FORTE

(Ital.) In Music, a direction to the performer COte tli*- part loudly to which the word is affixed. It is indicated by the simile letter F. If two F I"s, thus, are Used, the part is to be played or performed forti imo, very loud. FORTIFN* ATin.V. also called Military.Architecture, is the art of constructing such works of defence ns may enable a comparatively small number of men to maintain POM of a city or place against the a aults of a superior force. The nature of constructions nece ary for defence will he determined by the means of aggre ion. In early ages, when the slim: and the bow formed the principal weapons of offence, men considered themselves sufficiently defended by a single wall or a bank of earth, from behind which they could discharge their mi iles against their a ailants. In progre of time projecting towers were added, which served the double purpose of increasing the front of the besieged, and of enabling them to attack in flank the besiegers when approaching to scale the wall. The invention of the battering ram rendered no other change nece ary than that of increasing the thickne and strength of the wall. To aid the of defence, projecting galleries were constructed at the summit of the wall and round the towers, through the pierced Doors of which stones and other mi iles were showered down on the heads of the a ailants. These galleries were called machi coulis or ma ccoulis, from the French coulcr des ma es; because they served the pur])ose of enabling the besieged to let fall heavy ma es, to which cords were attached, in order that they might be drawn up again and let fall anew when the enemy returned to sap. Apertures or loop holes for the discharge of arrows and javelins were made in the battlements, or pierced in the walls; and the defensive means wire completed by surrounding the whole place with a deep moat or ditch. But the Invention nf jntnpowder rendered it nece ary to adopt an entirely dif- [s. 485]