Bombardier stilettos

[Matchlock]

With about all having been said and considered, I am afraid that I will not be able to contribute substantially. Artillery is just not sufficiently covered by my expertise but I finally did manage to find some more illustrations.

Unfortunately they cannot shed new light either on the discussion whether the numeric scales on gunners' stilettoes etc. refer to caliber or cannon adjustment. Literature seems to be very vague on these issues. About all I could find seems to prove that Jim is absolutely right in postulating an Italian provenance for gunners' stilettoes in general.

The caption to the stiletto below just notes 'stiletto with artillery scale, Venice, ca. 1670'.

I add some original illustrative sources on the use of artillery quadrants and other measuring methods, though.

Best,
Michael