Late Gothic Crossbows and Accouterments

[Matchlock]

Having just read the 1934 essay by Julius Bielz on the Hermannstadt crossbows, I would like to know whether there is someone interested in a translation. Although this would be some amount of work I would do it as there are a number of invaluable quotations from historic sources, including workshops etc., plus information on where and when these crossbows were made. He also gives a very detailed description and measurements of the best preserved sample.

I have also been informed that a large number of those originally 25 crossbows that Bielz mentions are no longer in Sibiu but have been in the National Museum Budapest, Hungary, for at least 20 years when they were sent there for a special historic exhibition. Why they were not returned I do not know. In his essay, Bielz mentions the fact that 8 Gothic crossbows from Hermannstadt were already in the Budapest museum by 1934.


m