The Discovery of Aelian’s Tactica Theoria in Italian Humanism

Abstract

Aelian’s Tactica theoria was the most highly regarded Greek military manual in Italian Humanism. This paper aims to investigate the reasons for its success, comparing it to other writings on the same topics, and the key elements and figures that ensured the work’s survival: Theodorus Gaza and his Latin translation, the vernacular translation by Ludovico Carbone, the diagrams in Niccolò Machiavelli’s Arte della guerra, the editions by Lelio Carani and Francesco Ferrosi, and the studies of Andrea Palladio.