The Armour Archive

Ernst

Don't forget pickling!

Ernst

Here's another view: m It's a wooden effigy, which would have had details such as mail painted. The 1189 dating is very suspect. The S-shaped quillion on the sword is peculiar, and the entire church besides the tower was rebuilt in 1700. How the effigy survived the centuries before rebuilding is unk...

Ernst

The legs of William fitzRalph are certainly open to interpretation. The invected edge along the schynbalds could be appliquÃ©d latten, or it could be the edge of an inner leather lining--like a 16th century piccadil. The knee cop could be cuirboulli with incised and painted decor, latten appliquÃ©, ...

Ernst

Mail for the arms and legs, with gamboised cuisses and simple poleyns. In the early part of your period, attached mail mufflers could be used under a basket hilt. (The rattan isn't "period", so why worry about the basket?) By the end of your time frame, separate mittens of mail, scale, or ...

Ernst

It is rarely shown in combination with mail, and is often shown with full sleeves and mufflers. I'm going to combine it with mail -- A long sleeved gambeson with mufflers over mail? This sounds like an exercise in futility if you're trying to make something that has accuracy of appearance from the ...

Ernst

Kilkenny wrote:Can anyone confirm or deny the hickory being new world part ?

You are correct, outside of a few isolated species in China. Either way, it is not accurate for medieval Europe.

Ernst

There's always this example to expand upon.

http://www.armourarchive.org/essays/ess ... able.shtml

Ernst

I'm all for making these charts a sticky! Good work, and better with the improvements. I think it would be interesting to compare English manuscript miniatures with a known date.

Ernst

The facts are that the Normans were in Sicily before they invaded England, and Sicilian art appears to show lamellar in use. The Bayeaux tapestry has two depictions, one of Bishop Odo and another which could also be Odo, showing a two-toned brown garment worn over mail. This has been postulated to b...

Ernst

Ernst, I would disagree with needing the heume for a 1250 impression. To do one from the same area as produced the Mac Bible geographically, maybe. But there are several other illumination and such that still have nasal helms being worn by the "good" guys who are "alive". I feel...

Ernst

Sigifrith Hauknefr wrote:Hey, is that yellow guy at the bottom right wearing a schynbald?

Looks like it, but it's not surprising in an early 14th century source. There are a number of examples of these in the Manesse.

Ernst

A defense of 12-30 layers of linen is not a gambeson: It's a jack. Jacks are rigid defenses generally used in the 15th century. Gambesons are soft defenses used in the 12-13th century. Both are fabric defenses, but work in entirely different manners.

Ernst

Here's another example of the flat-top, staved war hat from the Manesse:

http://diglit.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/cpg848/0079

I think I have another example stored on my other laptop, but it's got a blown CCFL, and access is difficult at the moment.

Ernst

Here's another example of the flat-top, staved war hat from the Manesse:

http://diglit.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/cpg848/0079

I think I have another example stored on my other laptop, but it's got a blown CCFL, and access is difficult at the moment.

Ernst

Dr. Nicolle gives an example from the Vita Caroli Magni (Life of Charlemagne) manuscript in the St. Gallen Cathedral Library. The manuscrpt is listed as late 13th c., Swabian.

Ernst

Ernst, what evidence do you have for flat topped kites before about 1175? Everything I have shows them coming in right at the end of the 12th century and being a predominantly 13th century development. Mackie to the rescue!! m Although I gotta wonder if the artists here are not trying to draw "...

Ernst

So I am trying to clean up my SCA fighting kit. The SCA part here is somewhat critical because we have all kinds of "pansy" knee and elbow rules. I am happy with my conical + nasal and mail drape, and a 36" transitional flat top kit. My location is Scandanavia... let's say Denmark fo...

Ernst

The greaves you speak about are depicted specifically because the Bible says the big fella wears them. They are never shown on anyone else. In this statement you are incorrect. Here is a comparison between The Maciejowski's Goliath, and a scene from Matthew Paris's Lives of the Offas : m A handful ...

Ernst

Ran across this guy's Flikr site, Lots of photos categorized chronologically.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roelipilami/

Ernst

Here's another French Cathedral Goliath: m While I can agree that various statues of Goliath mimic Byzantine armor forms, representing the "other", I think one would be hard pressed to suggest the Moccas effigy or the Manesse crossbowman emenate from such "fantasy art" and not so...

Ernst

Snake on a pole?

Ernst

According to the author of The Gothic Idol, scale armour was typically used in medieval European art to indicate the subject was a pagan -- i.e., "the other" -- and the usage of that armour (which was actually virtually non-existent in European armour) was an immediate visual indicator to...

Ernst

I don't think I've seen that one, but the more famous example is a statue outside a cathedral in France. There are a number of 12th-13th century figures at French Cathedrals wearing scale armor. There's always debate over whether these are stylistic representations of Byzantine artwork or armor, de...

Ernst

Judging from color in miniatures which are painted, I suspect iron was the most common material for scales. I wouldn't rule out hardened leather, horn, or baleen. Another view from the 1400 illumination. You may notice the lower scale fauld is drawn with a thickened edge.

Ernst

Here's another early to mid-14th century example and two scale faulds from 1400-1420 to contrast:

http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/cpg359/0108

Ernst

I have had no problems with overheating when I just wear my gambeson, only problems that I have had are on very hot days when I have dicided to wear my maille. It's really interesting that you should mention this. I used to have to wear my surcoat on hot, sunny days to keep the mail cool, i.e. shad...

Ernst

We have other examples of scale body armor for the first half of the 14th. Do we have examples of scale faulds from that period? That's not definitive, but could give us clues. I can find you several miniatures showing scale "faulds" (skirts, bases) from c.1400, but none from 1301-1340. I...

Ernst

One of the Ospreys shows a photo of an effigy, showing a Spanish 14th century Knight of Santiago lying on his tomb reading a book of hours. This knight is shown in Milanese-style plate arms, legs and sabatons with a hip-length scale shirt and maille fauld. But that effigy dates to the 15th century,...

Ernst

Scale armor appears in a number of early 14th century miniatures across northern Europe. I would expect the armor existed, but was of uncommon to rare frequency. There's the crossbowman in the Codex Manesse , Sisinnius in the 1317 Vie de St. Denis manuscripts, as well as a number of less well known ...

Ernst

The woman is a passenger. Her manservant leads the horse on foot?

Ernst

Weceslaus Pslater, French, c. 1250-60(only given for similarity of shield) m The Harlot Babylon, from the Dyson Perrins Apocalypse, English, c. 1255-60 (Woman might easily be adapted to riding) m ...and riding the Beast... m Also from the Getty, this Spanish judicial duel/joust of 1290-1310. m At le...

Ernst

If you want to match time and style of the given images, it might help to give their source?

Ernst

I'm in Mississippi, which is at least as hot and humid as Atlanta or the Chesapeake.

Ernst

Back in the '80s I was fighting in mail over a black gambeson (King's mirror blackened linen inspired) with polyfil filling. Never got heat exhaustion or worse, and never got bruised badly. White linen with cotton filling would be more sensible and historically common. It's amazing how the weight of...

Ernst

Is it possible that the artist was attempting to show two different gages of maile and couldn't reproduce the body pattern reliably at a tighter scale? Alternatly, do you think the artist just got tired of all the fidly line work of the maile on the body and decided "No one really cares about ...

Re: Greaves 12th-13th Century

Nice photo collection