Editing Cannon (section)

===Western Europe===
{{main|Gunpowder artillery in the Middle Ages}}
[[Image:EarlyCannonDeNobilitatibusSapientiiEtPrudentiisRegumManuscriptWalterdeMilemete1326.jpg|thumb|Earliest picture of a European cannon, "De Nobilitatibus Sapientii Et Prudentiis Regum", [[Walter de Milemete]], 1326]]
[[Image:HandBombardWesternEurope1380.jpg|thumb|Western European handgun, 1380]]
[[File:Siege orleans.jpg|thumb|The first Western image of a battle with cannon: the [[siege of Orléans]] in 1429]]
[[File:Šibenik - topovi.jpg|thumb|Cannon from the 15th century at [[Šibenik]] city walls]]

Outside of China, the earliest texts to mention gunpowder are [[Roger Bacon]]'s {{lang|la|[[Opus Majus]]}} (1267) and {{lang|la|Opus Tertium}} in what has been interpreted as references to [[firecracker]]s. In the early 20th century, a British artillery officer proposed that [[Roger Bacon#Other attributed works|another work tentatively attributed to Bacon]], {{lang|la|Epistola de Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae, et de Nullitate Magiae}}, dated to 1247, contained an encrypted formula for gunpowder hidden in the text. These claims have been disputed by science historians.<ref name="NeedhamLu1987">{{cite book|author1=Joseph Needham|author2=Gwei-Djen Lu|author3=Ling Wang|title=Science and civilisation in China |volume=5 |pages=48–50|year=1987|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-30358-3}}</ref> In any case, the formula itself is not useful for firearms or even firecrackers, burning slowly and producing mostly smoke.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Joseph Needham|author2=Gwei-Djen Lu|author3=Ling Wang|title=Science and civilisation in China |volume=5 |at=Part 7, p. 358|year=1987|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-30358-3}}</ref><ref>Bert S. Hall, "Introduction, 1999" p. xxiv to the reprinting of {{cite book|author=James Riddick Partington|title=A history of Greek fire and gunpowder|year=1960|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-5954-0|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofgreekfi00part}}</ref>

There is a record of a gun in Europe dating to 1322 that was discovered in the nineteenth century, but the artifact has since been lost.{{sfn|Andrade|2016|p=334}} The earliest known European depiction of a gun appeared in 1326 in a manuscript by [[Walter de Milemete]], although not necessarily drawn by him, known as {{lang|la|De Nobilitatibus, sapientii et prudentiis regum}} (''Concerning the Majesty, Wisdom, and Prudence of Kings''), which displays a gun with a large arrow emerging from it and its user lowering a long stick to ignite the gun through the touch hole.{{sfn|Kelly|2004|p=29}}{{sfn|Andrade|2016|p=76}} In the same year, another similar illustration showed a darker gun being set off by a group of knights, in another work of de Milemete's, {{lang|la|De secretis secretorum Aristotelis}}.{{sfn|Andrade|2016|pp=76, 335}} On 11 February of that same year, the [[Signoria]] of [[Florence]] appointed two officers to obtain {{lang|it|canones de mettallo}} and ammunition for the town's defense.{{sfn|Crosby|2002|p=120}} In the following year a document from the Turin area recorded a certain amount was paid "for the making of a certain instrument or device made by Friar Marcello for the projection of pellets of lead".{{sfn|Andrade|2016|p=76}} A reference from 1331 describes an attack mounted by two Germanic knights on [[Cividale del Friuli]], using man-portable gunpowder weapons of some sort.{{sfn|Kelly|2004|p=29}}{{sfn|Andrade|2016|p=76}} The 1320s seem to have been the takeoff point for guns in Europe according to most modern military historians. Scholars suggest that the lack of gunpowder weapons in a well-traveled Venetian's catalogue for a new crusade in 1321 implies that guns were unknown in Europe up until this point, further solidifying the 1320 mark, however more evidence in this area may be forthcoming in the future.{{sfn|Andrade|2016|p=76}}

The oldest extant cannon in Europe is a small bronze example unearthed in Loshult, [[Scania]] in southern Sweden.<ref>Roger Pauly (2004). ''Firearms: the Life Story of a Technology''. Greenwood Press. {{ISBN|0-313-32796-3}} p. 21</ref> It dates from the early-mid 14th century,<ref>Kevin Dockery (2007). ''Stalkers and Shooters: A History of Snipers''. Berkley {{ISBN|0-425-21542-3}}</ref> and is currently in the [[Swedish History Museum]] in Stockholm.

Early cannons in Europe often shot arrows and were known by an assortment of names such as {{lang|fr|[[pot-de-fer]]}}, {{lang|fr|tonnoire}}, ''ribaldis'', and {{lang|gmh<!--guessing: Middle High German-->|büszenpyle}}. The ''ribaldis'', which shot large arrows and simplistic [[grapeshot]], were first mentioned in the [[Wardrobe (government)|English Privy Wardrobe]] accounts during preparations for the [[Battle of Crécy]], between 1345 and 1346.<ref name="Nicolle">{{cite book|last=Nicolle|first=David|year=2000|title=Crécy 1346: Triumph of the Longbow|publisher=[[Osprey Publishing]]|isbn=978-1-85532-966-9|page=21}}</ref> The Florentine [[Giovanni Villani]] recounts their destructiveness, indicating that by the end of the battle, "the whole plain was covered by men struck down by arrows and cannon balls".<ref name="Nicolle" /> Similar cannon were also used at the [[siege of Calais (1346–47)]], although it was not until the 1380s that the ''ribaudekin'' clearly became mounted on wheels.<ref name="Nicolle"/>

The [[Battle of Crecy]] which pitted the English against the French in 1346 featured the early use of cannon which helped the [[longbow]]men repulse a large force of Genoese crossbowmen deployed by the French. The English originally intended to use the cannon against cavalry sent to attack their archers, thinking that the loud noises produced by their cannon would panic the advancing horses along with killing the knights atop them.<ref name=":0">{{Harvnb|Andrade|2016}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2020}}

Early cannons could also be used for more than simply killing men and scaring horses. English cannon were used defensively in 1346 during the [[siege of Breteuil]] to launch fire onto an advancing [[siege tower]]. In this way, cannons could be used to burn down siege equipment before it reached the fortifications. The use of cannons to shoot fire could also be used offensively as another battle involved the setting of a [[castle]] ablaze with similar methods. The particular incendiary used in these projectiles was most likely a gunpowder mixture. This is one area where early Chinese and European cannons share a similarity as both were possibly used to shoot fire.<ref name=":0" />

Another aspect of early European cannons is that they were rather small, dwarfed by the bombards, which would come later. In fact, it is possible that the cannons used at Crécy were capable of being moved rather quickly as there is an anonymous chronicle that notes the guns being used to attack the French camp, indicating that they would have been mobile enough to press the attack. These smaller cannons would eventually give way to larger, wall-breaching guns by the end of the 1300s.<ref name=":0" />