Introduction

Around the year 1600, waging wars and celebrating significant events at European courts made use of one and the same technology: the production of gunpowder. A presentation of how to design and manufacture artillery and fireworks for pleasure constitutes the main purpose of Rudolf von Deventer’s manuscript Bericht vom Pulver und Feuerwerken [A Treatise on Gunpowder and Fireworks], dated c. 1585 and presented here in the original German and a modern English translation together with reproductions of the original illustrations. The manuscript (NKS 101, 2°) dedicated to the Danish King Frederik II (r. 1559–88) and an almost identical manuscript