- "Quite little bombs, but effective enough to, say, wreck ships or disperse a camp."
- ―Leonardo da Vinci on his hand-held bombs[src]
The Hand-held bombs were small explosive devices designed and manufactured by Leonardo da Vinci for use against Cesare Borgia's diehards, who had amassed a sizable military force in the city of Valencia.
Consisting of a small, steel ball filled with sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate, the hand-held bombs also possessed a small fuse which required lighting before the device became explosive.
During the attack on Valencia, Ezio Auditore and Niccolò Machiavelli, each equipped with ten hand-held bombs, brought chaos to Cesare's military forces, destroying twelve Borgia ships and an entire military encampment.