Unusual Small Crossbow

[Matchlock]

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

[Atlantia]

Hi Michael,

Do you remember Eric's:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15016

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by Atlantia

Hi Michael,

Do you remember Eric's:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15016

Brilliant, Gene,

Thanks a lot!

I rembered posting in it and was searching for that but did not succeed!

Best,
m

[Atlantia]

You're welcome Michael.

All the best
Gene

[Matchlock]

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?

[fernando]

Resembling a cable thrower device ?

.

[Matchlock]

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

[fernando]

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).

.

[Matchlock]

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.


Best,
Michl

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

... What a fascinating interpretation! ... Well, you left me baffled if not flabbergasted.

Oh, i feel compensated just by learning the flabbergast term ... something i would never realize it existed .

[katana]

Is it just me, but......those hexagonal bolt heads look extremely out of place ....

Kind Regards David

[Matchlock]

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

[fernando]

Originally Posted by katana

Is it just me, but......those hexagonal bolt heads look extremely out of place ....

Kind Regards David

Touché, David .
This model might well be an early one, but those bolts denounce a reproduction never earlier than mid XIX century ... right ?