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Page 139.

"These inventions and techniques were transmitted to the West through
the mediation of the Muslim world. An Andalusian botanist who died at
Damascus in 1248 called saltpetre 'Chinese snow'.  In Persia the same
Substance was called 'Chinese salt'.  Perhaps the Mongols used
rudimentary firearms at the battle of Sajo in Hungary (1241).  From
the middle of the thirteenth century the Moors put powder in various
projectiles thrown by means of catapults and trebuchets.  In the
West the first known recipe for gunpowder is that of Roger Bacon
(1267)."

"The presence of primitive guns (_sclopeti_, _sclopi_: blunderbuss)
is mentioned at the time of the defence of Forli by Guido de
Montefeltre in 1284, though this is an isolated and suspect reference."


Bacon's work (_Opus majus_, 1267 and 1268) exists, though it was not
published until 1733.


This does leave open the possibility of information about gunpowder
being brought to Europe by the Polos, later than Bacon had already
learned and written of it.  If Bacon's work was not widely known
then it is possible that many in Europe could have first learned
of gunpowder from the Polos.

Thorvald