Forster, Georg (c. 1510–1568) German doctor and
musician
Born in Amberg, Forster received his earliest musical
training at the court in Heidelberg. A friend of LUTHERand
MELANCHTHON, he devoted most of his life to the study
and practice of medicine. His greatest contribution to
music was the compilation of the Frische teutsche Liedlein
(1539–40). In this sizeable publication he collected Tenor-
lieder by about 50 composers active during the previous
half-century to form a representative and useful anthology.
His achievement as a musical compiler outweighs his im-
portance as a composer. He died in Nuremberg, where all
his publications had been issued.
fortification The theory and practice of permanent forti-
fication was compelled to undergo rapid development in
the Renaissance owing to the threat posed from the early
15th century by the use of gunpowder in warfare. The new
CANNON, superseding siege machinery such the ballista
(catapult) inherited from antiquity, could easily demolish
the walls of a medieval castle or town, and by the end of
the 15th century mining with gunpowder was a threat to
even substantial defensive structures.
Italian engineers in the mid-15th century were the
first to produce an effective response to the problem.
Their solutions were worked out and refined all over Eu-
rope during the succeeding centuries, and during the Re-
naissance period they were the acknowledged experts in
the art of fortification. Outside Italy, DÜRER, motivated by
the current European fear of invasion by the Turks, pub-
lished an early summary of the art in his Etliche Under-
richt, zu Befestigung der Stett, Schloss, und Flecken
(Nuremberg, 1527). The Dutch in particular interested
themselves in the capabilities of the new-style fortifica-
tions in the course of their protracted struggle against the
forces of Spain in the second half of the 16th century.
Fortress walls were vastly thickened, with their bases
strengthened by a massive backing of earth and built with
a slight inward slope from the bottom in order to mini-
mize their vulnerability to the impact of cannon balls.
Wide parapets and walkways were incorporated at the top
to enable the defenders to maneuver and station their own
guns. With the increased solidity, height became less im-
portant: the towers that were the main defensive points of
a medieval castle were reduced to the same height as the
walls and converted into massive projecting bastions that
could function as gun platforms. Projecting out from the
line of the adjacent walls, such bastions enable the de-
fenders to cover the ground in front of the walls, thus pre-
venting massed assaults or the approach of miners. From
the early 1500s it was recognized that angular or pointed
bastions performed this function better than the previous
round ones.
Before the advent of the specialist military architect in
the mid-16th century, architects and artists in other fields
were often invited by rulers to turn their skills to the de-
sign of fortifications. LEONARDO DA VINCI, BRAMANTE, and
MICHELANGELO, for instance, were all employed or invited
to advise in this capacity at some stage of their careers. In
Florence, Giuliano Sangallo (see SANGALLO FAMILY) de-
signed fortresses for Lorenzo de’ Medici in the 1470s, and
in the 1530s his nephew Antonio Sangallo the Younger
built the Fortezza da Basso; later still, in the 1590s, BUON-
TALENTIdesigned the Medicis’ Belvedere fortress and forti-
fied their port at Livorno. Baccio PONTELLIwas responsible
for both church and military edifices at Ostia. Michele
SANMICHELIworked in Verona, Venice, and throughout the
Venetian territories.
See also: ARTILLERY
Further reading: John R. Hale, Renaissance Fortifica-
tion: Art or Engineering? (London: Thames & Hudson,
1977).Fortune Allegorical figure. It was probably the Roman
philosopher Boethius (c. 480–c. 524 CE), in his Consolatio
philosophiae, who transformed Fortuna, the goddess of an-
cient Rome, into an allegorical figure that became popular
throughout Renaissance Europe. The survival of this
pagan deity in a Christian world reflects attempts to ex-
plain the unexpected adversities to which mankind is sub-
ject. In this sense, Fortune can be seen as a secular
equivalent to Providence, both of which were beyond the
influence of human beings.
Popularized by ERASMUSin his ADAGIAand in numer-
ous emblem books, such as ALCIATI’s Emblemata, Fortune
was personified both as a literary trope and a pictorial
symbol. She was typically depicted standing on a turning
wheel or ball, suggesting change and instability. She was
often blindfolded, indicating impartiality, and accompa-
nied by a turbulent sea or an inconstant wind. Fortune
had a long forelock which could be seized but the back of
her head was bald so that once she had passed by, an op-
portunity to take control of one’s fate had been missed.
Fluellen’s speech on Fortune in SHAKESPEARE’s Henry V
provides a summary of her characteristics. One of the
great Renaissance descriptions of Fortune is the De fortuna
(1501) of Giovanni PONTANO.Forty Martyrs of England and Wales Roman
Catholics martyred for their faith between 1535 and 1679
and canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970. The 40 were se-
lected from the 200 English and Welsh martyrs whom ear-
lier popes had already beatified. Twenty of them belonged
to religious orders, including Edmund CAMPIONand nine
other Jesuits; 13 were seminary priests; and there were
seven laity (four men and three women, of whom Mar-
garet CLITHEROWwas one).118888 FFoorrsstteerr,, GGeeoorrgg