“Farkas az én nevem...”. A gyulafehérvári fejedelmi fegyvertár és ágyúöntés kezdeteinek történetéhez
„Lupus sum...". Contributions to the History of the Princely Armoury in Alba Iulia and the Beginnings of the Gun-founding

Summary/Abstract: During the long war against Emperor Maximilian II the nascent Principality of Transylvania faced the problems of the organization of its own armoury. The information about the activity of the princely armoury in Alba Iulia were based so far mostly on the sources regarding the giant cannon, named Lupus (=Wolf), weighing almost eight tons. Starting with the story of the Lupus, which reflects important and continuous gun-founding activity, the author sketches the early history of the manufactory from its beginnings, (after 1564 under the rule of Prince John Sigismund), until the end of the rule of Sigismund Báthory, around 1600. His assertions are based mostly on historical sources regarding the craftsmen who worked in the capital of the principality and the prefects of the armoury in its early period: Damianus Leppler and Albert Almási. The author also brings up the feasibility and the importance of the archaeological researches on the site of the former armoury, known as Kendervár, in its Hungarian denomination in the 17-18th centuries. These investigations would be essential for the history of the gun-founding in Transylvania.

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