Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe: Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics

Hall, Professor Bert S.

ISBN 10: 0801855314 / ISBN 13: 9780801855313

Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997

About this Item

Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe: Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics, Hall, Professor Bert S. Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. 8vo up to 9½" tall., 300pp., black and white illustrative plates; bibliography; index. Blue cloth boards with white spine titles. Volume is in fine condition; unclipped jacket has a small closed tear lower spine; taped from the inside.

Seller Inventory # 005109

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe: Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801855314
• ISBN 13: 9780801855313
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • HISTORY, POLITICS, ECONOMICS
  • WAR, MILITARY, CRIME

About this title

Synopsis

Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe explores the history of gunpowder in Europe from the thirteenth century, when it was first imported from China, to the sixteenth century, as firearms became central to the conduct of war. Bridging the fields of military history and the history of technology -- and challenging past assumptions about Europe's "gunpowder revolution" -- Hall discovers a complex and fascinating story. Military inventors faced a host of challenges, he finds, from Europe's lack of naturally occurring saltpeter -- one of gunpowder's major components -- to the limitations of smooth-bore firearms. Manufacturing cheap, reliable gunpowder proved a difficult feat, as did making firearms that had reasonably predictable performance characteristics. Hall details the efforts of armorers across Europe as they experimented with a variety of gunpowder recipes and gunsmithing techniques, and he examines the integration of new weapons into the existing structure of European warfare.

About the Author

Bert S. Hall is associate professor at the University of Toronto's Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology and co-editor of Health, Disease and Healing in Medieval Culture.