The author discusses a phenomenon of putting the works of military cartography on medals cast in the 17th century. The analysis focused on a medal presented to Krzysztof Arciszewski (1592–1656) by the Dutch West India Company in 1637. The obverse of this medal features two cartographic images depicting the siege of the Arraial Velho do Bom Jesus fortress (1635) and the battle between Camarigibi and Porto Calvo (1636). They were patterned after two manuscript maps. The maps were made by Arciszewski and attached to a memorandum written and sent to the management of the West India Company on 13 June 1633. They were engraved and published in print only around 1644. The plan of the battle that took place on 18 January 1636 indicates that the engraver (author unknown) used not only the manuscript version but also the medal. The example of the medal minted in 1637 confirms the credibility of cartographic representations featured on numismatic items. It should, naturally, be borne in mind that such representations must have been simplified due to the very nature of the means. Nevertheless, should there be no proper manuscript pattern, such objects may be used successfully as valuable cartographic sources.
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The article presents military itineraries, i.e. planned descriptions of the routes of troops. Such sources constitute the oldest objects of military cartography. They also enable reconstruction of strategic concepts and operational activities planned by commanders. The time of Stefan Batory was discussed in the article because such cartographic support was the basis for often quite complicated planning. Itineraries could be perfectly used both during mobilization and relocation of the army, and also during military operations. They were especially useful in coordination of operations of two or more numbers of regiments or allied armies. Analysed examples suggest that at the time of the reign of Stefan Batory the early modern cartographic turn took place.
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Prussian oficer Antoni Leopold Oelsnitz was employed in the Warsaw Knightly School in 1767. At that time he started to work on a treatise on military transportation issues and the topic he was not able to handle was physical laws applied to wheeled vehicles (wagons). He therefore asked his friend – mathematician working in the Knightly School, Christoph Friedrich Pfleiderer, to write a paper on this subject. Pfleiderer undertook this task and finished it in 1769. It was mainly a compilation of physical knowledge which he obtained from English, French and German studies. It also contained fragments of his own calculations and theses. The work consisted of four parts: 1) On the shape and size of wheels and axles; 2) On the shape of vehicle, method of construction and distribution of load; 3) On the gradient of straps connecting the horse with the wagon; 4) On the ratio of force to weight and the speed of rotation. The treatise was originally written in German (this version did not survive) and then it was translated by cadets into French and Polish. This last version constitutes the basis for source edition.
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