A Bronze Swivel-Falcone from a 16th-Century Venetian Galleyfound off Candia, Crete

In the garden of the Historical Museum ofHeraklion, in the ancient town of Candia on theisland of Crete, there is exhibited a bronze three-

libbre veneziane1 (Venetian pounds) falcone of Vene-tian production (Fig. 1). It was recovered some yearsago off the coast of Heraklion. Its provenance fromsalt water is confirmed by heavy deterioration of itsiron swivel. Two more Venetian falconi have alsobeen recovered from the sea off Heraklion and arenow exposed on the ground floor of the museum.Because of the presence of scratch marks on thesurface of these guns, we can surmise that they wererecovered from the sea-bed using a grab, but it is notpossible to say if they were found at the same site asthe first falcone.

The falcone exhibited in the museum garden is ofmajor interest because of its iron swivel (forcella)(Fig. 2). Iron swivels were used to aim swivel-guns(petriere da braga, petriere da mascolo and moschetti),that is small ordnance used on the side of ships to shootat short range. This gun provides unique evidence ofthe use of a swivel with a medium/light, muzzle-loadingpiece of artillery, such as a Venetian falcone (Fig. 3).

The piece, having only one reinforce, is 249 cm long.It has a bore diameter of 72 mm and weighs 1086 Vene-tian libbre grosse (518 kg)2, as marked cut into the basering. The button (cul di lampada or pomolo) and the lefttrunnion (orecchione) have been partially cut.

On the chase (volata), in the upper part, a lion, inmoleca (frontal view) appears cast in relief. The presenceof the lion indicates that the weapon was owned by thestate; that is the Republic of Venice (Fig. 4). Under thelion, there is an X which is found on all Venetianordnance made before 1589. It was the mark of theConsiglio dei Dieci (the Council of the Ten) which, until1586-8 (Morin, 2011: 10), appointed the Provveditorealle artiglierie, the magistrate who controlled the pro-duction of the artillery. In 1589, the role passed to theSenate who nominated three Provveditori alle artiglierie(Morin, 2011: 10; ASV, 2013). Below the X, between thetwo rosettes commonly found on Venetian artillery, theletter A preceded perhaps by an S between two morerosettes, can be seen. The letters S (?) and A can beattributed to a member of the Alberghetti family,founders of Venice. The Alberghetti family competedwith the diConti family in the production of bronzeartillery for the Serenissima Republic and signed moreor less half of the Venetian production (Beltrame, 2011:21). The history of various members of these familieshas been collected by Marco Morin (1983) and VictoriaAvery (2003; 2005). Our knowledge of their cannonproduction is being much improved thanks to a projectdesigned to record Venetian artillery conserved inGreece, Turkey and Croatia which the author andMarco Morin are carrying out with funding fromthe Veneto Region. This project has allowed the

Figure 1. The bronze falcone in the garden of the Historical Museum of Heraklion. (Photo: the author)

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discovery and recording of the swivel-falcone found offCandia.

The S, if it is an S, could be attributed to Sigismondothe Second, active from 1566, or to Sigismondo theFirst working in the first half of the 16th century(Morin, 1983: 783). Cannon marked with the letters Sand A are numerous, and in some cases present asimilar aspect. One such can be found in the Navalmuseum of Venice (Angelucci, 1874) and another 14pieces, of various types (falconi, cannoni and colubrine),which were both state and privately owned, areexposed in the Askeri Museum of Istanbul.

Falconi were used both on round ships and galleys.They were generally mounted on the wooden carriagescommonly used with muzzle-loaded ordnance. Writtendocuments and schematic plan drawings inform us thaton Venetian galleys they were placed either on theprow, beside the corsiere (the centreline cannon), ormore often in the stern (Beltrame, 2012: 126–8; Morin,1985: 210). The presence of the winged lion demon-strates that the falcone of Candia was aboard amilitary, state-owned ship and provides uniquearchaeological evidence of the use of swivels instead ofcarriages to hold this kind of gun on Venetian galleys.

