I am looking for information on Medieval or Renaissance archery competitions and methods of archery practice, either handbow or crossbow. Does anyone have any good sources either books, magazine articles or on-line that they can recommend?

Thank you for any help you can give.

John Edgerton
Newark, California

John, you will find useful information in Hugh Soar's book "The Crooked Stick".

Also try the Fraternity of Saint George's web site: http://www.longbow-archers.com/fraternity.htm
Their captain Brian E. Moyaart has written an article about "Shooting at the Marks" which I translated into the German language, but I can't seem to find the original source any more …

More to come as soon as I get a little more organised …

I have Hugh's excellent book, but am looking for additional information.

I just looked up the Saint George site and found the article on "shooting at the marks", it did have some usefull additional information.

Do you happen to have any information on the crossbow or handbow competitions, targets and scoreing in Medieval Germany?

Thank you

John

John,
'Chinese Archery' by Stephen Selby contains lots of information on Chinese archery practice, including cross bow, handbow and ritual archery.
If you are interested in Turkish flight tournaments and rules of practice for flight archers, try 'Turkish Archery and the Composite Bow', by Paul E. Klopsteg.
Neither of these books specifically cover the medieval or renaissance period, but do contain information about competitions from non-European cultures.
'Arab Archery' by Nabih Amin Faris and Robert Potter Elmer was written circa 1500 AD, is very good as describing technique, practice etc, but unfortunately nothing competition-wise is mentioned.

Hope this helps.


Mike

I'm sorry John, I couldn't find any interesting material about Medieval German archery competitions. Archery was not as popular here as it was in England, so sources tend to be rare.
Society members Jens Sensfelder and Holger Richter are both experts in the history of crossbows - maybe they can add something in that direction.
I will keep on looking anyway and will inform you of any results.

Best wishes,
Jan

So far I couldn't find any information about archery competitions in Germany dating before the 15th/16th centuries. In that time obviously "shooting the bird" (=Popinjay) was quite popular here as well as in Belgium, the Netherlands and in France. Mostly crossbows have been used, but the occasional handbow as well (see also Jens Sensfelder's new book "Crossbows in the Royal Netherlands Armymuseum").

Here you should find a painting by an unknown Flemish master called "The Archery Competition". Unfortunately it shows rather the festivities than the actual shooting …

I'll keep on digging as time allows.
Best wishes,
Jan

Jan - what a superb painting. If you look closely there is a lot more going on than just archery. Pity it does not - as you say - show the actual competition shooting.

Administrator

Any information from before 1600 would be helpful. I am planing on buying "Crossbows in the Royal Netherlands Army Museum". Does it have information on the competitions or targets used in them?

Thank you

John

"Basically, there are two shooting disciplines: shooting at archery targets and the shooting of birds. It appeared from the invitations to the tournament in Munich [1468] that the circle (target) had a diameter between 121 and 181 mm and the distance to the target was 115 to 126 paces. the crossbowmen had to shoot freehand, with the sleeves of the jerkin loose from the side so that they could not cheat with hidden supports. To avoid mistakes, each bolt carried the name of the person shooting it. […]
Competitions held at various locations in Southern Germany in the 15th century precribed shooting ranges of 110 to 135 paces, shooting at targets with diameters starting at 12 inches and gradually becoming smaller. In 1504, the target used in Zurich was only 12 cm. […]"

Also some information on "Shooting the bird"

From Sensfelder, Crossbows, p. 370f.

There is some interedsting information on mediaval archery practice in 'L'art d'archerie'. See Henri Stein, 'Archers d'autrefois, archers 'aujourdhui, Paris. There is an English translation in the Archer's Register for 1902/3, translated by Col Walrond.

excuse typos !

For those who read french you can buy l'art d'archerie from "emotion primitive" for 17€.
http://www.emotionprimitive.com/livres_histoire.htm

Does anyone have a copy of the Archer's Register for 1902/03? If so, would it be possible to send me a copy of that article. I would be glad to pay for the postage.

Thank you

John Edgerton

Hi Jan. . I have a lengthy Article somehere which I wrote a good while ago but never had published. In this I examined l'Arrt d'Archerie in conjunction with Toxophilus. If I can find it I'll send you a copy.

Hugh

Any article from you should be most informative and helpful.

Thank you

John