Written Sources for Gambesons/Aketons/Pourpoints 1100-1350

[Ernst]

Among these, almost everyone agrees that aketon is derived from the Arabic word for cotton, and jupon from the Arabic men's gown the jubbah. Pourpoint from French via Latin meaning pricked with a needle is home-grown. The wambeis/gambesons has two schools of thought, the first suggesting it comes from the same Anglo-Saxon root as womb or belly, the second proposing a derivation from the Greek word for cotton. If the second etymology is correct, most of the loan words come from the East.

[Jonathan Dean]

re: loanwords, I've recently been thinking on this in relation to the Vezelay Tympanum. This is the only semi-decent picture of the figure in question, and seems to show a distinct armhole that the sleeve is connected to, much as some have suggested the Morgan Bible gambesons were constructed. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a better, clearer photo that might show the right hand side of the figure in more detail, although I did find an older slide that confirms the crisscross pattern I've seen mentioned elsewhere, and it's very different from the method of depicting mail used on the tympanum. If the figure on the tympanum is meant to be wearing textile armour, then the form seems to be similar to a form that shows up in some 10th century Byzantine artwork and which is described in the Sylloge Tacticorum:

"The sleeves [should] reach the elbows, and have openings around there, in order for the arms to go through them. The sleeves should be attached to the back of the shoulders with loops."

Could this indicate a Byzantine origin for at least the style of textile armour used in the period?

[Sean M]

I have added the basilica at Vezelay to my footnote about possible quilted armour in 12th and early 13th century art. If my communicative French were better, it would be a good place to contact to get permission to visit with a ladder and a big camera when I return from my overseas exile.

The summary at the end is now one page long (plus the map and caption). I am trying to balance keeping the article a manageable size, but not demanding that every reader remember all ~26 sources Splitting the article into three sections "the earliest evidence," "epics and sagas 1160-1200," and "the third crusade" helps but 26 texts in 9 languages (Old Irish, Old Norse, Latin, Old French, Old Occitan, Old Aragonese, Old High German, Medieval Greek, Arabic) is a lot to ask readers to remember.

Edit: there is one jupel in Athis et Prophilias. I am comfortable leaving it off the map because this term never becomes common in northern France like panzar in Scandinavia or giuparello in Italy (and some manuscripts of Athis et Prophilias don't have this word at all).

[Jonathan Dean]

Have you found many possibilities? I think the only twos strong candidates I've found so far have been Vezelay and the San Verona baptismal font.

You've been doing a really spectacular job with this! I look forward to reading the article when it gets published.

[Sean M]

Have you found many possibilities? I think the only twos strong candidates I've found so far have been Vezelay and the San Verona baptismal font.

I think that they mostly come from your post here and an email exchange with Mart Shearer, and I am just giving two or three examples because its a footnote. Maybe I will start a thread once I have finished the article?

The guards of Nebuchadnezzar in the Huelgas Apocalypse and the sleeping guards in the Bonmont Psalter are some lesser-known ones. The effigy of Hugues de Thil at in the priory church at Saint-Thibault, Côte-d'Or, Bourgogne, France is interesting but I suspect it dates to the first half of the 14th century.

[Jonathan Dean]

I'm just going to pretend I didn't forget about the Huelgas Apocalypse. I don't think I've seen the Morgan Collection's full resolution scan, though, and the guard on the left does appear to be wearing a gambeson with detachable sleeves and quilting that goes around the arm, which is a useful bit of information on early forms of textile armour. I did know about the Bonmont Psalter, though, and the buttoning on that effigy does look later than the 13th century.

I agree that two or three are all that you can really put in a footnote, I'm just interested in seeing if I'd missed (or, as it turns out, forgotten) any examples. It would be good to scour the internet and literature for lesser known representations of early textile armour but, as you say, not something for right now.

[Sean M]

I am unblocked enough to finish one of the passages which was giving me trouble (the last two lines of a passage from Herbort von Fritslar's Liet von Troye Internet Archive link)! I will quote it here in case anyone else with experience in medieval High German has thoughts.

