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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
The Turkish habit of casting great ordnance on the spot where they were 
wanted shews an extraordinary energy and readiness. In the first siege of 
Rhodes, 1480, Muhammad caused sixteen great pieces to be cast, called 
basilisks or double cannon, 18 ft. long, and carrying a ball of 2 or 3 ft. 
diameter,* and here also we are told that their mortars “ threw stones of a 
prodigious size, which flying through the air by the force of powder, fell 
into the city, and lighting upon houses, broke through the roofs, made their 
way through the several stories, and crushed to pieces all that they fell upon; 
nobody was safe from them, and it was this kind of attack that gave the 
greatest terror to the Rhodians.”— Vertot. 
There is some little difficulty in determining the actual size of the gun 
cast by Urban, nor is it clear whether our description relates to that gun 
or to another. Gibbon states that the great cannon was flanked by two 
fellows of almost equal magnitude, one of which is described by a con¬ 
temporary writer Leonardus Chiensis, as throwing a stone ball of eleven 
palms (104*5 ins.) in circumference; he measured the shot, Lapidem, qui 
palmis undecim ex meis ambibat in gyro. This would give a diameter of 
about 33*2. But it is further stated by all authorities that the great cannon 
was cast in Adrianople, whereas our account seems to refer to one cast in front 
of Constantinople. “ At the end of three months Urban produced a piece 
of brass ordnance of stupendous, and almost incredible, magnitude ; a measure 
of twelve palms is assigned to the bore, and the stone bullet weighed about 
600 lbs.” He adds, “ that it took two months to transport it from Adrianople 
to Constantinople, a distance of 150 miles.” Here again Phranzas steps in 
with a correction, and says the shot weighed 1200 lbs. Lapide in ed 
estimatione mille ducentarum librarum , and mentions as an eye witness 
that was drawn by 50 oxen to Constantinople. It is probable therefore that 
the statements relate to different guns. Assuming however that one of 
the guns fired stone shot of 1200 lbs., we have still to enquire what the 
pound was. The most reasonable supposition is that it was the weight 
now known as the Chekie, which is nearly the Roman pound ; if so, the 
shot of 1200 chekies weighed about 804 lbs. avoirdupois, corresponding to 
a diameter of 25*6 ins. The piece would, in fact, have been a piece of 
seven kantars. 
In regard to its weight, Muhammad we are told delivered 1500 talents of 
bronze to the founders, but we are met by the same difficulty of determining 
what the talent was, or rather which of its many values to select. If the 
Roman talent was carried to Byzantium, as seems probable, and remained in 
use to the 15th century, we may assume that it equalled 57*6 lbs. avoir¬ 
dupois, and this agrees with the statement of Leonardus Chiensis quoted by 
Mr Gibbon,f that the talent equalled 60 minse, or nearly 60 avoirdupois 
pounds; on the other hand it is expressly stated by von Hammer that “ le 
talentpese cent vingt cinq limes” (Livre xn. N.v.) or in fact, the same as 
the kantar. 
* Relation de Merry de Dupuy, quoted by Yeetot, “ Hist, of Knights of Malta/’ I. 373. 
f See Mr Mallet, in “Engineer” of Aug. 21, 1868. “The attic talent weighed about 60 minas 
or avoirdupois pounds (see Hooper on ancient weights and measures): but among the modern 
Greeks, that classic appellation was extended to a weight of one hundred, or one hundred and 
twenty-five pounds (Ducange, raXeurov) Milman’s Gibbon, 1839, xii. 192. Ducange gives 
Examples of Talentum pro Centum libris : pro 50 libris : pro Libra et Marca: but not for 125 lbs. 
