Introducing the Balestrino
So one of the tropes of fantasy films, computer games and RPG's is the
Pistol Crossbow. A nifty device to be sure. The question is, did these weapons actually have any basis in fact?
The internet is flooded with modern toys like this
and completely useless fake "antiques" like this
...which look sort of cool the (first time you see one) in a steampunk kind of way but are not based on anything remotely real.
But perhaps surprisingly, there actually does exist a small pistol sized crossbow which showed up during the Renaissance in Europe, mostly in Italy, and can still be found today on some auction sites now and again.
They are called by different names but most commonly something like "Balestrino", possibly named after a town in Italy where they may have been made or used. Here are some examples of antiques:
And here is a modern good quality reproduction from Todds Stuff in the UK
Balestrino Crossbow | Tod's Stuff
So the question is, what are these? Well first of all they do have one feature that differentiates from modern 'safety-last' toys and non functional steampunk replicas. Like most Renaissance or medieval crossbows, these Balestrino had a much heavier draw weight than their modern equivalent. That is because with a short bow and a narrow spanning distance, you need a lot of power to make a projectile move at a useful speed. So to span these, you have to turn a screw, which you will notice as something like a butterfly wingnut on the two antiques above. This allowed you to gradually span the weapon without having to exert the two or three hundred pounds of pressure required to pull the string back (something most men could not easily do then as now).
There are rumors in the historical record that these were used as assassination weapons, which is a rather titilating idea. In spite of the more powerful prods however, most people today who know about such things consider the Balestrino a mere toy. The argument is, why would a real assassin use such a relatively weak, and expensive (since most surviving Balestrino bows are made with rare materials and workmanship) weapon instead of something cheaper and more effective. Like say, a knife or a pistol since these crossbows appeared contemporaneously with firearms.
A reasonable argument to be sure.
But I'm going to kind of go against the grain on this one, I don't want to say definitively because I have never handled let alone shot an antique, but I think these things
were possibly used for assassinations.
You have to keep in mind a couple of things. The first is about Renaissance Italy. Assassinations were not just the vocation of the kind of low level professional criminals we think of today who would pull a hit on somebody, but the hobby of high ranking aristocrats, patrician burghers and even members of the College of Cardinals all of whom assassinated one another fairly routinely in the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries.
Hence we have very nice rings and broaches from the Renaissance which were made with compartments for poison or drugs, beautifully wrought stilettos galore, and perhaps these little 'toys' as well.
Second, like some other folks in this thread I've played around a bit with modern toy crossbows. A cheap 80 lb draw "pistol" crossbow probably qualifies as a lethal weapon only against maybe rats, or possibly small birds. It just isn't powerful enough to hurt a grown man unless you were extremely lucky. In other words definitely a toy. A rather dangerous (to the user) 180 lb draw pistol crossbow that I had for a while on the other hand would shoot these crappy aluminum bolts halfway through a two inch thick oak door I had in my yard from about 20' away (and always ruin the bolts). I think that would indeed be enough to kill someone, or cause a serious life threatening injury, if you used needle like steel bolts and hit them say in the neck or the face. I would think a toy could be more like in the 80 lb range that you can easily span with your hands, rather than the 200-300 lb range you need a miniature jack to span.
It's still not nearly as powerful as a longbow or a pistol but, neither were these Chinese repeating crossbows...
...and they were used for a couple of thousand years as weapons (incidentally, with poison)
I have also read (admittedly, in modern historical analysis) that these small crossbows and pistols both created a minor outrage and a mini-legal crisis when they first appeared, due to the danger of assassinations. Pistols are much more effective but, they were also very loud and created a telltale plume of smoke, instantly marking the assailant. A crossbow like this could be concealed within the clothing, then used with some hope of effectiveness, concealed again briefly, and discarded at the first opportunity if necessary, all without drawing any undue attention.
Think of it as a silenced .22 Baretta 70 S. A lot of people think of a .22 as a toy. It's certainly not nearly as effective at killing as an Ak-47 or a Mac-10, but it was, incidentally, the preferred weapon of the Mossad for about 40 years.
Just my $.02.
G.
