Often specialists in ordnance study artefacts recovered from wrecks without a complete knowledge of the archaeological context from which they have been recovered. Archaeologists investigating the context of the objects on the other hand, often do so with only a superficial knowledge of historic artillery.
This volume brings together experts from the field of historic artillery and underwater archaeologists to present a series of papers which focus on the development of naval ordnance in Europe and, especially, Venice, in the 15th-17th centuries, as exemplified by the maritime archaeological resource. These scientific articles represent most of the papers presented to the international symposium 'Ships and Guns', held in Venice, December 2008.