The Crossbow

Its Military and Sporting History, Construction and Use

What the book really is

The Crossbow: Its Military and Sporting History, Construction and Use is best understood as a single-subject deep dive. It is not simply a history of medieval warfare, and it is not merely a manual of construction. It is a hybrid book that brings together four different ambitions: historical explanation, comparative weapons study, mechanical analysis, and practical object-focused documentation. The preface states the project very clearly. Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey says he has endeavoured to describe the history, mechanism, and manipulation of the crossbow in medieval and modern, military and sporting forms. That sentence gives the whole book its identity.

One striking thing in the preface is the author’s sense that the subject had been neglected. He says that although many books and essays deal exhaustively with the longbow, the crossbow had not previously been treated except in a cursory way by writers on medieval armour and weapons. He even says he could not discover, in any language, a work exclusively devoted to the crossbow. That claim explains the unusual thoroughness of the book. It is not trying to be one chapter in a larger weapons survey. It is trying to be the book on the crossbow.

The result, at least from the pages visible here, is a work that treats the crossbow almost like a civilization-sized subject. It begins with military and sporting history, then moves into exact mechanisms and types, then into modern target and sporting variants, and finally into siege engines that may have suggested the crossbow’s invention. That last move is especially revealing. Payne-Gallwey does not think narrowly. He sees the crossbow as part of a broader history of projectile technology, and he wants the reader to see those connections too.

Target audience & context

The intended audience is clearly not casual. This is a book for readers who are genuinely interested in weapons history, historical technology, or the material culture of arms. The preface already suggests that much by emphasizing mechanism and manipulation. The contents confirm it. Chapters are not just about broad themes like war or hunting. They are about precise mechanisms and forms: the primitive crossbow, composite bows, the revolving nut, trigger and lock, the steel bow, bow-irons, the groove for the bolt, the bow-string, the windlass, the cranequin, stonebows, target crossbows, and Belgian sporting models. A reader who does not enjoy that level of specificity is not the ideal reader.

At the same time, the book is not only for engineers or craftsmen. It is also for museum-minded readers and military historians. The contents begin with a long historical section comparing the crossbow with the longbow, shortbow, and handgun, and later chapters include crossbowmen of Dresden, notes on continental companies of crossbowmen, the Chinese repeating crossbow, and arrow-throwing. The illustrations pages also show period scenes of hunting, mounted crossbowmen, target shooting, popinjay competition, and civic companies of crossbowmen. So the audience includes anyone who wants to understand the social life of the crossbow as well as its parts.

The publication context is also interesting. This 2007 Merlin Unwin Books edition republishes a work by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, a figure associated with an older tradition of technical antiquarian scholarship. You can feel that immediately in the tone. The preface is formal and object-centered. The contents are long, exact, and methodical. The book belongs to a style of historical writing that values deep familiarity with artifacts, mechanisms, and surviving examples. That gives it a distinctive flavour compared with newer academic books that might emphasize broader social interpretation.

Writing style & readability

From the preface, the writing style appears formal, deliberate, and unapologetically specialized. Payne-Gallwey writes in a stately, confident way. He contrasts the longbow and the crossbow, notes the artistic and mechanical refinement of medieval crossbows, and argues for the importance of including ancient siege engines. This is not breezy prose. It is the voice of someone who feels responsibility for preserving and explaining a neglected body of knowledge.

That said, the contents show that the book is carefully organized, which probably helps readability enormously. Instead of dumping information in an undifferentiated mass, the author has broken the subject into very specific topics. A reader can move from the military crossbow to the sporting crossbow, then to bolts, then to range, then to comparison with the longbow and handgun. In the construction sections, the chapters narrow even further, step by step, into parts and mechanisms. This kind of granularity can make a dense subject easier to learn because the reader always knows exactly what the current topic is.

The tradeoff is obvious. This is not likely to be a smooth narrative read for someone who wants a fast-moving story. It appears much more reference-like than dramatic. The sheer specificity of chapters on the bridle of sinew, the revolving nut, the groove for the bolt, the bastard string, the cranequin, and the sighting systems means the book will reward patient interest rather than casual curiosity. That is not a flaw. It is simply the nature of a technical classic.

Structure & learning logic

The structure is one of the book’s most impressive features. The contents divide the work into four large parts, and each part has a clear purpose. Part I is the historical and comparative section. It begins with the military crossbow and the sporting crossbow, then moves through general dimensions, the bolts used, the weapon’s range, and comparisons with the longbow, shortbow, and handgun, before concluding with a summary history. This is a smart start because it gives the reader the why of the subject before moving into the how.

Part II then turns to the construction and management of medieval crossbows. Here the contents become intensely mechanical. The reader is taken through primitive wooden bows, composite bows, ways of fixing the bow to the stock, how the bolt is placed, multiple methods of bending the bow, the transition to steel bows, the structure of the stock, the revolving nut, trigger and lock, bow-irons, stirrups, bow-string fitting, windlasses, cranequins, stonebows, and sixteenth- to eighteenth-century sporting and target crossbows. This is not just a chapter or two on how a crossbow works. It is a system of classification and explanation.

Part III moves into modern crossbows, especially bullet-shooting and target forms, with further attention to locks, sights, bow-strings, large continental target crossbows, Belgian target types, and actual methods of bending and managing them. This suggests that the author does not want the crossbow frozen in the Middle Ages. He wants to show its continuing life as a sporting and technical object.

