ABSTRACT
The generic answer is plain to see: urban militia soldiers preferred missile weapons, crossbows and longbows at first, then firearms. The Lateran Council in 1139 banned all bowed weapons in warfare between Christians, and there was a nearly contemporary edict by Emperor Conrad II forbidding crossbows. Wall defense work promoted the development of special heavy or 'rampart' crossbows, weapons so heavy as to require stands and even more extensive mechanical aids to span them. Small weapons could be used to defend city walls and in the Wagenburg, turning the threat posed by gunpowder into an asset to be used against the attackers. Cities, it seems, may have been undervalued as sources of technological innovation in warfare. In producing for this international market, and for local, domestic needs as well, cities like Nuremberg found themselves in the forefront of weapons development at a time when new weapons were helping to alter the oldest traditions of European warfare.
