The invention, or at all events the first application of these weapons for the purposes of warfare, in the sense of the use of detonating gunpowder for the discharge of projectiles, in contradistinction to those applied merely for setting fire to buildings, is probably due to the Flemings or Italians, but the approximate date of their introduction is very difficult to trace, as early writers on the subject so often confound hand-guns with cannon, and _vice versâ_; besides, some of the earlier guns were innocent of any projectile whatever, being simply used for frightening horses, an office at that time far from being contemptible in repelling an onset of men-at-arms. The earliest mention of hand-guns occurs in connection with Perugia as early as 1364,[53] and an inventory of Nuremberg, of 1388, refers to forty-eight of these weapons as being in the possession of that city. There are other examples of the use of what would appear to be hand-guns occurring in Italian, French, and German manuscripts of the last quarter of the century, but it is rarely absolutely clear whether artillery or hand-guns are meant, especially when the word “bombard” or “bombarde” is used, unless, as in the case of Perugia, where the dimensions are given. In German MSS. the use of the word “handbüchsen” is, of course, conclusive; and such a case occurs in connection with Ratisbon in 1379. These early “handbüchsen” or “handbombards” could not be very heavy, as there exist several “illuminations” at Vienna, where one of the two gunners who served the piece holds the weapon with his right hand, with the round thin stock against his breast; his colleague stands apart with the ramrod in his hand, apparently after having loaded the piece. One of these “illuminations” shows that the charge is being ignited near the mouth of the piece, which might go to show that the gun was innocent of projectile. These pictures would seem to date very early, probably not later than 1350–60. Juvenal des Ursins mentions a hand-gun as being in use in 1414. A Florentine writer states that these weapons were used at the siege of Lucca, in 1430; and what is still more to the point is that an actual and early specimen, made of brass, was found among the _débris_ at Tannenberg, a castle besieged and demolished in 1399: this weapon was probably of as early make as the Nuremberg guns. It was only with great difficulty that the early rough hand-guns made their way at all against those weapons where manual or mechanical force was used. Both the longbow and crossbow were infinitely superior to the clumsy tube stuck on to the end of a stick, not only in regard to precision of aim, but also in the number of missiles that could be discharged within a given time, and it was principally on this account that these firearms are so rarely mentioned by mediæval writers. Actual specimens preserved are few and far between, and this is not surprising when one considers how very soon