Arquebus fork rest c.1529-1530

[Matchlock]

For earliest depictions of gun barrels, please also cf. my thread:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...non+depictions


Nobody has, at least to my knowledge, assembled these up to now.


From top to bottom:

- 1326, Walter de Milemete: Holkham ms 458, British Library

- 1326-7, Walter de Milemete: Oxford Christ Church ms 2 (traditional term), now: Oxford Bodleian Library ms 92, fol. 70v

- ca. 1340, detail of a fresco at Eremo Lecceto Abbey, near Siena, Italy - the earliest known piece of artwork depicting a wooden "carriage", or a "stock"

- ca. 1343-5, and very similar to the foregoing, from Jan van Boendale: Brabantsche Yeesten (Great Deeds of Brabant), Brussels, Royal Library, ms IV 684

As seen in the latter, in the earliest days of the gun, the charge of powder required was so large that the stone (!) ball was virtually located in the muzzle area (German: Steinbüchse).


Best,
Michael