Part IV is perhaps the most unusual part of the whole book: a treatise on ancient and medieval siege engines used for discharging great stones and arrows. This section includes introductory notes, antiquity of ballistas and catapults, effects in warfare, throwing distances, and chapters on the catapult, ballista, trebuchet, and spring engine. The preface explains why this is here: some ancient siege engines resemble a crossbow and are supposed to have suggested its invention. That is a bold and interesting structural choice. It turns the book from a weapon monograph into a wider reflection on the genealogy of projectile machines.

Visual style of the book

One of the strongest signals in these opening pages is how visually rich the book is. The illustration lists occupy many pages and include not only technical diagrams but also period images, hunting scenes, mounted crossbowmen, sporting scenes, parts breakdowns, locks, sights, bolts, cranequins, windlasses, Belgian target crossbows, popinjay scenes, civic medals, Chinese repeating crossbows, and siege machines. That is an enormous range of visual support.

This matters because a subject like the crossbow is very hard to understand purely in abstract verbal description. The lists show that Payne-Gallwey knew that. He includes object views, sectional views, side views, surface views, and working positions. In other words, the book is teaching through diagrams as much as through prose. That makes it much more useful than a book that only narrated history without showing how the mechanisms actually looked and operated.

The cover of this edition also captures the book well. It combines historical imagery with technical line drawings and mechanisms. That is exactly what the book itself seems to do: place the crossbow simultaneously in the world of warfare, sport, art, and engineering. Even before opening it, the design tells the reader that this is a book about objects, systems, and history all at once.

Strengths

The biggest strength is obvious: focus. Books this narrowly dedicated to one historical weapon are rare, and the preface makes clear that Payne-Gallwey knew he was filling a gap. That focus gives the book an authority and seriousness that broad surveys often lack. It appears to be the work of someone who wanted to gather everything worth knowing about the crossbow into one place.

A second strength is its combination of history and mechanics. Many books would choose one or the other. This book appears to insist on both. The reader is given military history, sporting history, comparison with other weapons, object classification, mechanism design, and visual anatomy. That makes it useful both as a historical study and as a technical reference.

A third strength is the illustration program. Judging by the long illustration lists, the book is far more than a text block. It is a documented visual archive. For a subject like this, that is a major asset. The reader is not left to imagine what a goat’s-foot lever, cranequin, revolving nut, or Belgian target crossbow might look like. The book appears determined to show them.

A fourth strength is the surprising breadth within the narrow subject. The book does not stop at medieval warfare. It ranges into hunting, sporting traditions, civic target shooting companies, modern bullet crossbows, Belgian competitive forms, Chinese repeating crossbows, and ancient siege engines. That makes the crossbow feel not like a dead artifact, but like a long technological and cultural tradition.

Weaknesses

The first weakness is the same as the book’s great strength: specialization. Readers looking for broader social history, battlefield narrative, or general medieval context may find the book too object-centered. Its emphasis appears to fall more on the weapon than on the surrounding society.

A second weakness is likely density. The contents alone suggest a heavy level of detail. This is wonderful for a committed reader and less inviting for someone who mainly wants a brisk introduction. A book with chapters this exact is almost certainly more reference tool than casual read.

A third weakness is perspective. Because the visible pages reflect an older antiquarian approach, the book probably gives less attention to questions a newer historian might emphasize, such as social class, logistics, production systems, gendered uses of weapons, or the broader political and economic meanings of crossbow culture. It appears much more devoted to mechanism, form, and comparative utility.

Strange / unusual points

The most unusual feature is Part IV. Very few books with this title would add a full treatise on catapults, ballistas, trebuchets, and spring engines. That tells you something important about Payne-Gallwey’s imagination. He sees the crossbow as part of a larger family of machines rather than as an isolated weapon.

Another distinctive point is how much space the book seems to give to sporting and civic traditions. The contents and illustration pages include popinjay shooting, Belgian target crossbows, companies of crossbowmen, medals, and target apparatus. That widens the subject beyond warfare and makes the crossbow part of leisure culture and organized shooting life.

A third unusual aspect is the balance between artistry and mechanics in the preface. Payne-Gallwey explicitly contrasts the longbow as a simple stave with the crossbow as an object that gave the artist, engraver, inlayer, and mechanic great scope for talent. That is a memorable way to frame a weapon: not just as an instrument of force, but as a site of craft and design.

What the reader actually gains

A reader who works through this book should gain several kinds of understanding at once. First, they should get a historical map of how the crossbow functioned in military and sporting settings across medieval and later Europe, with some global extensions. Second, they should gain a technical grasp of how many types of crossbows were built, bent, aimed, and managed. Third, they should acquire a visual vocabulary for parts, mechanisms, and related machines.

They also gain a way of thinking about weapons historically as designed objects. This is one of the book’s deeper values. It seems to teach that a weapon is not only a thing that kills or hunts. It is also a crafted mechanism shaped by materials, skill, purpose, and cultural setting. That is a richer understanding than simple military narrative gives.

My judgment

My judgment is positive. Based on the preface, contents, and illustration pages visible in this edition, The Crossbow looks like a serious, unusually comprehensive classic on a narrow but fascinating subject. Its focus is intense, its structure is strong, and its visual and mechanical detail appear exceptional.

Its limits are also clear: it is highly specialized, probably dense, and more interested in the object itself than in wider cultural interpretation. But those are understandable limits for a book trying to be definitive about one weapon and its family of related machines. For readers seriously interested in the crossbow, it appears to be a valuable and distinctive work.

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