A hand cannon ... or not ?

[Matchlock]

Hi fernando,

I am so glad that you appreciated my lines on your fine and early 'hand gonne' (the historic term) barrel from Aljubarrota, and thanks for providing us with the additional information.

You also mentioned a book given away by a Portuguese bank and containing illustrations of matchlocks. Unfortunately I do not have that in my - otherwise quite comprehensive - library.

So if you could please be so nice and post those images, and also the bibliographical data of that book, I would be much obliged to you.

To sort of back up my opinion that barrels which are wound up of band iron and then fire welded rang among the earliest of their kind, I enclose an image of a massive cannon barrel of ca. 1350, made exactly that way. It is in the Musee de l'Armee in Paris and is about 1,80 meters in length, with the fore end of the muzzle gone. I put my bag next to it for statistic comparison.

Now if you look at my little Aljubarrota barrel of about the same date you will see the strikingly close relationship in both shape and make.


Looking forward to receiving more information, and lots of thanks in advance,

Matchlock