Are you teaching with The Firearm Revolution? Or perhaps you’re an independent researcher with an interest in the history of firearms. With the help of my PhD student Guy Reynolds, I’ve put together a list of online English-language translations of sources featured in the book to support your follow-up research. These are primarily linked to four chapters, which address the context of war, court cultures, visual cultures and Empire. The other chapters of the book draw primarily on Italian sources and archive material that isn’t accessible online. They’re fully referenced in the bibliography but if you have any further questions that aren’t covered there please get in touch with Catherine Fletcher directly at catherine.fletcher@mmu.ac.uk.

Some ready-made teaching activities, designed for undergraduates, will also be going live later in 2026 at the Gun Violence and its Histories project based at the University of Pittsburgh.

We’d love to hear about how you’re making use of this material: please drop us a line!

Chapter 1: The Context of War

Texts

Raimond de Beccarie de Pavie, Instructions for the Warres. English translation [Paule Lue] at Internet Archive.

Benvenuto Cellini, Autobiography, English translation at Project Gutenberg. 

Francesco Guicciardini, Storie d’Italia, English translation [Austin Parke Goddard] at Internet Archive. 

Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus.

Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks. Internet Archive. 

Niccolò Machiavelli, On the Art of War, Literature Network. 

Blaise de Monluc, Commentaries. English translation at Internet Archive.  

Pope Pius II, Commentaries of Pius II. Abridged translation at Internet Archive. 

Artefacts

Bernard Van Orley, Pavia Tapestries, c.1528-31. Capodimonte Museum. One of the set is at Google Arts & Culture.

Rupert Heller, Battle of Pavia, c. 1529. Nationalmuseum, Sweden.

Unknown artist, The Battle of Anghiari, cassone panel, c.1460. National Gallery of Ireland.

Jacques de Gheyn II, Soldier with Arquebus, c. 1587, National Gallery of Art. 

Pastrana Tapestries. c.1471. Online at Wikipedia. 

Wheellock Pistol, c. 1579. Victoria and Albert Museum.

Triumph of the Emperor Maximilian, woodcut, c. 1516-19, Victoria and Albert Museum.

Book of Hours made for Charles d’Angouleme, c. 1480-85. Gallica. 

Augustine,  City of God, Frontispiece, 1489. St Andrews University Collection Blog, Fig. 4.

Matchlock Military Musket, c.1540, Royal Armouries.

Left-handed Matchlock Rifle, c.1500, KHM Court Hunting and Armoury.

Rifled Wheellock, c. 1560, Fitzwilliam Museum.

Chapter 4: Court Cultures of Firearms

Texts

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso. English translation by A.S. Kline at Poetry in Translation.

Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier. Project Gutenberg.  

Benvenuto Cellini, Autobiography. Project Gutenberg.  

Veronica Gambara, Complete Poems. English translation available via Research Gate.

Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus.

Michel de Montaigne, The Essays. Cotton translation at Project Gutenberg.  

Artefacts

Wheellock pistol, c. 1520. Royal Armouries.

Pair of wheellock pistols, c. 1570-80. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Powder Flask with Bullet Box, Clock, Compass, and Sundial, c. 1570-1600. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Wheellock Gun of Philippe de Croy, Prince of Chimay, c. 1551-56. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Matchlock rifle, c. 1564-1590, KHM. 

Wheellock Rifle of Archduke Charles of Styria, 1571. Art Institute of Chicago.

Wheellock pistol, c.1540-60. Museo Correr.

Hunting Knife Combined with Wheellock Pistol, c. 1528-9. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Combination Ax-Pistol of Grand Duke Ferdinand I de’ Medici, c. 1580. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Double-Barrelled Wheellock Pistol made for Emperor Charles V, c. 1550. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

French Powder Flask, c. 1570. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Powder Flask of Jacques de Silly, 1570. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Combination Wheellock Matchlock Gun, c. 1560. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Match fired combination pollaxe and gun, c. 1510-. Royal Armouries. 