Schilde rot grune (Red green shields,)
Vō golde vō lasure (Of gold of lacquer,)
Rosse kouerture (9020: Horse covertures,)
Die halsberge wisse (The hauberks white)
Hiwen sie mit fliss (They hewed vigorously)
Durch den helm vnz an den loc (Through the helm and on the hole)
Wambois wappē roc (Gambeson, coat of arms,)
Man ros vn phert (9025: Man horse and steed)
Die vinde wichē hinderwert (The enemy / footsoldiers fall back,)
Unz an den burck haugē (And strike out for the castle)

The translation of the last two lines assumes that vinde is related to Feinde "enemy (pl.)" or Vende "footman", wichen is weichen "to yield, move back," and haugen is hauen "to strike, cut."

I think the only remaining untranslated line was the first line of this French passage:

D'armes baillier s'aparellierent:
Chauces de fers premiers lacierent
Et puis les blans haubers vestirent,
Dessus se ceinstrent et cousirent, (15,090)

Apparently bailler can mean "to bear (arms, equipment)" and aparellierent is a verb appareiller related to English "apparel" so the first line is something like "they had prepared themselves to bear arms." I have an academic contact who can give a quick look at my translations from medieval French, at least the bits I was unsure about.

[Ernst]

I found a few references in Philippe de Remi, Sire de Beaumanoir's 'Jehan et Blonde', from c.1240. There's an arming sequence beginning at line 3991 (p.260), beginning with, "espaulieres
De bouree de soie, mout chieres", then "bacinet",
some sort of garland ("galandesche") on the head, and then a "pourpoin". Picard dialect is a bit different to navigate.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Je ... 8sEZZtxWIC

[Sean M]

Thanks Mart! References to early spaulders are always helpful.

With luck I will be able to start part 2 of this article, with sources from the early 13th century, by the end of 2021. I just have to revise the version on sources from the 12th century and submit it to the journal.

[Sean M]

I added Las Siete Partidas, a Castillian law code from around 1260, to the original post

[Ernst]

From Facebook, another example of buckram jupons, this time from Bavaria.

Mart Shearer, there's also the 1244' mention of collars in the Bavarian Territorial Peace, in the item permitting the peasants to wear to church "Thoraces vel ysenhut vel colliria vel juppas de pukramo vel cultrum latinum" - "armor and helmets, collar pads and coats of buckram", and Latin knives". Innkeepers were additionally allowed to carry a sword.
- Joachin Bumke, Courtly Culture (p. 166)

[Sean M]

From Facebook, another example of buckram jupons, this time from Bavaria.

Mart Shearer, there's also the 1244' mention of collars in the Bavarian Territorial Peace, in the item permitting the peasants to wear to church "Thoraces vel ysenhut vel colliria vel juppas de pukramo vel cultrum latinum" - "armor and helmets, collar pads and coats of buckram", and Latin knives". Innkeepers were additionally allowed to carry a sword.
- Joachin Bumke, Courtly Culture (p. 166)

Hi Mart, good catch! We don't have that book in Victoria but it is in the Internet archive. It cites G. Franz (ed.), Quellen zur Geschichte des deutschen Bauernstandes im Mittelalter. AQ 31 (1967) p. 326 We don't seem to have that either, but someone in Innsbruck has transcribed it as Bayrischer Landfriede 1244:

Item rustici cum filiis suis capillos ad auriculas usque precidant. Thoraces vel ysenhut vel colliria vel juppas de pukramo vel cultrum latinum aut aliquid catenatum vel hostile — nisi gladium suum hospites et non alii — ante suam deferant ecclesiam, privatis diebus non aliud quam stimulum vel reutil deferant. Hec autem omnia pro communi necessitate provinciae et iudicii exequendi et patriam ab incursu hostium defendendi, si velint, in eorum domibus reservent. Item nobiliori quam griseo et viliori plabatico veste non utantur et calciis bovinis, excepto qui innatum alicuius domini officium obtinuerit. Reliqui cum hiis prohibitis spolientur inventi, et persona iudici redimenda pro talento offeratur.

