Battering rams, wall-machines, and a load-cart on rollers
Ways to fend off and receive the ram; named siege engines; a recipe for green fire
The sheet is given over to siege warfare. At the top are methods to fend off a battering ram with bales of straw soaked in vinegar and to receive its blow, beside rams suspended and counterbalanced and named as wall-machines Heliopolim and Cetra, with a cross-hatched tower and a wall assailed by an engine called Flemistlot at the center. A marginal note gives a 'tower of burchioni' and a recipe for green fire made from verdigris dissolved in turpentine, while a historical remark credits Febar of Tyre with using such an instrument against the walls of the Gaditani. Inverted at the foot is a heavy-load cart running on rollers over planks, paving, or firm ground.
On this page
Fending off and receiving the battering ram
Two upper sketches show a way to fend off the ram using bales of straw soaked in vinegar, and a way to take (absorb) its blow. Both are framed post-and-beam structures set against a wall.
Named siege wall-machines: Heliopolim, Cetra, Flemistlot
A ram suspended behind an armored shield is labeled Heliopolim, and a ram slung on a rope and balanced is labeled Cetra, said to be the instrument Febar of Tyre used to shake the walls of the Gaditani. A further sketch shows a wall assailed by an engine called Flemistlot.
Recipe for green fire
A marginal note beside a tower segment gives a recipe: take verdigris and dissolve it with turpentine oil, then pass it through felt. It is headed as a 'tower of burchioni.'
Cart on rollers for heavy loads over short distances
Drawn upside down at the foot is a cart mounted on rollers that run over a plank track, paving, or firm ground, with a detail of the rollers. It is intended for moving great weights over a short distance.
