developed trace italienne, showing the way in which ditch and walls were combined
to protect a city from gunfire. Note that the shallow angle of the glacis on the left of
the ditch made it impossible to strike the wall with direct fire unless cannon could be
mounted on the very lip of the ditch, as in the drawing on the right. Yet that shows
how even after the wall had been breached and the moat filled with debris, a suitably
designed bastion could still make an assault very costly to the attackers.
E. Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture française du IXe au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1858),
vol. 1:420 (fig. 57), 452 (fig. 75), and 441 (fig.72).
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