content_output-058_8 (Q6335)

Paul Jove, a historian contemporary with Charles VIII., and who chronicles the campaign of that monarch in Italy, says that the falcons and cannon of smaller calibre fired leaden bullets containing “bloqueraulx,” or thimbles of iron. / Explosive bombs, or “grenades,” appear to have been first used by the Germans. They consisted of hollow metal balls filled with fine gunpowder; the ball was surrounded by a slow-burning coat, and the whole contained in a case, the inflammable coat