A Myth: Early 16th C. European Matchlock 'Pistols'

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

... Btw, this is definitely not 'the world's oldest revolver', as the text states; revolving cylinder systems were known since at least the 1580's. ..

Generally people tends to claim that 'this or that' is the world's oldest, forgetting to add the term known. One wonders whether the percentage of unknown specimens is greater than that of known ones.
...And among the unkown ones, one wonders how many are lost, earthed or destroyed and, on the other hand, how many are kept secret, unpublished or simply ignored by their owners.
How's that for an approach ?