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XIX.—The Crossbow of Ulrich V. Count of Wurtemburg, 1460, with remarks on its construction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

Baron de Cosson
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Extract

The crossbow which forms the subject of this paper may be, I venture to think, of interest to the Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries, as it is a weapon of somewhat uncommon construction, of good artistic decoration, and more especially because the date which is inscribed on it and the escutcheons of arms which it bears, enable me to assign its ownership very definitely to a historical personage.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , 1893 , pp. 445 - 464
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1893

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References

page 445 note a This paper has been somewhat amended and extended since it was read, so as to embody the results of further investigations into its subject. When read, it was still generally believed that bows of this type were made of horn.

page 445 note b Close Rolls of King John; Bentley, Excerpta Historica, 395.

page 446 note a November, 1889.

page 446 note b Œuvres complètes du Roi René d'Anjou, par M. le Comte de Quatrebarbes, tome i. p. 110.

page 446 note c Monum. Hist. Patriæ, t. ii. col. 21. Vandenpeereboom (Gildes, corps et metiers, serments, etc. Patria Belgica, 1874) says, L'arbalète était deja conrme en Belgique à la fin du 11e siècle,” and Magné de Marolles (La chasse au fusil) says, “Elle fit sou apparition en Franco sons le recrne de Louis le Grros; ” but I have not seen these works which are cited in Delaunay's Etude sur les anciennes compagnies d'archers, d'arbalétriers et d'arquebusiers, and do not know what proofs the authors may have for their statements.

page 447 note a Bibliothèque Nationale, département des manuscrits, quittances, t. xi., No. 804, transcribed by Luce, Siméon, Histoire de Bertrand du Guesclin, Paris, 1876Google Scholar.

page 448 note a Letter of the 6th September, 1892

page 449 note a Engraved in Böheim, , Handbuch der Waffenkunde (Leipzig, 1890), p. 407Google Scholar, fig. 484.

page 449 note b Die Waffensammlung des Österreichen Kaiserhauses, by Leitner, Guirin (Vienna, 1866–70)Google Scholar, plate xxv, fig. 3

page 449 note c Plate xcv. No. 2.

page 449 note d Page 50.

page 451 note a Dr. Ginsburg reads the characters “Hab gasath zarab harah thérzé.”

page 453 note a Mr. Balfour and I both thought we could distinguish three layers, without counting the outer sheath of pure tendon described later.

page 454 note a The edges are more or less cracked, and small pieces of horn have been introduced in places, evidently, as their insignificance and irregularity show, to make good deficiencies.

page 454 note b The reason for this difference in construction on the two sides is to be found in the fact that the bow had to be set at a slight angle to the stock to allow free action to the string, and in consequence the strains on the two sides were not exactly alike.

page 455 note a I take it from my examination of this section, that the fibre runs longitudinally and line of cleavage vertically.

page 456 note a In confirmation of this view is the fact that Mr. Riggs' bow, now admitted to bo of the same structure as mine, was originally described as being covered with snake skin, and the same description was given to those in the Christian Hammer sale, May, 1892. I may add that Mr. Henry Balfour tells me that on the numerous composite bows which he saw in Scandinavia and at Berlin, “the dotted ornamentation on bark seems almost universal.”

page 457 note a There is a Venetian MS. in the British Museum (Sloane MS. 416), written by one Albertus Theotonicus, a friar spoken of in 1335 as having formerly introduced his methods into Venice, and one passage is headed “a fare vernixe da depinture e da balestre.” (Eastlake, Materials for a History of Oil Painting, i. 86, 90, and 91.) He is supposed to be of German origin, hence called Teutonicus. (Communicated by J. G. Waller, Esq., F.S.A.)

page 458 note a 1248, “Pro 21 capitibus cornuum et 16 glutinis ad faciendum balistas 26ł. 14s.” (Compte d'Alphonse de Poitiers, p. 204). 1338, “Arbaleste de cor et d'if.” (Comptes de Barth. du Drach.) 1346, “Balestas de corn.” (Reglements de Montaubau, cited by V. Gay.) 1426, “2 grosses arbalestes de corne de revers grans.” (Inventaire du Chateau des Baux, No. 61.) 1428, “quatre grans ars de corne.” (Inventaire de la Bastide Sainct Anthoine.) The gluten in the first document is the tendon needed for the bow.

page 458 note b The variety of yew most generally used for crossbows in Prance was “if de Rouménie,” Roumanian yew. Pour texts of the fifteenth century relating to it are given by V. Gay, Glossaire Archéologique, p. 47.

page 459 note a Murdoch Smith, Persian Arts, South Kensington Museum Handbook.

page 459 note b Glossaire Archéologique, p. 50.