Use of these guns on swivel mounts was notcommon to all the fleets; for example, it was not usedaboard the Genoese galleys (pers. comm. RenatoGianni Ridella).

Iconography is a poor source for evidence of artil-lery aboard galleys of this era, but a copy of one

Figure 2. Drawing of the falcone. (Drawing: S. Zanetto)

Figure 3. Reconstruction of the iron swivel on the falcone. (Drawing: S. Zanetto)

Figure 4. Detail of the decorations on the falcone (lion, theX between rosettes and an A, and perhaps an S, betweenother rosettes). (Author)

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427© 2013 The Author. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology © 2013 The Nautical Archaeology Society

engraving, conserved in the Correr Museum inVenice, (now unobtainable, Levi, 1892; pl. 22),reveals an important detail (Fig. 5). The side ord-nance (each side of the corsiere) have their muzzles(bocca) elevated; mounted on a traditional carriagethey would not have been able to be elevated in thismanner; indeed, the corsiere which was mounted on acarriage without wheels to allow it a long recoil along

the corsia, appears as usual in a horizontal positionand the ability to raise the muzzle is limited. A tech-nical solution like this could also have been usedaboard the galleys of the Vatican State, as is evidentin an engraving conserved at the University of Liègeby Frans Huys (Dutch, 1522–1562) after PieterBruegel the Elder (Dutch, 1526–1569) an artist whohad an excellent reputation for naval drawings, inwhich prow-views of two galleys within a fleet areportrayed (Orenstein, 2001: 214–5) (Fig. 6a). Theimage, dated 1561–1562, provides details of how theswivels were mounted, at least on galleys belonging tothe Pope. They sat atop square wooden pillars whichmust have been joined to the base of the hull. I haverecently discovered a reference to iron swivels(forcelle di ferro) with muzzle-loading guns (sagri)aboard 16th-century Venetian galleys in the Dellamilizia marittima, libri quattro, di Cristoforo Canale(Nani Mocenigo, 1930: 84–5), written between the1553 and 1554 by a Venetian admiral. It gives aprecise description of the wooden supports (parettoli),in which the swivels were inserted, as seen in Brue-gel’s print (Fig. 6b). The advantage of the swivel-gunsis obvious: they allowed weapons to be aimed in alldirections, including downwards. During close-rangebattles this would have allowed shots to be fired on tothe deck of the enemy ship from above. However,swivels could only be mounted on guns of limiteddimensions with limited recoil. The falcone of Candiademonstrates that swivels could be used on largerpieces than simple breech-loading swivel guns (petri-ere) and muzzle-loaded guns.

Some practical questions are raised by this evi-dence which might only be solved through experimen-tation. What were the forces and stresses involved in

Figure 5. A Venetian galley from an engraving conserved inthe Museo Correr of Venice. (Levi, 1892, pl. 22 )

Figure 6. a)Fleet of Galleys Escorted by a Caravel from The Sailing Vessels by Frans Huys (1522–1562) after Pieter Bruegel theElder (1526–1569) conserved at the University of Liège; 6b) Detail of the gun pillars. (With permission of CollectionsArtistiques de l’Université de Liège)

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firing a gun of these dimensions? Considering that afalcone had a greater powder charge and was longerthan the petriera, how could a simple iron swivelcarry the force of recoil of a piece of these dimen-sions? Considering that the petriera was handledusing a long iron tiller (coda) which gave greaterleverage and allowed the gunner to keep his distancewhen firing, how was it possible to manoeuvre andhandle a piece without a similar element? With a gunof this weight and length it would be difficult andhazardous to hold the gun during firing; did thegunner set it in position and then fasten it in someunknown way before firing? Could even bigger

muzzle-loaders have been mounted in this way and, ifso, what was the ultimate limit?

Finally this ordnance is important not only for thetechnical military aspect, but also because it is rarearchaeological evidence of the presence off Heraklionof a 16th-century Venetian galley still waiting to bediscovered.

