Born: 1600(?), Raseiniai, Samogitia, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Died: 1651(?)
Early days. The family, which was relatively poor, bore the Ostoja Coat of Arms with military service traditions in the Grand Duchy. In a book dedication, he refers to himself as a Lietuvos bajoras (Lithuanian nobleman). Siemienowicz was educated in the Academy of Wilno (presently Vilnius, Lithuania). Polish researchers stress his identity as member of the polonized Lithuanian nobility (szlachta).
Military career. As Siemienowicz wrote himself, he was fascinated by artillery since childhood, and he studied many sciences to increase his knowledge (mathematics, mechanics, hydraulics, architecture, optics, tactics). In 1632-1634 he took part in the Smolensk War and in the siege of Biala under Mikolaj Abramowicz. He spent some time in the Netherlands, where he was sent by the King Wladyslaw IV to serve in the army of Duke Frederick Henry of Orange during the war with Spain; he participated in the Siege of Hulst in 1645. In 1646 he returned to Poland, when Wladyslaw created the Polish artillery corps and gathered specialists from Europe, planning a war with Ottoman Empire. He served as an engineering expert in the field of artillery and rocketry in the royal artillery forces. From 1648 he served as Second in Command of Polish Royal Artillery. In late 1648 the newly elected king John Casimir Vasa (Jan Kazimierz Waza) who had no plans for the war with Ottomans advised him to return to the Netherlands and publish his studies there. Around 1649 he decided to leave the Commonwealth and work on his book in Amsterdam. In 1650 Siemienowicz became famous for his work Artis Magnae Artilleriae pars prima (Great Art of Artillery, the First Part). Only the first part was published before his death, although it is rumored he did write a manuscript for part two before his death. It is also rumored that he was killed by members of the metallurgy/gunsmith/pyrotechnics guilds, who were opposed to him publishing a book about their secrets, and that they hid or destroyed the manuscript of the second part.
Artis Magnae Artilleriae Artis Magnae Artilleriae pars prima ("Great Art of Artillery, the First Part", also known as "The Complete Art of Artillery") printed in Amsterdam in 1650, was translated to French in 1651, German in 1676, English and Dutch in 1729 and Polish in 1963. The five sections of the Latin first edition deal with caliber, pyrotechnics, rockets, fireballs and the building of firework set-pieces. Due to its specialized nature, this treatise became the standard "recipe book" for firework displays and the ultimate, and often plagiarized, authority on military and recreational pyrotechnics for well over a century. In the first part of his work he also wrote that the second one would contain the universal pyrotechnic invention, containing all of our current knowledge. According to his short description, this invention was supposed to greatly ease all measurements and calculations. For over two centuries this work was used in Europe as a basic artillery manual. The book provided the standard designs for creating rockets, fireballs, and other pyrotechnic devices. It discussed for the first time the idea of applying a reactive technique to artillery. It contains a large chapter on caliber, construction, production and properties of rockets (for both military and civil purposes), including multistage rockets, batteries of rockets, and rockets with delta wing stabilizers (instead of the common guiding rods). Siemienowicz considered the use of poison gases dishonorable. In his work, he wrote: and most of all, they shall not construct any poisoned globes, nor other sorts of pyrobolic inventions, in which he shall introduce no poison whatsoever, besides which, they shall never employ them for the ruin and destruction of men, because the first inventors of our art thought such actions as unjust among themselves as unworthy of a man of heart and a real soldier. His inventions were used in many battles. For example, in the Battle of Chocim on November 11, 1673, where Commonwealth military units defeated the Ottoman army.
Source: this material was almost entirely copied from Wikipedia with elimination of some phrases.
Wikipedia
See also a book (in Polish):
Tadeusz Nowak "Kazimierz Siemienowicz, ca.1600-ca.1651", MON Press, Warsaw 1969
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