Defensive Architecture and the Oval Shape in Military Treatises between the 16th and 18th Centuries

Within early modern military treatises, the oval figure occupies only a marginal position when compared to the dominant polygonal paradigm of ‘alla moderna’ fortification. A reassessment of treatises from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in particular Nuova invenzione di fabricar fortezze (1598) by Giovan Battista Belici and La fortification démonstrée et réduite en art (1600) by Jean Errard nevertheless shows that the oval was conceived as a cultivated and experimental alternative, although its actual implementation was hindered by the operational difficulties of large-scale polycentric tracing. While such hypotheses found little resonance in major urban fortifications, they proved more feasible in smaller coastal strongholds, where geometric control was more manageable. In this perspective, the cases of Fort Pâté, Fort Louvois, and Fort Lupin, built in France as part of the Atlantic coastal defense network designed by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, illustrate a partial operational translation of theoretical elaborations, revealing how the oval could function as a genuine design matrix in specific defensive contexts.