Hello Everyone,

There have been many previous discussions on this site about the use of longbows and crossbows during the medieval period. However, I'm curious what written documentation or archeological evidence there may be concerning the use of the staff sling. I believe it would be called a fustibalis in Latin, or possibly fustibale in French.
This weapon dates back well into antiquity and I think might have been useful in siege warfare lobbing small projectiles over city or castle walls. I've seen this period illustration (see attachment), but haven't successfully turned up more detailed information. I'm hoping that some extremely knowledgeable folks in the community may know more about this weapon.

1) Do we know how widely used the sling staff was in medieval Europe?

2) Was the staff sling used through the early and high middle ages?

3) Was it used across Europe? Or was its use more prevalent in certain areas, the western Mediterranean, the Levant, central Europe, etc...

4) Do we know if it was only used as an inexpensive siege weapon, or was it also used on the battlefield?

Any information you can share will be awesome. Thank you.

Christian Borglum

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Hello Christian!

Check out this previous thread as there is some good information and resources listed:

Slings!

Staff sling to my best knowledge was used mostly to hurl greek fire canisters, as shown here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons...heMonk.jpg
This depiction shows the death of Eustache le Moine (a.k.a. "the Black Monk") a notorious pirate of the early 13th century british channel. I believe this is also the earliest artistic documentation of a boarding axe.

Let me check the booklet "Hurling a Shower of Great Stones" tonight to see if any primary references pertaining to staff slings are singled out.

Hi all

If you can read French, check this very interesting article :

http://www.1186-583.org/Le-Fustibale


Cheers

Fab