European Weapons And Armour: From The Renaissance To The Industrial Revolution
by Ewart Oakeshott /
2000 / English / PDF
20.3 MB Download
Both a work of scholarship, and a treasury of information, for
anyone seeking a factual and vivid account of the story of arms
from the Renaissance period to the Industrial Revolution. The
author chooses as his starting-point the invasion of Italy by
France in 1494, which sowed the dragon's teeth of all the
successive European wars; the French invasion was to accelerate the
trend towards new armaments and new methods of warfare. The author
describes the development of the handgun and the pike, the use and
style of staff-weapons, mace and axe and war-hammer, dagger and
dirk and bayonet. He shows how armour attained its full Renaissance
splendour and then suffered its sorry and inevitable decline,
culminating in the Industrial Revolution, with its far-reaching
effects on military armaments. Above all, he follows the long
history of the sword, queen of weapons, to the late eighteenth
century, when it finally ceased to form a part of a gentleman's
every-day wear. Lavishly illustrated.EWART OAKESHOTT was one of the
world's leading authorities on the arms and armour of medieval
Europe. His other works on the subject include Records of the
Medieval Sword and The Sword in the Age of Chivalry.
Both a work of scholarship, and a treasury of information, for
anyone seeking a factual and vivid account of the story of arms
from the Renaissance period to the Industrial Revolution. The
author chooses as his starting-point the invasion of Italy by
France in 1494, which sowed the dragon's teeth of all the
successive European wars; the French invasion was to accelerate the
trend towards new armaments and new methods of warfare. The author
describes the development of the handgun and the pike, the use and
style of staff-weapons, mace and axe and war-hammer, dagger and
dirk and bayonet. He shows how armour attained its full Renaissance
splendour and then suffered its sorry and inevitable decline,
culminating in the Industrial Revolution, with its far-reaching
effects on military armaments. Above all, he follows the long
history of the sword, queen of weapons, to the late eighteenth
century, when it finally ceased to form a part of a gentleman's
every-day wear. Lavishly illustrated.EWART OAKESHOTT was one of the
world's leading authorities on the arms and armour of medieval
Europe. His other works on the subject include Records of the
Medieval Sword and The Sword in the Age of Chivalry.