A hackbut from the Museum in Jarosław – a contribution to our knowledge of the hand-held firearms of the Polish infantry in the 16th c.

Hackbuts as infantry weapons lose their military importance in the late 15th c. in favour of handgonnes, but they still play an important role as siege defence weapons in fortresses. On the other hand, sporadic mentions of hackbuts appear in registers of infantry detachments as late as the first half of the 16th c. These hackbuts were light, smaller calibre weapons that could be easily operated by a single soldier. An example of such a weapon is offered by a barrel safeguarded at the Museum of Jarosław, which is the subject of this paper.