They want the peasants to cut their hair above their ears! The facing page of Bumke's book has a poem by Neidhart von Reuental (d. before 1246) with a peasant who wears a giant sword to the village dance.

I wonder what the thorax is, an early pair of plates or just one iron plate or even a cuirie?

[Ernst]

How else to insure the peasants hear what you're telling them? I'm used to vel being "either-or", but this seems to be one of those rare instances where it means "also this". The thorax may have been specifically vague, so that a variety of body armors, in addition the buckram jupons, would meet muster requirements.

[Jonathan Dean]

Just thinking on what the thorax might be, and the Florentine militia regulations c.1260 may be useful in interpreting it:

Item, quilibet pedes civitatis Florentie teneatur et debeat portare et habere in presenti exercitu panzeriam sive corictum cum manicis ferrois, aut manicos ferreos cum coraczinis, cappellum de acciario vel cervelleria, gorgieriam sive collare de ferro, lanceam, scutum sive tabolaccium magnum. Et quicumque contra fecerit et non portaverit et habuerit in exercitu dieta arma, ut dietum est, puniatur et condempnetur, de panzeria sive coricto cum manicis sive de manicis cum coraczinis in soldis viginti florinorum parvorum, de cappello sive cervelleria in soldis decem, de gorgieria sive collare in soldis decem, de Iancea in soldis decem, de scuto sive tabolaccio in soldis decem florinorum parvorum.

My Latin is very, very limited, but as I understand it the infantry are required to have either textile or leather armour, with some sort of mail(?) glove, in some cases reinforced with something (the regulations for the cavalry give them a choice between "lamerias" and "coraczas").

The Cervi armed society from Bologna in 1255 required its infantry to wear "guayferiam sive cubam vel lamerias vel curatias", where the "lamerias" might be scale or an early COP, and the "curatias" was, by the early 14th century, a generic term for "cuirass". Interestingly, the cavalry are only required to wear "guayferìam sive cubam", so I'm not sure what to make of that, as I'd have expected them to wear the metal armour if it existed. The Cervi are one of the only societies allowing leather caps, though, so it's plausible that the "curatias" is a cuirass in the original sense.

If these two sources are providing a choice between textile and leather armour, then the thorax might be leather as well. It's much earlier, but Walter Map describes the routiers employed by Henry II, who were often from the Low Countries, as being "armati penitus a uertice ad plantas corio, calibe, fustibus et ferro", which may also suggest leather.

[Sean M]

Great find Jonathan! Here are my translations of the infantry kit.

panzeria sive corictum cum manicis ferreis "panzerone (short mail shirt) or ?corset? with sleeves of iron"
manicae cum coraczinis "sleeves with corrazine" (listed under the fines for lacking equipment only)
capellum de acciario vel cervelliera "steel cap or skullcap"
gorgeria sive collare de ferro "gorget or iron collar"
lancea "spear"
scutum sive tabolaccium magnum "shield or great tabolaccium"

I would guess that Tuscan tabolaccio is modern Italian tavolaccio "table, bench, bunkbed." So it could be one of the long rectangular infantry shields rather than a pointed knightly shield. The round strapped shields seem less plausible.

Edit: The horsemen must have:

• panzeria sive asbergum "panzerone or hauberk"
• caligae sive stivalettos de ferro "hose or greaves/boots of iron"
• capellum de acciario "steel cap"
• lameriae vel coraczae "lamers or cuirass"
• lancea "spear"
• scutum sive targia vel tabolaccium amplum "shield or targe or broad tabolaccium"

So they have a pair of plates (or possibly a cuirie) over a shirt of mail, whereas the infantry just need one iron armour for their body

[Jonathan Dean]

Ah, that explains that. My Latin definitely needs work (or, rather, needs to be learned rather than acquired ad hoc), so I guess I'll have to make sure that's the first subject I do next year.

