[500] Ib., p. 62. Spak gathers from Fronsperger that the manufacture of powder in Germany was in a very backward state during the second half of the sixteenth century: “att kruttillverkning i Tyskland äfven under senare hälften af 1500-talet befann sig på en särdeles primitiv ståndpunkt, framgår af Fronspergers beskrifning öfver krutets korning.” A Brandenburg MS. of 1597 gives a powder of 73.5 : 13.7 : 10.8, but this must have been for small arms. C. von Decker’s _Geschichte des Geschützwesens_, &c., 1822, p. 87, powder No. 31. [501] Blom’s _Kristian d. IV.’s Artilleri_, Copenhagen, 1877, p. 49. [502] Napoleon III., iii. 329. The grains of this powder were as large as hazel nuts. [503] Spak, p. 166. [504] Castner’s cocoa powder, ballistically the best powder ever made. Romocki, ii. 31. [505] "Romaunt of the Rose," 4196, attributed to Chaucer. [506] _Original Parchemin parmi les titres scellés de Clairambault_, xxv. fol. 1825; Bib. Nat., Paris (in Brackenbury, iv. 291). [507] Estimated by Sir H. Brackenbury. [508] Reinaud and Favé, p. 168. [509] “Calendar, State Papers,” Dom. Ser., 1581-90, March 30, 1588. [510] “Acts of the Privy Council,” New Ser., xvi. 25. [511] Napoleon III., iii. 96. [512] Wright and Halliwell’s _Reliquiæ Antiquæ_, London, 1841. [513] Muratori, _Rer. Ital. Script._, xv., col. 182. [514] Rymer’s _Fœdera_, vii. 187. [515] No reliance can be placed on the document given in Libri’s _Hist. des Sciences Mathém. en Italie_, iv. 487, which states that there were cannon and iron shot in Florence on the 11th February 1326. Libri was expelled from the French Academy, and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment in 1850 for falsifying and selling public documents which he had stolen from various institutions. [516] Napoleon III., i. 358. [517] Beringuccio calls iron shot “cosa nova all’ uso della guerra; perchè non prima (che io sappi) furono vedute palle di ferro in Italia per tirarle con artiglierie, che quelle che ci condusse Carlo Re di Franchia contra Re Ferdinando l’anno 1495.”—_Pyrotechnia_, Venice, 1559, p. 247. [518] MSS. germ, qu., 1018. [519] Meynert’s _Gesch. des Kriegswesens_, &c., Vienna, 1868, i. 378. [520] _A Rege ipso institutum_; Heidenstein, _De Bell. Moscovito_, 1588, p. 40. They were in use in Denmark in 1592. Blom’s _Kristian d. IV.’s Artilleri_, p. 266. [521] Geneva, 1645, p. 303. [522] _De Re Militari_, Verona, 1472, lib. 10, c. iv. p. 267. [523] Napoleon III., iii. 80. [524] Mr. J. Burtt, in _Archæol. Journal_, xix. 68. [525] W. L. Clowes, “The Royal Navy,” 1897, i. 149. [526] Benedict. Veron., _De Rebus Carol_. VIII., in Eccardi, _Script. Rer. Germ._, ii (Jähns). At the siege of Bilqan in Persia by the Moguls under Prince Hulágu in 1256, stones not being procurable for the machines, wooden shell filled with lead were employed with good effect.—_Heft Iqlim_, Persian MS. in Bib. Nat., Paris, No. 356, fol. 500.