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History => Ancient and Medieval History => Topic started by: Dangun on April 06, 2017, 10:29:06 AM

Title: Translation of Spingarde
Post by: Dangun on April 06, 2017, 10:29:06 AM
I know its slightly out of our period, but...

I was reading something from about 1718, describing Tibetan soldiers.
In the original Italian the word used was 'spingarde', but it was translated as musket.
I thought they were quite different, and that spingarde would have been almost archaic by the 18th century and so very likely means spingarde rather than musket.

Any thoughts?
Title: Re: Translation of Spingarde
Post by: Duncan Head on April 06, 2017, 10:36:31 AM
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spingarda suggests that "spingarde" originally meant springald, but came to be used for firearms from at least Leonardo da Vinci's day. Might mean something like a wall-gun or a jezail rather than a musket, perhaps?
Title: Re: Translation of Spingarde
Post by: Mick Hession on April 06, 2017, 03:07:49 PM
Something like this, perhaps? I remember seeing something similar in 19th century photos of Tibetans, though the guns then were matchlocks, IIRC.   

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQgDnFJmKi2JndOXMCYIJ9Qb7wo1M82WnYIrKgAODsEr2zLR0U3

Cheers
Mick