The Firearm Revolution - From Renaissance Italy to the European E...

The Firearm Revolution: From Renaissance Italy to the European Empires

https://WebToolTip.com

English | April 14, 2026 | ISBN: 0691272670 | True EPUB | 352 pages | 122 MB

A groundbreaking account of how firearms changed Europe and the world

In Renaissance Italy, the gun was not only a tool of war but also a desirable object, a luxury item carried at court. Guns were in use on the battlefield by 1440; later in that century Leonardo da Vinci sketched a design for a faster-firing, more portable handgun that could be hidden beneath a cloak. As the gun proliferated in society, it became both a means of self-defence and a threat to civic order. In The Firearm Revolution, historian Catherine Fletcher explores the emergence of firearms in Renaissance Italy and beyond, describing the social transformations that accompanied the evolution of the handgun from innovative military technology to widely used personal accessory.