Topic:
- Artillery, e.g. cannons, muskets, mortars, grenades, etc.
- Need to narrow down the scope of my research to one specific kind of artillery?
Purpose of annotation:
- To investigate the intersection of the author-practitioner’s military knowledge and artisanal practices
- To situate his military technological writings within the larger context of Toulouse’s regional history
Potential recipes and preliminary observations:
1. p017r-p019r (On cannon-makers; Culverines; Bastarde; bastarde culverine; passevolant; faulconneau; musket; Arquebus)
- This group of entries mainly focuses on the weight, dimension and usage of different kinds of artillery pieces.
- It contains practical strategic information such as what kind of artillery should be used for a certain kind of battle, how many horses are needed to carry a certain type of artillery, etc.
- Occasionally the components of cannon alloy are mentioned, but there are not a lot of details for the actual production process.
2. p021r-p028r (Cannoneer; shooting a cannon at night; unspiking your cannon; defense of a town; orgues; grenades; to bring a cannon over land; lined cannons; steel touch-hole; gunner; cannon ball; mortar)
- This group also includes strategic advice on the use of cannons in different kinds of battles, such as shooting cannons at night, the setting of sights to help aiming at the targets, etc.
- It contains more information on the production process than the first group. For example, it mentions how one can add cart nails and crushed glass to the making of mortars to increase their destructiveness.
- It also talks about the making of mortars (p023r), including a drawing that shows “four handles need to be added to it while it is cast”. This entry also mentions that once the mortar is loaded, it needs to be covered with canvas and completely smeared with turpentine.
- p025v talks about the making of breech ring, middle ring and mouth ring of a cannon and their proportions; as well as the drilling of cannon that has to be done “evenly from the breech to the mouth”.
Preliminary research questions:
- Why would the author-practitioner include such information (esp. the description of different kinds of artillery and their strategic usage) in the manuscript in the first place? Do these entries count as “recipes”?
- What is his connection with cannon-makers? Did he actually make weapons at the workshop? How did he know about the production of weapons? What does it tell us about the circulation of military knowledge in Toulouse?
- What do these two groups of “recipes” tell us about cannon-makers in Toulouse? For example, p021v mentions that a cannoneer is often a founder. Do we see any relationship between cannon-making techniques and foundry techniques or metal-making techniques in the manuscript? Did cannon-makers participate in actual battles?
- Can we relate these “recipes” to the Wars of Religion in the 16th century? (esp. the militancy of craft confraternities discussed by Robert Scheider)
- p017r mentions how the master can make profit from cannon making. Are these cannons basically commodities that can be sold without restriction in the market?
Research plan/references:
1. Historical context – secondary literature on wars and society in early modern France; on military artisans or arsenals in early modern Europe; on cannons and military technology in early modern period
- James B. Wood, The King’s Army: Warfare, Soldiers, and Society during the Wars of Religion in France, 1562-1576 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996)
- Pamela O. Long, Artisan Practitioners and the Rise of the New Sciences, 1400-1600 (Oregon State UP, 2011)
- Pamela O. Long, Openness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001)
- Kelly DeVries, “Sites of Military Science and Technology,” in The Cambridge History of Science, vol.3 Early Modern Science, ed. Park and Daston.
- Bert S. Hall, Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997)
- Joseph Jobe, ed., Guns: An Illustrated History of Artillery (Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1971)
2. Manuscripts – research on early modern manuscripts on artillery
- John Roberts, The Compleat Cannoniere, London, 1652
3. Object-based research
- Availability of early modern artillery pieces in museums?
4. Hands-on research?
- I probably cannot reconstruct cannons or gunpowder…
Other questions/thoughts:
1. Terminology:
- Rosette? Big bells’ fine metal? Montpellier pan and King’s pan?
2. Standard of measurement:
- Paces, Quintals, “King’s standard”?