Interestingly, here's what seems to be a more general law for Bologna, as opposed to one or the other of the armed societies, from 1265:

Salvo quod in eundo extra civitatem et burgos et etiam redeundo possit quilibet autem pro tuitione sui sine pena portare arma vero defensibilia intelligimus esse panceriam sive coritum cum manicis vel sine manicis gamberias maleatam cerveleriam sive bacilitum brazerolam sive rotellam sive tavolatium collarium et guantos de ferro et lammas sive plattas ferreas alia vero arma cuiuscumque generis sint intelligimus esse offensibilia sive vetata

I think "maleatam" is probably meant to be "galeatam", and I'm wondering if "bacilitum" might be a bascinet, but the usage of "manicis" seems to be possibly different from the Floretine usage. Perhaps the Florentines were using it in the sense of "gauntlets" rather than sleeves? I can't help but feel that "panzeriam sive corictum cum manicis ferrois, aut manicos ferreos cum coraczinis" translates better as "panzers or corictum with iron gloves, or else iron gloves with riveted plates", assuming that "coraczinis" is being used in the sense that they are "coraczine" work. The Bolognese, if I understand correctly, seem to refer to armour with or without quilted sleeves and then gauntlets of iron and lames or gauntlets of iron plate. They might, however, simple assume that the sleeves would be mail.

Re: the translation of "corictum", I thought that coretto/corsetto might be used if "corset" was meant and that "coricto"/"corictum" might be closer to "corium" from an etymological perspective. Genoese records from the first half of the 13th century show that a "corellus" was mostly worth less than a "panceria", which was in turn worth less than half of a hauberk. That's also part of why I assumed that "panzeria" was being used in a German/Scandinavia sense, referring to textile armour. I may be wrong, though, as this is definitely not my normal area of study.

[Sean M]

I can't remember reading a German Panzer, French panchire / pansière, or Italian panzerone which was anything other than a shirt of mail in the 14th century.

My best guess is that corictum or coritum is the Italian word often listed in dictionaries as corsétto http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio/141.html Let the local pronunciation be something like coretto or cossetto and you are almost to the Latin. du Cange has:

CORITUM, a voce Italica Coretto, Thorax ad cordis defensionem ; Gall. Corset

The law from Bologna looks like a standard law against bearing arms in the city in the Athenian and Roman tradition. On pages 144 and 145 there is a clause:

Except that in going outside the city and burghs and also in returning anyone whatsoever may for their own protection carry defensive arms without penalty, which we understand to be a shirt of mail (panceria) or coritum with or without sleeves, ?greaves?/jambiers (gamberiae), maleata, skullcap or bascinet (cerveleria or bacilitum), brazerola or rotella or table (tavolatium), collar and gloves of iron and iron plates or lames, but other arms of any kind we understand to be offensive and forbidden.

Its interesting that neither of these Italian sources from the 1200s mentions gambesons / pourpoints / jupes / farsetti isn't it!

[Jonathan Dean]

I think the question is whether 14th century definitions can be applied backwards to the 13th.

I will say, though, that even with the Bolognese armed societies having some textile armour, the possible or probable lack of it has me completely rethinking infantry armour in Italy. This might be worthy of its own thread.

[Len Parker]

This might be an 11th century gambeson: http://warfare.6te.net/11/Fatimid_Brind ... _11thC.htm

[Ernst]

More fuel for the fire from Pavel Alekseychik
https://zenodo.org/record/6409308#.YkmHwrdOmxx

[Sean M]

Over on corporate social media, Pavel of Medieval Advisor pointed out that glossaries in 13th century England equate Latin thorax, thoracis with either French hauberc or gambaison. It would be helpful to have examples of this term being used in writing (the glossaries were more for speaking Latin in schools). You can find the index to these glossaries on Google Books and the bibliographic info on Age of Datini.

Vol. iii p. 165: thorax = hauberc
Vol. iii p. 165 thoraces = gambeysuns, gambaysuns, gembesuns
Vol. iii p. 167: torax = hauberc, gambesoun
Vol. iii p. 267 gambesoun = torax, thoraces

[Sean M]

One more update! As I prepare to publish part 1Eunice Rathbone Goddard's PhD thesis pointed me to the Annales ianuenses for 1165. These are the official annals of the city of Genoa in the 12th and 13th century, this section ends in 1173 so its roughly contemporary with events.

