The Arcana Family of Cesena as Gunfounders and Military Engineers

REFERENCES

• Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III, 1476–1485, P. 405; Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VII, Vol. 1, p. 48; C. Monti', Storia della Artiglieria Italiana (History of the Italian Artillery), Vol. 1 (Rivista d'Artiglieria e Genio, Roma, 1934), pp. 314–315, 587.
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• On 22 June 1500 15 pieces of artillery made by Sigismondo Albergeto, Alexandro de Leompardi and Francesco were proved (M. Sanuto, I Diarii (Diaries), Vol. 3 (Forni, Bologna), p. 309); Ordnance Society, Newsletters, No. 1(1987), p. 5.
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• L&P, Vol. 16, 1135 (7); Vol. 10, 777 (8). The Treasurer of the Chamber's clerks also found difficulty with English (or Welsh) names; they were responsible for an otherwise unknown gunfounder James Sowyn, whose name has found its way into various lists, though he was fairly certainly another member of the well-known Owen family.
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• PRO, PROB 11.25/31; L&P, Vol. 5, 664.
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• L&P, Vol. 4, 414, 1715.
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• L&P, Vol. 5, p. 313. These are not Ordnance accounts, but those of the Treasurer of the Chamber. Was Francesco Arcano really still casting demi-curtowes in 1529?
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• O. F. G. Hogg, op. cit.(5), p. 19; 0. F. G. Hogg, Artillery: its Origin, Heyday and Decline (Hurst, London, 1970), pp. 231–232; E. J. King, The Knights of St. John in the British Realm (Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, London, 1967), pp. 101–102; J. Hewitt, The Tower, its History, Armouries, and Antiquities, Before and Since the Fire (Master General and Board of Ordnance, London, 1841), p. 38..
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• H. L. Blackmore, The Armouries of the Tower of London, I, Ordnance (HMSO, London, 1976), no. 27.
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• J. P. Kaestlin, Catalogue of the Museum of Artillery in the Rotunda at Woolwich, I, Ordnance, rev. edn. (1970), Class II, 2; Mary Rose Trust identity number, MR 81 A 3002. The author is grateful to Alexzandra Hildred, Research Archaeologist (Ordnance) of the Mary Rose Trust, for a descriptive list of the Mary Rose ordnance.
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• PRO, PROB 11.25/31. Thomas de Vallois was later a gunner at the Tower (1538) and then at Carlisle (1545) (L&P, Vol. 13 (1), 384 (68); Vol. 20 (1), 580).
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• L&P, Vol. 16, 711, 762, 861; the relevant part of Marillac's report reads: 'ung fort au lieu dessus nomme, duquel ceulx qui la se tiendroient pourroient estre grandement endommaigez; partant, suyvant son dixain l'on avoit gecte ses fondemens et que mainctenant ledit Italyen partoit de ceste ville menant en sa compaignye le maistre canonnyer de ce roy pour veoir le lieu duquel l'artillerye se pourroit plus proprement asseoir' (J. Kaulek, Correspondence politique de MM. de Castillon et de Marillac (Alcan, Paris, 1885), 325). However, J. R. Hale thinks that Arcangelo's reconnaissance was not followed up: 'Again that is all' (op. cit. (6), p. 378).
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• J. R. Hale, op. cit. (6).
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• Acts of the Privy Council, 1547–1550, pp. 90, 491; A. I. Cameron, ed., The Scottish Correspondence of Mary of Lorraine (Scottish History Society, Edinburgh, 1927), p. 184; M. Merriman and J. Summerson, op. cit. (6), p. 701. The Privy Council order shows that the master gunner sent to St. Andrews was to have been additional to Arcangelo.
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• L&P, Vol. 21 (1), 1536 (28); Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward VI, Vol. 5, p. 400.
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• H. L. Blackmore, op. cit. (15), no. 242; C. Ffoulkes, op. cit. (5), pp. 26–27; V. Schmidtchen, Bombarden, Befestigungen, Büchsenmeister: von den ersten Mauerbrechern des Spiitmittelalters zur Belagerungsartillerieder Renaissance: eine Studie zur Entwicklung der Militärtechnik (Bombards, Fortifications, Master Gunners: from the Wall-breakers of the Late Middle Ages to the Siege Artillery of the Renaissance: A Study in the Development of Military Technology) (Droste, Düsseldorf, 1977), pp. 53–56; J. Jobe, Guns: an Illustrated History of Artillery (Stephens, London, 1971), p. 23, and plate on p. 21.
