ABSTRACT
A number of trebuchets of both types, as well as some hybrids incorporating a weight and ropes, are depicted in manuscript illustrations of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The trebuchet shown in the graffito in Corneto-Tarquinia shares a number of similarities with some of these and allows one to see quite clearly what kind of machine the draughtsman had in mind. Multiple struts are shown in an early fourteenth-century representation in a French illustrated manuscript of the Roman du Saint Graal. The Peter of Eboli manuscript, for example, shows up to eight ropes, and the Carcassonne sculpture six. Indeed, it is difficult to see what possible symbolic message a trebuchet might have been intended to convey, apart perhaps from indicating that Brother John the Master had a military connection of some kind. The depiction of the trebuchet is perfectly consistent with the thirteenth-century date suggested by the palaeography.
