Medieval Italian Recurve

[GrahameA]

Good Afternoon All

A quick intro - I like all archery. I think that says it all.

Bede suggested I pose this question here.

I originally posted this question on Ozbow:

http://www.ozbow.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.p ... 6320be85b4
And whilst I have had some helpful replies I still have not had my original questions answered.

An image of this type of bow can be seen roughly 1/2 way down this page.

http://www.krackow.com/westerneurope.html

labelled - ‘Renaissance’ Recurved Longbow'

"Inspired by bows used by the Italian armies in the 14th and 15th centuries (documented by Alessio Cenni). 68" for draws up to 27" and 70" for draws up to 29" Exotic dark hardwood core sandwiched between laminations of light colored wood such as lemon wood. Made by Hilary Greenland of Sylvan Archery"

Good Afternoon All

I came across a reference to Italian recurves (Longbows) of 14C and 15C recently. And there is a illustration of them on the front of book by Alessio Cenni.

They appear to be a longbow with a recurved end.

Did a search for Alessio Cenni on both Altavis and Google and all the links to his site appear to be dead.

2 Questions

Does anyone have a reference to original images of these bows.

Does anyone know of a link to Alessio Cenni.

I am interested in building one but I need someting to go off.

[Andrew Hall]

Try "Wooden Bows in Medieval Italy" by Alessio Cenni, Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries, 1996, Volume 39, pages 50-51. This illustrates some self-yew longbows with recurved tips in 14-15th century paintings.

Regards

Andrew

[amatuccio]

Alessio Cenni draws their ipothesis on the basis of
italian Renaissance frescos. Those depicte differents
bow forms: some ones similar to longbows, others ones to
composite bows, and finally others that seems to be
wooden bows maybe curved an reflexed with fire.

[GrahameA]

Good Morning All

Andrew wrote

Try "Wooden Bows in Medieval Italy" by Alessio Cenni, Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries, 1996, Volume 39, pages 50-51. This illustrates some self-yew longbows with recurved tips in 14-15th century paintings.

Thank you for the reply. Next issue will be to get a copy.

If you wish to have a look at the comments on Ozbow site you will see that there has been a bit of a discusiion over those tips. It would be reasonable to say that opinion is split between:

• those who think they enlarged nocks
  those who think they are recurved tips and
  those who are undecided.

amatuccio wrote

Alessio Cenni draws their ipothesis on the basis of
italian Renaissance frescos. Those depicte differents
bow forms: some ones similar to longbows, others ones to
composite bows, and finally others that seems to be
wooden bows maybe curved an reflexed with fire.

Thank you for that . I will see what I can find on the net and elsewhere amongst the frescoes.

Carpuccio's painting shows what appears to a be compsite recurve.

http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/c/carpac ... rtyr.html

Now all I need to do is find some appropriate image of a "longbow" that has had the tips recurved.

If anyone does know of any images etc. Please send me a PM.

[jack farrell]

There is a guru of longbows in England who writes for their Glade magazine on this type topic. I think that his traditional long bow holds the world record for the distance shot of a heavy war arrow.

To help confuse you, a yew bow is sometimes shown to have both sap wood and heartwood in artwork and could be confused with a laminated bow. Please don't post that fiberglass was not to be had in the Middle ages until you look up the word laminated. -j-

[GrahameA]

Afternoon All

I was browsing the forum for some other information and stumbled across one of my own posts. Some people may be interested on how things turned out.

A "Thank You" to Bede for his help.

Well this is the bow. The working section of the bow has 3 laminations of Hard Rock Maple with a veneer each side of Tasmanian Blackwood under clear glass. The ends of the limbs have overlays of clear glass and that has sufficiently stiffened them that they are non-working and act like Siyahs. The handle is Beefwood with Purpleheart highlight strips. Bow weight is 45lb at 28" and it has 1/16" of tiller. At the moment there is no shelf and it is shooting fine with nil shock.

If you want to read more about the bow have a look at:
http://www.ozbow.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=8614

[JJ]

Grahame,

I think you talk about a late medieval to 19th century bow type sometimes referred to as "Burgundian Longbow". Its basically a longbow with a slightly set-back handle section and recurved tips. There?s a thread on the Society of archer antiquaries board on this subject.

I?ve seen some examples of these bows in Switzerland and in Southern Germany. There are also some in french museums.

The bows I?ve seen were made from laburnum wood, which, with the sapwood on, can be mistaken for yew. 19th century bows are spliced in the handle, as long straight pieces of laburnum are hard to find.



The recurved ends are equipped with long, narrow nocks of antler, which is quite beautiful.



The grips are of rounded section, the limbs somehow flat, while the recurved ends are circular in cross section again.

JJ

[GrahameA]

Good Morning JJ

Not a Burgundian Longbow. Although I love the look of the Burgundian - hmm another project.

There was an article some time ago in the Journal of the Society of Archer Antiquaries regarding the work of Alessio Cenni and that is what the bow is based on.