Here's a series of pictures of live-firing a replica of a 15th century arquebus with a serpentine, of the older style with the touch hole (and slight dished recess for powder) on top of the barrel, instead of on the side with a pan:
Arquebus
This type is also referred to as a 'hand gun'. Back then, a 'hand gun' didn't mean a pistol. A hand gun referred to any gun that wasn't a cannon. In other words, any gun small enough to be held in the hands when firing. Hence, a
hand gun (or handgonne, handgone, handgunne, etc). I once asked Martin Pegler what he knew of the origin of the term 'arquebus'. His reply:
"
Regarding the arquebuse*, there is no firm agreement, but the best authorities seem to think that they developed from the 'hackenbuschen' (from the Czech term 'hakovnice') around 1450. From this date the term 'arquebus' seems to apply to any form of military gun that was fired manually by means of a match applied to the pan and the term was still in use in England during the Civil War of 1645, although by then it was slightly modified to 'harquebus'.
*Some spell it with an 'e', some without."
If I recall correctly, I think the older term 'hackenbusch' (later modified to 'hackbutt') was originally the oldest type of handgun (someone correct me on this if I'm getting my terms mixed up), basically just a barrel on a stick (which was usually called a 'tiller'), with a pointy thing sticking out from the bottom of the barrel to hook over castle walls or hand-held shields to absorb recoil, but could also be used as a nasty little last-ditch weapon when the fighting was too close for shooting, like this:
The tiller was held at the hip, over the shoulder, or under the arm when firing:
It slowly evolved into the arquebus, with what we today would recognize as a more modern-looking stock, and then a serpentine was added to more easily hold the thing and fire it:
From there, it evolved into the larger and longer matchlock musket, then the flintlock musket, and finally, the AK-47. ::
The farther back in time you go, the less clear are the divisions between weapon types and names. Keep in mind that 500 years ago, there was no standardization of terminology for weapon types, and they were continually evolving with experimentation. So there are many gray areas regarding weapon types and names, often overlapping with different time periods and in different regions. An aruqebus in one part of Europe might have been a handgun in another, and 'technology' (for lack of a better word) didn't advance at the same rate in all regions.
Go to Teleoceras' website to see lots of different examples of these weapons.
