Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe: Gunpowder Technology and Tactics (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology 22)

About this book

Winner of the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize from the Canadian Historical Association 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 technologyand challenging past assumptions about Europes "gunpowder revolution"Hall discovers a complex and fascinating story. Military inventors faced a host of challenges he finds from Europes lack of naturally occurring saltpeterone of gunpowders major componentsto 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.