Wheel lock pistol hunting spear, c. 1560. KHM, Court, Hunting and Armoury.

Chapter 8: Visual Culture

Artworks

Dirck Jacobsz, A Group of Guardsmen, 1529. Rijksmuseum.

attrib. Cornelis Anthonisz, Seventeen Civic Guards of Division A of the Kloveniers. 1531. Amsterdam Museum.

after Titian, Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, late 16^th/early 17^th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Peter Peck, Wheellock Pistol of Emperor Charles V, c. 1545-50. Musée de l’Armée, Paris.

Anthony Van Dyck, Portrait of Charles V on Horseback, c. 1620. Uffizi Gallery.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Fire, 1566, KHM.

Velázquez, Philip IV in Hunting Dress, c. 1632-34. Museo del Prado.

Emperor Charles V and Ferdinand I of Hapsburg (obverse); The Battle of Mühlberg (reverse). Coin, c. 1547, Frick Collection.

Triumph of the Emperor Maximilian, woodcut, c. 1516-19. Victoria and Albert Museum. 

Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo, The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, c. 1475, National Gallery.

Enea Vico, The army of Charles V crossing the Elbe at the battle of Mühlberg, 1547, 1551, Royal Collection Trust.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Conversion of Paul, 1567, KHM Gemäldegalerie.

Hans Holbein, The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, c. 1516, Alte Pinakothek Munich.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Resurrection, c. 1562, Walker Art Gallery.

Martin Rota, The Battle of Lepanto, 1572. Engraving at Newberry Digital Library.

Titian, Philip II offering the Infante Fernando to Victory, c. 1573-75, Museo del Prado.

Anon., The victors of the naval Battle of Lepanto in 1571, c.1575, KHM Gemäldegalerie.

François Dubois. Le massacre de la Saint-Barthelémy [The St Bartholomew Day Massacre], c. 1572-84. Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne.

Frans Hogenberg, Moord op de gebroeders de Guise [Assassination of Henry I, Duke of Guise], 1558. Rijksmuseum.

Attr. François Bunel, Procession de la Ligue sur l’île de la Cité [Procession of the League], 1590. Musée Carnavalet.

Anon., Allegory of the Church (Pièce Allégorique Sur l’Église), 1569-76. BNF/Gallica.

attr. Steven van der Meulen, Thomas Butler, 10th earl of Ormonde, mid 16th century, National Gallery of Ireland.

Marcus Gheeraerts II, Portrait of Capitan Thomas Lee, 1594, Tate Gallery.

Cornelis Ketel, Portrait of Sir Martin Frobisher, 1577, Bodleian Libraries.

Anon., Portrait of de Philip III von Cröy, Duke of Aarschot. Sold at auction, 2001. Catalogue entry.

Queborn, Portrait of Maurice, Prince of Nassau, c. 1579. In the collection of the Royal Palace, Amsterdam.

Anon., Portrait of Sir Thomas Tresham, 1568. Rushton Triangular Lodge (English Heritage).

Bartolomeus van der Helst, The Militia Company of District VIII in Amsterdam, c. 1640-43, Rijksmuseum.

Chapter 9: Empire

Texts

Leo Africanus (al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan), Description de l’Afrique. English (John Pory) edition: The History and Description of Africa. 

Michel du Montaigne. The Essays, Cotton translation online: Project Gutenberg.   

Bernadino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex, English translation [Garagarza 2023] at Digital Florentine Codex.

Artworks and artefacts

Triumph of the Emperor Maximilian. Woodcut. c. 1516-19, Victoria and Albert Museum.

Continuation of the Triumphal Procession: Presentation of War Material, (Dom João de Castro’s conquest of Goa), tapestry, Brussels, 1555-60. KHM.

Ludovico Buti, Decorations for the Uffizi Armoury, 1588. Uffizi Gallery. 

Florentine Codex, Book XII: Conquest of Mexico. Images 81, 93, 113, 114, 125.

Portuguese soldiers, wax-cast brass. C. 16-19^th centuries. Digital Benin.