The Armour Archive

Karen Larsdatter

I did notice that the Italians seem to have hung onto coifs longer than the rest of Europe and England. Most of the later 15th century Italian coifs I'd collected at m were on 15th century depictions of Dante (who'd died in the early 14th century, anyway) or the life of St. Francis (who'd died in t...

Karen Larsdatter

T. Finkas wrote:Men Wearing Coifs: When, Where and How?

Where and How: On their heads.
When: I've seen them as early as 1180 and as late as the 16th century.

My coify linkspage: http://www.larsdatter.com/coifs.htm

Karen Larsdatter

Oh, another neat article: Medieval German Given Names from Silesia , and a woodcut of a woman from Silesia (1577). It looks like Silesia was coming under increasing control of Bohemia in the 14th century; but 14th century Bohemia is a lot more "western" in tone, not so much with the "crazy Eastern E...

Karen Larsdatter

For your "Dark Age" kit, the cloak you'll want is far simpler and less floofy. Kind of more of a big rectangle. See m for a description. Definitely go with wool. Your early Renaissance swashbuckler, however, would be more likely to have a circular (or semi-circular) cloak, probably draped mostly ove...

Karen Larsdatter

John S. wrote:--Neat resources that we need to check out?

The Muzeum Narodowe we Wrocławiu has a large collection of medieval Silesian art.

Karen Larsdatter

Yeah, that's the sort of fabric I'd be looking at (if I were looking for real modern silk that re-creates the look of medieval silk). My map to Bildindex points out a couple of sections that have silk fabrics. (Let me know if you want a guide to the map, because it's only slightly less confusing tha...

Karen Larsdatter

So.... what type of modern silk would best mirror the look (sheen, drape, etc....) of the historic silks? IMO, taffeta. I have done a bit of research myself and everything I am finding says that almost all of the silk in Europe in the 14th and 15th century came from China. Italy really did not star...

Karen Larsdatter

Well, get in touch with the Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning and tell 'em you're interested in more information, or if (and when) the pieces are published, then.

Karen Larsdatter

Agreed that black would be an odd color for ceramics, and a very typical color for leather. But black doesn't seem to be the rule in drinking vessels - at least from what I've been able to see in the excellent resources on your site. Precisely. But it would be a typical color for jackware or leathe...

Karen Larsdatter

But why do you believe that the illustrated items are made of leather? I've seen (reproduction) costrels made of leather, and costrels made of ceramics. And one of them has ribs running the length which *could* suggest that it's made of splints, like a barrel. Because I haven't seen ceramic costrel...

Karen Larsdatter

Bunch more pilgrims' scrips (the actual name for a "pilgrim bag," I think) at m -- they're not too difficult to make. Most examples in medieval illustrations seem to be made of leather. See also "On Carrying Things: Packs, Baskets, Bags and Bundles" in Dragon #11 (starting on page 7 of that PDF) for...

Karen Larsdatter

We don't always know the exact rules of playing the games, but we know of some team games in medieval Europe: ⋅ Bent stick/club games , including bandy, cambok, and hurling ⋅ Football games , like "foote-ball" and gameball ⋅ Stickball games , including rounders and s...

Karen Larsdatter

No, I have yet to attend a fighting practice session, but there again, I get the same result. I ask around for when and where, and I get a stone wall in front of me. ' so secret..... must ...not tell..." kind of shit. But maybe you guys are right and I should seek out another group near me. Thanks ...

Karen Larsdatter

It's possible it was hops. Dunno; it's hard to say. So, you have a long horizontal pole (the alestake), with a garland or bush tacked to one end. The tavern-sign, assuming there is one, is hung from the alestake; most seem to just be a simple square board, with a picture painted on it (rather than t...

Karen Larsdatter

Aw, thanks, Raimond! You know, I always got the impression that the plant on the alestake was hops, but I'm not sure. These citations are certainly late enough for hops to be appearing in beers and ales, from what I understand (from the National Hop Association of England's hop history timeline and ...

Karen Larsdatter

The description of the Summoner in the general prologue of the Canterbury Tales includes a reference: "A gerland hadde he set upon his heed / As greet as it were for an ale-stake." It's mentioned again in the introduction to the Pardoner's Tale : "'It shal be doon,' quod he, 'by Seint Ronyon; / But ...

Karen Larsdatter

I'm assuming you're looking for northern Europe -- probably England -- right? (As opposed to an Italian noblewoman's dress of 1471, which is going to look very different.) ⋅ The Execution of the Innocent Count and The Ordeal by Fire , c. 1460 ⋅ Portrait of a Young Girl by Petru...