Carlo BeltrameDipartimento di Studi Umanistici,

Università Ca’ Foscari VeneziaDorsoduro, 3484/D 30123 Venezia, Italy

Endnotes1. The libbra grossa veneziana corresponded to 0.477 kg.2. The cast-iron shots were measured in Venetian libbre sottili (0.301kg); the falcons were tested with a 3-libbre lead ball but

they employed effectively a 2-libbre iron ball.

AcknowledgmentsI would like to thank Marco Morin and Renato Gianni Ridella for their kind help and the Direction of the Historical Museumof Heraklion for the permission to document this arm.

ReferencesAngelucci, A., 1874, I cannoni veneti di Famagosta. L’armeria dell’Arsenale ed il Museo Civico di Venezia. Lettera al

chiarissimo signore Giambattista cav. di Sardegna, Archivio Veneto VIII.1, 1–5.ASV, 2013, Unpublished document in the Archivo di Stato di Venezia, Segretario Alle Voci, Elezioni in Sanato, Reg. 6, 2013.Avery, V. J., 2003, State and Private Bronze Foundries in Cinquecento Venice: New Light on the Alberghetti and di Conti

Workshop, in P. Motture (ed.), Large Bronzes in the Renaissance, New Haven-London, 241–75.Avery, V., 2005, ‘Giovene di spirito et d’ingegno’: New Light on the Life and Work of the Venetian Renaissance Bronze Caster

Marcantonio di Niccolò di Conti (1576–1638), in M. Gaier, B. Nicolai, T. Weddigen (eds), Der Unbestechliche Blick.Festschrift zu Ehren von zu seinem siebzigsten Geburtstag. Lo sguardo incorruttibile. Studi di storia dell’arte in onore diWolfgang Wolters in occasione del settantesimo compleanno, Trier, 438–63.

Beltrame, C., 2011, Venetian Ordnance in the Shipwrecks of the Mediterranean and Atlantic Seas, in C. Beltrame, R. G. Ridella(eds), Ships and Guns. The sea ordnance in Venice and in Europe between the 15th and the 17th centuries, Oxford,12–22.

Beltrame, C., 2012, Artiglierie navali veneziane al tempo della battaglia di Lepanto, in Oltre Lepanto. Dallo scontro di ieriall’intesa di oggi, Trento, 125–45.

Levi, C. A., 1892, Navi venete da codici marmi e dipinti, Venice.Morin, M., 1983, Entry Alberghetti, in Allgemeines Künstler-lexicon, vol I, Leipzig, 779–84.Morin, M., 1985, La battaglia di Lepanto, in Venezia e i Turchi, Milan, 210–31.Morin, M., 2011, Morphology and constructive techniques of Venetian artilleries in the 16th and 17th centuries: some notes, in

C. Beltrame, R. G. Ridella (eds), Ships and Guns. The sea ordnance in Venice and in Europe between the 15th and the 17thcenturies, Oxford, 1–11.

Nani Mocenigo, M., 1930, Della milizia marittima, libri quattro, di Cristoforo Canale, Roma.Orenstein, N. M., 2001, ed., Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints, New Haven.

Three Boats from Northern Russia in Norwegian Museums

The boats presented in this paper have threethings in common. They are quite exotic whencompared to the majority of ‘museum boats’ in

Norway, they all show a logboat relationship, and theycome from Northern Russia or Siberia. I dedicate thepaper to the memory of Ole Crumlin-Pedersen, closefriend, good colleague and intellectual sparring partner

for more than 50 years, who wrote wisely on the rela-tionship between logboats and plank-built craft.

The boat shown in Figures 1 and 2 has been inBergen Museum for a long time, to judge from thespelling on the two labels fastened to it. They read‘Elvebaad fra Dvina’ (River boat from Dvina) and‘Baad fra de Ostindiske Øer’ (Boat from the East

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