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• C. M. Cipolla, Guns and Sails in the Early Phase of European Expansion 1400-1700 (Collins, London, 1965), p. 31; L. Beck, Geschichte des Eisens in technischer und kulturgeschichtlicher Beziehung (The History of Iron in Relation to the History of Technology and Science), 2. Auflage (Vieweg, Braunschweig, 1981), Vol. 1, p. 915.
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• A. N. Kennard, op. cit. (5), p. 33; R. Sprandel, 'Die Ausbreitung des deutschen Handwerks im mittelalterlichen Frankreich' (The Spread of German Handicrafts in Mediaeval France), Vierteljahrsschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Vol. 51 (1964), p. 89; J. Fraikin, L'Industrie Armuriere Liégeoise et le Banc d'Epreuves des Armes a Feu de Liege (The Armaments Industry of Liége and the Bench of Proof for Firearms at Liége) (Vaillant-Carmanne, Liége, 1940), p. 18.
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• V. Schmidtchen, op. cit. (34), pp. 79–80; J. Jobe, op. cit. (34), p. 20.
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• C. Ffoulkes, op. cit. (5), p. 30 and plate lib; H. L. Blackmore, op. cit. (15), nos. 25, 26; C. Ffoulkes, op. Cit. (5), pp. 29, 106–107.
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• J. Wemaere et al., 'Musée de l'Armée; Inventaire des bouches à feu', (1976), Unpublished typescript available at the library of the Musée, nos. 58, 71; V. Schmidtchen, op. cit. (34), p. 57, illustration 77.
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• C. Month., op. cit. (1), pp. 319, 366; V. Schmidtchen, op. cit. (34), p. 87, illustration 142; J. Jobe, op. cit. (34), illustration facing p. 206. In taking, here and elsewhere, Venetian ordnance and shot to have been weighed in small Venetian pounds of 301.2 g, the author has followed A. Angelucci, Documenti Inediti per la Storia delle Armi da Fuoco Italiane (Unpublished documents towards the history of Italian firearms) (Cassone, Torino, 1869), pp. 282–283, note 139. Alberghetti's culverins have the build of 20-pounders, rather than 30-pounders, and on the scale provided by Gasperoni they appear to have a calibre of 5 in Venetian, which would be just less than 53/4 in English measure.
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• A. Angelucci, op. cit. (40); he commented that, at the very least, Italians were quick to learn, and promised a further contribution on the subject of Alberghetti's culverins, which the author has not found; M. E. Mallett and J. R. Hale, The Military Organization of a Renaissance State: Venice, c. 1400–1617 (University Press, Cambridge,), pp. 85, 87..
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• M. Sanuto, op. cit. (2), Vol. 1, p. 146; Vol. 3, p. 309; P. Pieri, Rinascimento e la Crisi Militare (The Renaissance and the Military Crisis) (Ricciardi, Napoli, 1934), p. 454; the editors of the Sanuto diaries also follow Angelucci in their calculation that the Venetian 100-pounders fired shot of 30.120 kg, so that Mallett and Hale's (p. 85) 100-pounders become 66-pounders, and their 12- and 6-pounders become 8- and 4-pounders; P. Giovio, Opere scelte, I, Le vite del Gran Capitano e del Marchese di Pescara (Selected works, 1, The lives of the Great Captain and of the Marquis of Pescara) (Laterza, Bari, 1931), p. 57; Giovio's 8 ft wall must be at least 9 ft thick English, whether measured in the regular Venetian foot of 34.77 cm, or in the Arsenal foot, which was somewhat less. The Turkish guns in London are described by H. L. Blackmore, O. cit. (15), nos. 243, 244, and J. P. Kaestlin, op. cit. (16), Class II, 191.
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• M. E. Mallett & J. R. Hale, op. cit. (41), p. 85; J. Jobe, op. cit. (34), p. 34; V. Schmidtchen, op. cit. (34), p. 85–86.
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• C. Monti', op. cit.(1), pp. 245, 398. The nomenclatures canons, grandes couleuvrines, couleuvrines moyennes and faucons were used for Charles VIII's artillery (Napoleon III and I. Faye, Etudes sur le Passé et l'Avenir de ('Artillerie, 3, Histoire des Progres de l'Artillerie (Dumaine, Paris, 1862), pp. 206–207).
