I’ve always been vaguely aware of this, but interest in my recent post on a potential marginal joke in the Maciejowski Bible made it clear: people dig trebuchets. A lot.* Something about them just brings out the medievalist’s inner fanboy.
At any rate, while Googling “traction trebuchets” today (thanks, Steve!), I learned that I’d missed a trebuchet image about 20 pages later in the same MS. I’ve posted it above, because I’m fairly certain the artist meant it to be a callback to the original joke I pointed out on Monday.
The alert reader who remembers what happened to the first trebuchet sling loader can probably guess how the conversation in the left margin is playing out. I imagine it’s meant to go a little something like this:
I should note, though, that according to some medieval military experts, the sling puller is supposed to hold on for a little while to add an last minute whip to the lever arm when he lets go. I think the original sling loader is a bit higher than would be optimal for such a strategy, though, so I say the joke still stands.
*Personally, I’ve been turned off of trebuchets by their extremely long attack animation in Civilization IV. The computer loves sending a stack of eighty bajillion of them at you, so unless you turn off all animations during medieval wars you’ve got time to go get a drink… or two… at a bar downtown… two towns over.