rs. A
typical Spanish cannon was only about two-thirds as long as a
culverin, and the bore walls were thinner. Naturally, the powder
charge was also reduced (half the ball's weight for a common cannon,
while a culverin took double that amount).

The Germans made their light cannon 18 calibers long. Most Spanish
siege and battering guns had this same proportion, for a shorter gun
would not burn all the powder efficiently, "which," said Collado, "is
a most grievous fault." However, small cannon of 18-caliber length
were too short; the muzzle blast tended to destroy the embrasure of
the parapet. For this reason, Spanish demicannon were as long as 24
calibers and the quarter-cannon ran up to 28. The 12-pounder
quarter-cannon, incidentally, was "culverined" or reinforced so that
it actually served in the field as a demiculverin.

The great weight of its projectile gave the double cannon its name.
The warden of the Castillo at Milan had some 130-pounders made, but
such huge pieces were of little use, except in permanent
fortifications. It took a huge crew to move them, their carriages
broke under the concentrated weight, and they consumed mountains of
munitions. The lombard, which apparently originated in Lombardy, and
the basilisk had the same disadvantages. The fabled basilisk was a
serpent whose very look was fatal. Its namesake in bronze was
tremendously heavy, with walls up to 4 calibers thick and a bore up to
30 calibers long. It was seldom used by the Europeans, but the Turkish
General Mustafa had a pair of basilisks at the siege of Malta, in
1565, that fired 150- and 200-pound balls. The 200-pounder gun broke
loose as it was being transferred to a homeward bound galley and sank
permanently to the bottom of the sea. Its mate was left on the island,
where it became an object of great curiosity.

The third class of ordnance included the guns firing stone
projectiles, such as the pedrero (or perrier, petrary, cannon petro,
etc.), the mortars, and the old bombards like Edinburgh Castle's
famous Mons Meg. Bars of wrought iron were welded together to form
Meg's tube, and iron rings were clamped around the outside of the
piece. In spite of many accidents, this coopering technique persisted
through the fifteenth century. Mons Meg was made in two sections that
screwed together, forming a piece 13 feet long and 5 tons in weight.

Pedreros (fig. 23c) were comparatively light. The foundryman used only
half the metal he would