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• V. Schmidtchen, op. cit.(34), pp. 83–84; P. Henrard, 'Les Fondeurs d'Artillerie dans les Pays-Bas' (Founders of Artillery in the Low Countries), Annales de l'Académie d'Archéologie de Belgique, 4th series, Vol. 5 (1889), p. 253; Napoleon III and I. Faye, op. cit. (44), pp. 242–243; Compton Place MSS., East Sussex Record Office, SAS, CP 184; the author is very grateful to Christopher Whittick for drawing attention to this list, which is discussed in B. G. Awty, 'Parson Levett and English Cannon Founding', Sussex Archaeological Collections, Vol. 127, (1989), pp. 133–145.
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• M. E. Mallett and J. R. Hale, op. cit.(41), pp. 82–83; A. N. Kennard (op. cit. (5), pp. 28–31) takes 33 entries to cover members of the Alberghetti family over the course of more than three centuries; R. de la Mark, Seigneur de Fleurange, 'Histoire des choses mémorables advenues du reigne de Louis XII et Francois I"' (History of the notable things which occurred in the reigns of Louis XII and Francis I) in Nouvelles Collections pour servir a l'Histoire de France, 1st series, (l'Editeur du Commentaire Analytique du Code Civil, Paris, 1838) Vol. 5, p. 23; J. R. Hale, op. cit. (22), p. 25.
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• C. Ffoulkes, op. cit. (5), p. 26; C. Montn, op. cit. (1), pp. 387, 548; J. Jobé, op. cit. (34), pp. 32–33. Alfonso's Ferraran 125-pounder would have fired stone shot of around 92 lb avoirdupois.
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• L&P, Vol. 3, 171–172, 2787, 2847, 2863, 2940, 3231, 3248, 3266, 3275.
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• L&P, Vol. 3, 3034; Francesco remarks that the weights are given in pounds of 16 oz, by which he indicates that they are French poids de mare of 489.5 g, rather than the Italian pounds with which he was familiar; the measurements might be in French feet of 32.48 cm or in Italian measure; the author has let both stand.
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• For comments on the proportion of tin, see the Discussion.
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• L&P, Vol. 20 (2), 180.
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• V. Biringuccio, The Pirotechnia translated from the Italian with an Introduction and Notes by C. S. Smith and M. T. Gnudi (American Institute of Mining and Metallugical Engineers, New York, 1942), p. 413; Biringuccio recommended three different strengths of cornpowder, the quantity of saltpetre increasing steadily from heavy guns to light artillery and small arms: H. L. Blackmore, op. cit. (15), pp. 261–262; the 1589 inventory of the Tower is the first to record no serpentine powder at all (Ibid., p. 267); L&P, Vol. 20 (2), 562.
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• V. Biringuccio, op. cit.(52), pp. 225, 241–242; Biringuccio was a native of Siena who cast cannon there and elsewhere, before moving on to take charge of the Papal foundry shortly before his death. He had talked to Alfonso d'Este about gun carriages (p. 317), but it is quite uncertain how much he knew of cannon founding at Ferrara, or Venice, where the author has suggested that straight bore became the practice in all calibres from around 1500.
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• V. Biringuccio, op. cit.(52), p. 418.
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• The best exposition of the significance of the founding of cast-iron ordnance in the Weald in its effect on the European market is given by C. M. Cipolla, op. cit.(35), chapter 1.
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• H. Cleere and D. Crossley, The Iron Industry of the Weald (University Press, Leicester, 1985), pp. 255–258; the Maynard's Gate pit at Rotherfield is possibly to be associated with John Johnson who died at Rotherfield in 1592 (B. G. Awty, 'Aliens in the Ironworking Areas of the Weald: the Subsidy Rolls, 1524-1603', Bulletin of the Wealden Iron Research Group, 2nd series, No. 4 , pp. 54–55); in The Annales Stowe states that he was a covenant servant of Peter Baude, who 'did likewise make and cast yron ordinance, cleaner and to better perfection' than his master; John Johnson's son was the Queen's Gunfounder Thomas Johnson (d. 1596), who was also associated with Maynard's Gate (E. Straker, Wealden Iron (Bell, London, 1931), p. 255); there was also a gun-pit at Batsford furnace contemporary with the one at Maynard's Gate, but of the two pits with pumping apparatus, that at Cowden was possibly later, and that at Pippingford was certainly later than the one at Maynard's Gate (Kritopoulos, C. Ffoulkes, op. cit. (5), p. 13). V. Biringuccio (op. cit. (52), p. 253) seems to be describing an ad hoc arrangement, when he says, 'make a pit or well, however it may be called, in front of the melting furnace, as deep as the length of the mould and so much deeper that . . . there may be an incline', etc. The construction of a permanent wood-lined pit may have been advisable in the Weald, where proximity of the wheel pit of the blast furnace would have caused a high water-table.
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