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Unusual Small Crossbow
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I found this older French site
http://www.webarcherie.com/forum/ind...lete-ancienne/ The crossbow seems to be quite small and possibly belonged to a well-known group of 16th c., mostly North Italian, crossbows which characteristically have steel tillers and were presumably used by assassinators, carried hidden beneath a cloak. Of course it could also be a trap crossbow installed in the open. They threw steel bolts and, like our sample in discussion, were equiped with a bow-'string' consisting of three steel links. The tiller of this crossbow however seems to be of wood, with lateral iron reinforcements; the rear end terminates in a scroll pointing downward, which is also often the cas with the said Italian crossbows. It is accompanied by a goat's foot sapnner. Any inputs? So-called 'assassin's' crossbows in the Musée de l'Armée Paris and the Doges' Palace Venice attached lelow, one of them signed in full by the maker and dated 1562. Best, Michael |
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Brilliant, Gene, Thanks a lot! I rembered posting in it and was searching for that but did not succeed! ;) Best, m |
You're welcome Michael.
All the best Gene |
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Like the guy who originally posted this I am wondering about the use of the blunderbuss-like mouthed opening of the bolt housing, which also seems to have been equiped with a sort of bead foresight ?!
Any thoughts? |
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Resembling a cable thrower device ?
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Good idea, 'Nando,
I too gathered something like that with my rusted French; it does not seem to make much sense to me though - aiming for throwing a cable from such a short 'barrel'? Wouldn't it unfurl anyway in the air?! Best, Michl |
If my humble french doesn't betray me
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The 'barrel' would be the 'deposit/drum' for the rope hank; the orifice to tie the end of the rope.
Such was the suggestion given by the original person; that this could be a fishing crossbow. The interpreation of the member quoted in the (here) posted images is a bit 'distorted'. I have lurked into this forum; several members giving wings to their imagination, like suggesting an incendiary crossbow, boar hunting crossbow and so on. One of them even made a draft on how it should have worked. The idea of a fishing crossbow with a rope (string) seems to be the more consensual (to them). . |
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Wow, 'Nando,
What a fascinating interpretation! Thank you so much for enlightening my dense mind! ;) I am not ashamed to admit that I did not include that option. On the other hand, I know nothing on fishing. I remember seeing records on the employment of incendiary arrows with matchlock muskets as late as the second half of the 16th c. though, the illustration of ca. 1570-80 probably of Spanish origin (attached) - a combination of devices which classic weaponry tends to confine to the earliest days of European firearms. Well, you left me baffled if not flabbergasted. :eek: Best, Michl |
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Is it just me, but......those hexagonal bolt heads look extremely out of place ....
Kind Regards David |
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Hi David,
They seems strange indeed and troubled me too at first; somehow 'out of period' (or rather of what we expect to be 'period'). On the other hand, quadratic bolt heads were in use since at least the 15th c. as a small Gothic alcove gun, preserved in virtually 'untouched condition' in my collection, shows. Similar devices are depicted in Philip Mönch's Kriegsbuch (Book of War Techniqes), 1496, fol. 32r. Best, Michael |
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This model might well be an early one, but those bolts denounce a reproduction never earlier than mid XIX century ... right ? :o |
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