuchet s , battering ram s , movable portable bridges , cannons , rockets , chariots , ships , mills , scaling ladders , incendiary devices , crossbows , and instruments of torture . The portrait of the author is called by its modern editor the first realistic portrait of an author since Antiquity . Kyeser ’ s viewpoint was that warfare in the broadest sense was most effective if looked at from all angles , which included astrology and sorcery . His manual presented the technology of the art of war through the association of education and Latin letters . The book was of a large expensive format . It had elaborate illustrations and lavish drawings of a large number of war devices and machines . The treatise was designed more for a prince or king than for an engineer . Kyeser believed his war manual would make other armies run in all directions . His treatise often made reference to antiquity , especially the war tactics of Alexander the Great . He writes that Alexander had many war technical abilities . In one illustration he shows Alexander with a rocketlike war weapon in his hands with the mysterious letters : . In another illustration Alexander is shown as the supposed inventor of a very large war carriage . Kyeser writes that Alexander was not only a great inventor of war devices but was able to use them himself . Alexander is portrayed with magical abilities . Dedication . Konrad dedicated his finished treatise to the weak Ruprecht III in a bitter response to his exile . He emphasizes in the dedication the relationship of technical knowledge to technical skills . He writes of the German soldiers , " Just as the sky shines with stars , Germany shines forth with liberal disciplines , is embellished with mechanics , and adorned with diverse arts . " At the end of the treatise , Kyeser gives a markedly unusual appearance of himself . He portrays himself as a dying worried person . He even provides his own epitaph , " May my soul be joined to your very high one . "