Mounting an early cannon

rysays · 2nd June 2024, 10:39 PM

With those dimensions your gun would class as a light Serpent or "Slangen" as described in Maximilian's book. The illustrations you shared are of "Mittelslangen", which are ~2m long with 6-7cm bores, so nearly twice the size of your gun but in the same family. Here's one of several poems Maximilian wrote about these guns in his book of armaments:

"Veld und mittelslangen wir sein,
Han manchen kriegsknecht bracht in pein
An stürmen und grossen schlachten,
So den kaiser wolten verachten."

I'm no hand at 16th c. (or really any) German, but here's a rough translation:

"We Field & Medium serpents,
have brought many a soldier into torment
in onslaughts and great battles,
so they will despise the Kaiser"

2nd June 2024, 10:39 PM	#10
rysays Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: NY, NY Posts: 9	With those dimensions your gun would class as a light Serpent or "Slangen" as described in Maximilian's book. The illustrations you shared are of "Mittelslangen", which are ~2m long with 6-7cm bores, so nearly twice the size of your gun but in the same family. Here's one of several poems Maximilian wrote about these guns in his book of armaments: "Veld und mittelslangen wir sein, Han manchen kriegsknecht bracht in pein An stürmen und grossen schlachten, So den kaiser wolten verachten." I'm no hand at 16th c. (or really any) German, but here's a rough translation: "We Field & Medium serpents, have brought many a soldier into torment in onslaughts and great battles, so they will despise the Kaiser"