Karen Larsdatter

In the end the SCA is a well kept secret, and it shouldnâ€™t be, I will go to any length for effective recruitment efforts. Well, then; I recommend you volunteer as a chatelain (or deputy chatelain) for your local group. Most group chatelaines can use all of the assistance and support they can get....

Karen Larsdatter

There are reasons to open events to the public -- and there are reasons to keep events private. Opening them to the public makes them more accessible to newcomers, and gets the word out on the SCA. A group can get the word out by posting flyers in the local stores, sending press releases to the loca...

Karen Larsdatter

Dunno if this would help you with some ideas (for this or future projects) but I've reorganized my list of coffers, caskets, and boxes, so the leather-covered examples are all at http://www.larsdatter.com/boxes-leather.htm now.

Karen Larsdatter

I know it's not Kievan in particular, but have you seen A Dictionary of Period Russian Names?

Are you in the Slavic Interest Group? If not, join their mailing list!

Some additional useful bits: Medieval and Early Modern Russia and Ukraine.

Karen Larsdatter

norther italian 1380-1395. Unfortunately, the Medieval Names Archive seems to be down at the moment -- you'll want to check out the Italian Names section -- especially the 14th century Venetian personal names . (You can go ahead and plug those URLs in at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find...

Karen Larsdatter

One point or caveat: brewers'-pitch-lined leather drinking vessels and bottles are said to be uniquely English, and devised because England put a high tariff on Continental ceramic and glass vessels. That may be, but the three illustrations of costrels I'd linked to above are all from the Continent...

Karen Larsdatter

Hi all, I want to make my whole sca fighting kit as period as possible and i was wondering what a soldier would have drunk out of while on campaign or on the march? I am assuming some form of water skin or leather bottle but what shape and style would it be? Cheers You want a costrel. I can't think...

Karen Larsdatter

Sir Mord wrote:I already mentioned Google Scholar.

Hence the word "also" in my posting above, Mord.

Karen Larsdatter

I'd also recommend using Google Scholar . While you can't always access the articles it finds, it does pick up some interesting stuff, which you can then acquire through interlibrary loan. You might also want to look at FornvÃ¤nnen , the RiksantikvarieÃ¤mbetet , and the Society for Advancement of Sc...

Karen Larsdatter

Well, coifs are certainly okay. Hoods are another option. But there's a few other styles of caps and hats as well. You can see some other headgear from around that time in the FÃ©camp Psalter (Normandy, c. 1180), and the Maciejowski Bible (Paris, c. 1250); the St. Louis Psalter (France, c. 1253-1270...

Karen Larsdatter

Hey -- there's an image in the thread at http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=64417 that relates to this discussion.

Karen Larsdatter

Gawrsh, thanks, you guys ... There'll be some new pages coming up eventually, too -- stuff I'd been developing but hadn't linked up from the homepage, because I didn't feel like I really had enough stuff for a whole page, or that I was still kind of in the middle of gathering stuff for it. Some of ...

Karen Larsdatter

I'm gradually moving the content on my Geocities site over to http://www.larsdatter.com -- so update your bookmarks, y'hear?

Karen Larsdatter

Anyone ever buy from these cats? Yep. The glassware is pretty dead-on for what I was looking for (though I was coming at it from looking at what was used then and looking for modern examples). I think Northerner's glassware is all Scanglas . (In terms of a review as a retailer -- I remember it taki...

Karen Larsdatter

Does she actually want an Irish name or persona? There are several articles on medieval Irish names at m -- but if she's interested in being a medieval Englishwoman, for example, she could go with Margaret or Richild (or any of the variations listed in the pages linked there). Variants of the name "...

Karen Larsdatter

MJBlazek wrote:What says "White Knight" to you as soon as you see it?

Karen Larsdatter

Karen what do you have thats specifically 14th century? The Museum of London's ceramics collection fragments of ceramic aquamaniles made in England between the 11th and 14th centuries, including acc. nos. A16880 , A22338 , and A16796 Ceramic ram , made in Scarborough between the late 12th and early...

Karen Larsdatter

Karen please post pics Umm ... dude, that's a lot of pics. I don't host any of 'em, so it'd be a LOT of bandwidth-thiefing. Not to mention, a really long page. I mean ... m is kinda long. Is there a particular time period or style or critter you're interested in? Can you go to the page yourself and...

Re: 14th century Silesia

Re: 14th century Silesia

Re: X-post:Question about Team Games

Re: Victorian fiction containing historical fact?

Re: 1471 noble ladies dress

Re: Wanted, Newcomers!

Re: Want to auction for sending my daughter to Paris.

Re: 13th Century Ukrainian Mens Names

Re: 14th century drinking vessels

Re: 1100s hats

Re: Decoration on a buckler?

Moving to a new domain

Re: Scandinavian wessels

Re: Renn Faire White Knight Persona help.