Gunner with two wheels gun. Europe, XIV cent.

According to Luigi Cibrario, “the term attillieria or artillery” in the XIII century “denoted … all the material of the war”. Ludovico Ariosto in his Orlando furioso wrote: «L’artegliaria, come tempesta, fiocca / contra chi vuole al buon Ruggier far torto».

The use of the first guns in Europe dates back to the first decades of the 14th century: official Florentine documents from 1326 refer to the purchase of “pilas seu palloctas ferreas et canones de mettallo”.

In 1327 firearms appear in Gassino . In the following decades, among the pre-unification Italian states that gave greater development to artillery was the Republic of Venice (the first documented firearms in Venice date back to 1335, but probably Venice had had artillery for some time), which naturally took care of especially naval ones.

The Venetians possessed a large number of pieces of all kinds and shapes: small iron cannons, bombards of all calibres, including some of considerable size. In the struggle that saw it opposed to the Republic of Genoa, the artillery was widely used in land and sea operations; above all it was widely used and notably effective in the war of Chioggia.

The development of artillery was the first major change in military techniques after the Middle Ages.