Crossbow.

[weapons 27]

Jim
this crossbow is at me, I asked has Eric Claude to put the photographs on your site. I did not make yet party of your group!!! if you need photographs more precise, I can send some .I thank you all for the research job..
cdlt

antoine

[Matchlock]

I finally found the trap crossbow in the pic last posted, and attach an overall view. Telling from the screws and other manufacturing criteria, it is made in 16th c. style but should be classed as 19th c. The overall length is 53.5 cm.

Also attached please find the only historic illustration of a trap (war) crossbow that I have ever noticed in period artwork, of the Early Gothic period, by Villard de Honnecourt, ca. 1230, in the Ms.fr. 19093, Bibliothèque Nationale Paris.

Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Hi Eric,


I just came across a rather similar specimen, the tiller also made from wood:

http://www.webarcherie.com/forum/ind...lete-ancienne/

and:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15730


That sample and yours might both be of French origin, adopting the old North Italian style!


Btw, just 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 ?! (bottom attachment).

Any thoughts?


Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

FRom post # 26:

There are a few North Italian all-steel crossbows known retaining their original all-steel quarrels (crossbow bolts), some of these crossbows fitted with a rounded pistol-grip butt like yours, and a few others with a two- or three-link chain instead of the usual string. While the one attached, dated 1562 and signed by the maker Opera de Renaldo de Visin da Asolo (preserved in the collection of the Ducal Palace in Venice, is 66.3 cm long, various similar are much smaller and are nowadays believed to have been built especially for carrying secretly and in order to use for assassinations.

A period of origin of the first half to the mid 16th c. seems to be common to all members of this very special group of North Italian crossbows. The shape of the rear sight on the attached crossbow is identical to rear sights found on contemporary matchlock and wheellock muskets.

Michael

I am convinced that the present cord string on this small crossbow dated 1562 is a replacement of the original three-link iron 'string'.

m

[Jim MacDougald]

Is anyone still following this thread re "steel bowstring" crossbows? I have been away for years, and have some updated info and a few questions.