![Balestra_Veloce](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Balestra_Veloce.jpg)
Leonardo's crossbow designs are a series of shooting weapon schematics designed by
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
that are in the ''
Codex Atlanticus
The Codex Atlanticus (Atlantic Codex) is a 12-volume, bound set of drawings and writings (in Italian) by Leonardo da Vinci, the largest single set. Its name indicates the large paper used to preserve original Leonardo notebook pages, which was us ...
.'' One version, a self-spanning infantry weapon called the ''Rapid Fire Crossbow'' (''Balestra Veloce'' in Italian), is found on sheets 143r, 153r and 155r. The other is the ''Giant Crossbow'' (''Balestra Gigante'' in Italian) design intended to be a mounted siege weapon found on sheet 149a in the Codex.
The creation of the large design is linked to Ludovico Sforza, an Italian prince in the Renaissance era. Given the constant warfare in the Italian Peninsula at this time, he wanted to expand and advance both his military and the territory he governed in the Milan region. To do so, he wanted to update the current treatise on military engineering by Roberto Valturio. Leonardo responded by writing Sforza a letter that included a number of innovative machine designs with one of them being the ''Giant Crossbow.'' Leonardo also highlighted in the letter his expertise in engineering; most likely having known that Sforza was wanting to hire military engineers at the time.
While there is no exact date for the illustrations of Leonardo's crossbows, they are generally believed to be drafted between 1483 and the early 1490s.
Many scholars generally agree that Leonardo completed the drawings in the manuscript in Milan, but there is debate as to why he originally went there. Some believe he came to Milan in search of work as a painter and then he got news of Sforza's military desires upon arriving. Others suggest that the initial reason he came directly to Milan was to work for Sforza.
Design
The crossbow as a weapon had been around long before Leonardo's designs. However, his designs made the weapon more advanced and why Leonardo's crossbows stands out. If a crossbow is designed with a narrower shaft and a tapered bolt, which adjusts the nocking of arrows, it greatly improves the airflow of the bow and the drag on arrows. This allows the crossbow to operate much more efficiently and have a more precise aim. These ideas were present in Leonardo's designs and were developed independently of any other influences.
The mathematics that Leonardo utilized to construct his crossbow designs were far advanced despite having some now known inaccuracies with today's current knowledge of geometrics and design. Nonetheless, Leonardo was "the first modern engineer to attempt to apply the geometrical mathematics of the laws of motion to the design of machines." The other mathematical marvel that is noted in Leonardo's designs of the crossbows is the proportional techniques that he utilized in every aspect of the designs.
Mechanically, the ''Rapid Fire Crossbow's'' tiller was split into two stacked wooden pieces held together at the front by a hinge and held in place at the back by a spring-loaded latch. Sandwiched inside the tiller, a pair of interconnected folding levers attach the lower half of the tiller to a sliding plank sitting on the top half of the tiller between the two metal prods, similar in mechanical concept to the
Gastraphetes
The gastraphetes ( grc, γαστραφέτης, , belly-releaser), also called belly bow or belly shooter, was a hand-held crossbow used by the Ancient Greeks. It was described in the 1st century AD by the Greek author Heron of Alexandria in his ...
, that contained the rolling nut and spring-loaded sear at the back of the plank. Meanwhile, the bottom half of the tiller contained the trigger. Upon pressing a switch on the side of the tiller to release the latch, the user can then fold the bottom half of the tiller down. At the same time, the interconnected levers then push the sliding plank forward until the drawstring is caught by the rolling nut, which is held secure by the sear's spring tension. Upon pushing the bottom half of the tiller back into place, the latch locks the upper and lower halves of the tiller back together. After a bolt is loaded on the crossbow and aimed, the trigger is then pulled to compress the sear's spring and enable the rolling nut to release the drawstring to propel the bolt. Such a design removed the need for external spanning tools that an arbalist had to carry and simplified the arming process of the crossbow.
With regards to the ''Giant Crossbow,'' the original idea of Leonardo, as described in the drawings of the ''Codex Atlanticus'' (1488–1489), was to build a large
crossbow
A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long fi ...
in order to increase the range and power of its ammunition. The ''Giant Crossbow'' was used to fire rocks and bombs; it was mostly intended to be an intimidation-based weapon for deterring foes from attacking. The ''Giant Crossbow'' was made up of thin wood, on 6 wheels, 27 yards across, and made up of 39 separate parts. While some believe that Leonardo designed the ''Giant Crossbow'' for his own amusement, the context around this design suggests the ''Giant Crossbow'' truly was intended to be a dangerous weapon that would greatly appeal to his employer, Ludovico Sforza.
Inspiration for such a weapon most likely stemmed from the fact that Leonardo grew up in Italy during the 15th century. This meant he was a witness to the constant warfare between the many city-states in his area. Thus, Leonardo put extensive time and effort into designs that could both protect his fellow citizens and greatly harm the enemy. The ''Giant Crossbow'' supports this theory in that the intended enormous size of the weapon was meant to invoke fear and panic in its enemies to keep them away, but it would still have the capability to cause great damage and injury had it been actually constructed and used.
Working Replicas
After a prototype of the ''Rapid Fire Crossbow'' built in 2013, the first working model was released on 24 June 2015 during a demonstration at the
Castello Sforzesco
The Castello Sforzesco (Italian for "Sforza's Castle") is a medieval fortification located in Milan, northern Italy. It was built in the 15th century by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, on the remnants of a 14th-century fortification. Later reno ...
in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
. The working replica of the infantry weapon was the culmination of a study conducted by Edoardo Zanon of the Leonardo3 study center in respect of the processing and assembly techniques available at the time of Leonardo.
The model allows precision shooting and is equipped with a fast internal spanning mechanism, non-existent even in most modern handheld crossbows. The working model built is on display at the
Leonardo3 – The World of Leonardo museum at the Piazza della Scala square in Milan, Italy.
As for the ''Giant Crossbow,'' it was never constructed by its designer; either as scaled model or as a fully fledged siege weapon. However, a working model was built to a scale of 1:1. It was shown in the
ITN documentary ''
Leonardo's Dream Machines'', which was aired for the first time in February 2003 by
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
.
IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
''Leonardo's Dream Machines''
/ref>
See also
* Codex Atlanticus
The Codex Atlanticus (Atlantic Codex) is a 12-volume, bound set of drawings and writings (in Italian) by Leonardo da Vinci, the largest single set. Its name indicates the large paper used to preserve original Leonardo notebook pages, which was us ...
* Cheiroballistra
The ''cheiroballistra'' ( el, χειροβαλλίστρα) or ''manuballista'' (Latin), which translates in all its forms to "hand ballista", was an imperial-era Roman siege engine. Designed by Hero of Alexandria and mostly composed of metal (t ...
* Lever action firearms
* Polybolos
The polybolos (the name means "multi-thrower" in Greek) was an ancient Greek repeating ballista, reputedly invented by Dionysius of Alexandria (a 3rd-century BC Greek engineer at the Rhodes arsenal,) and used in antiquity. The polybolos w ...
* Repeating crossbow
The repeating crossbow (), also known as the repeater crossbow, and the Zhuge crossbow (, also romanized Chu-ko-nu) due to its association with the Three Kingdoms-era strategist Zhuge Liang (181–234 AD), is a crossbow invented during the W ...
* Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was an Italian polymath, regarded as the epitome of the "Renaissance Man", displaying skills in numerous diverse areas of study. Whilst most famous for his paintings such as the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Last Supper'' ...
References
External links
Balestra gigante
Giant Crossbow
Leonardo da Vinci projects
Crossbows
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