Welcome to issue 1 of RENAISSANCE NOTES & QUERIES, the latest title in Partizan's series.

The first issue of any new magazine is as great a step into the unknown for those who produce it as those who read it (or at any rate buy it!). We have felt for a long time that there is a role for a new magazine to cover the needs of those interested in all aspects of the development of warfare from the time of the arrival of gunpowder as a significant factor in the West (defined by us a around 1450 in Europe, perhaps 30-40 years later in Britain), until the realisation of it's pre-eminence, a decade or so either side of 1660 when( purely by coincidence of course!) EIGHTEENTH CENTURY NOTES & QUERIES takes over.

It could be argued that the term "Renaissance" should not be used to cover such an innovative period and that the Renaissance as an historical period was largely over by the late C15th. However, we decided to use this term as (pedantically) it has a signifance to the military theory of this period, and (commercially) it has long been the handy label applied by wargamers to the period.

Magazine Direction

What this magazine will contain, and where it ultimately will go from here will be up to you, the contributors, which is what we want you to become. We hope shortly to include a questionnaire but in the meantime feedback, comments (of whatever sort- we are broadminded and thick skinned) are vital.

We hope to feature strongly items such as reader's letters, the "Note & Queries" column which is such a useful feature to the companion magazines in this series, and honest and authoritative book reviews. Results of your own research is of great interest to others. Such research needn't involve years spent in the Swedish National Archives (though we'd like to see those results as well!). We hope to provide an opportunity for those completely new to the pleasure of seeing your own name in print, to dip a toe in the water, even if it's just a letter or an interesting note - almost all the experts currently writing on C17th matters were the first tentative contributors to ENGLISH CIVIL WAR N&Q!

Other fields which we hope to cover include battles & campaigns - especially "terribly obscure" ones- on sea and land, flags, dress equipment and wargaming topics. We are also aware of the increasing valuable contribution of 'Living History' groups has made to the the knowledge of this period, in fields often highly relevant to the more overtly military, and input from those involved would also be welcomed.

Our thanks to those who helped launch this issue They include the curator of a British museum, an expert on Scots military matters and, hopefully the Shape of Things to Come (or even a Brave New World - that's the trouble when you let Librarians edit and publish magazines!) three European experts as our contribution to 1992!

So there it is; if you like what we're doing, tell others and us - if you don't at least tell us. Please help the Editor not to take up so much space in future issues with his ramblings, and send your views and contributions now.

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