War engineering in 1466: From Roberto Valturio's DE RE MILITARI
 

A huge siege artillery tower in the shape of a dragon (remember the Trojan horse), firing an incendiary arrow, and other devices, such as a gun mount, catapult and hoist.

Michael

The engineering of these siege engines is pretty amazing, and the mention of the 'Trojan Horse' as well as the image of the dragon figure on the example pictured, brings to mind a question.
Were these huge devices actually designed with such artistic imagery, or possibly just described metaphorically?
It seems that many weapons' components are described with reference to similarities to animal or other descriptive terms, i.e. monkey tail etc. and if I recall, there is question on the actual existence of the Trojan Horse itself.

Just wondering,

Hi Jim,

Good question, as I had expected.

The fact just jumped to my mind that in late Gothic and Renaissance times, weapons, especially cannon, were given animal names, such as the huge main piece (Hauptstück) of the Maximilian artillery, der Leu (lion), but they were also called dragons and named after reptiles (Eidechse, Schlänglein = little serpent) and birds: Taube (dove), Blaumeise etc. They often even came in pairs: Löw' und Löwin, Hirsch und Hindin.

Again, as you say: Nobody knows whether the Trojan horse actually existed or is a mere outcome of Ancient Greek poetry, and nobody can tell whether Valturio's futuristic machines (and Leonardo's fantastic drafts) ever existed in reality either.

Michael