I9II.] DANA— NOTES ON CANNON. 159 



caliber only about i8 inches, or else, — but the alternative is too 

 painful. 



The accounts of the fighting about Chioggia, 1380, between the 

 Genoese under Pietro Doria, and the Venetians under their beloved 

 Vittore Pisano, are well authenticated, and give a vivid picture of 

 the power of these old bombards. January 22, the great bombard, 

 a two-hundred pounder, was fired by the Venetians at the campanile 

 of Brondolo; it knocked out a large piece of wall, and some of the 

 flying stones struck and killed Pietro Doria, the Genoese commander, 

 together with his nephew. The next day the same bombard brought 

 down a still greater piece of the same campanile, killing 22 men ; so 

 that as an implement of slaughter, the clumsy thing was a success 

 and endeared itself proportionately to the Venetians. 



Before leaving the fourteenth century a few short notes might be 

 added. 



The castle of Tannenberg, in Germany, was captured 1399. A 

 huge bombard belonging to the city of Frankfort a/M., was loaned 

 to the besiegers. Tremendous difficulties were met and overcome in 

 getting the gun into position, very close to the castle. The first pro- 

 jectile stuck in the wall; the second passed through, and soon the 

 defences were in ruins. These were never rebuilt. Excavations 

 were made in 1849 and many stone balls were found. They varied 

 in diameter from three inches to 31)^ inches, the latter weighing 

 825 pounds, and unquestionably one of the shot for the " Frank- 

 furter Buechse."^ 



Napoleon gives an inventory of the Artillery of Bologna, 

 1381/97, in which stone balls of 1,000 pounds for bombards and 

 mortars, together with iron balls of i, 2, 3 and 6 pounds are men- 

 tioned. 



A word about field-guns. Froissart,* speaking of the capture 

 of the castle of la Roche sur Yon (1369) by the Black Prince, men- 

 tions " several cannons and springalls with which the army was 

 provided, and from long custom had always carried with them." 



In the year 1382 the bumptious burghers of Bruges were engaged 

 in one of their usual wars with their equally bumptious neighbors 



' " Die Burg Tannenberg and ihre Ausgrabung," Hefner und Wolf, Frank- 

 furt, a/M., 1850. 



* Chap. 268, Vol. I. 