The Pisan consul prepares to fight at sea by boarding a galley, putting a helm on his head and a ioppum (jupon) on his back (he is a Pisan in a Genoese chronicle, so the fight goes badly for him).

[Sean M]

More fuel for the fire from Pavel Alekseychik
https://zenodo.org/record/6409308#.YkmHwrdOmxx

It looks like he has another aketon for King John from 1212/1213, and the inventory of Faulkes de Breaute from 1224 which was on the Lexis project but not in my list. I will add both of them to the Original Post and part 2 of the article.

[Sean M]

The poem by Neidhart von Reuental is interesting! Its poem 36 in Haupt, Moriz; Wiessner, Edmund, eds. (1923). Neidharts Lieder (2 ed.) (Leipzig: Hirzel) with the first line "Lanze und Anze und Adelber"

(36, 7) Lanze eine treien treit, (Lanze put on a troye)
diu ist von barchâne, (which is of barchent, a fabric containing cotton)
grüene alsô der klê. (green as clover)
(36, 10) ze wige hat er sich bereit
und lebet in dem wâne
daz im niht wiederê.
dar in er gesteppet hât (inside it he had stitched)
(36, 14) ein guot îsenhemde. (a good iron shirt)

So this has an early jazerant, and green barchent!

I will read two other references in poem 41, line 4 and poem 50, line 26. Poem 41, line 26 has something about a troye which is almost cut to pieces.

The editor has this to say about the word treie or troie

treie 139 (36, 7) note p. 218 "treie is the Neidhardian form of the word, the nordic languages know it as Old Norse treya, Swedisch tröya, Danish tröye. I consider it to be of Romance origin, although I can neither explain the etymology nor document it in more than a single Provencal text" (and he is not sure if that text is a scribal error)

I am trying to figure out how much work it will be to obtain all the sources in part 2 (sometimes I just had a reference saying "a poem by so-and-so has this word or phrase")

[Sean M]

Pavel A. found Teaching and Learning Latin by Tony Hunt. This has treaties on 'business Latin' by Adam of Petit Pont, Alexander Nequam, and John of Garland plus the attached glosses in English or French (reading the bible did not give you the vocabulary to keep accounts for an estate or talk about your day with a student who did not share a vernacular). I think there is a variety of interesting material in here if you can get the paper copies and have enough Latin to dig. My university has a paper copy but I don't know when I will be able to look closely.

[Sean M]

Our library has an electronic version of the new English translation of the Chanson d’Antioche based on the edition by Suzanne Duparc-Quioc. This is hard to date because it seems to have gone through several versions, it could be as early as 1170 and as late as 1250 when the Old French Crusade Cycle stabilized. It also seems to have passed from North French to Occitan back to North French. The Chanson claims to be by Richard le Pèlerin who was on the First Crusade but people telling fanciful stories claimed they had all kind of sources.

The Chanson seems to have just two references to these garments.

Atant es vos un Turc orgellous et felon,
D'un dart envenimé feri le prau Ouedon
K’il li fausa l’auberc en aprés l’auqueton,
Dedens li cors li trence le fie et le pomon. (8655)

"Picture a proud and wicked Turk shooting the valiant Eudes with a poisoned arrow that penetrated first his hauberk then his aketon and
went right into his liver and lungs. The baron toppled over dead and the standard with him."

The other is less interesting. Lay 302 has a reference to rolling a hauberk to clean it, lay 364 has a "brass-hilted sword." Lay 239 describes how to make a ladder of strips of deerhide. Lay 326 has some Saracens with Danish axes. Lots of military material culture in this poem!

[Sean M]

Over on Facebook someone said that the following book in Spanish is good. It seems to be based on a 1990 PhD thesis and was probably printed in a small run because most PhD theses don't have a big audience.

Álvaro Soler del Campo, La evolución del armamento medieval en el reino Castellano-leonés y Al-andalus (siglos XII-XIV) (Madrid: Servicio de Publicaciones del E.M.E, 1993)

The passage about gluing hides to shields with cheese paste was cited in:

Gonzalo Menéndez-Pidal, La España del siglo XIII: leida en imágenes, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, 1986 https://books.google.com/books/about/La ... SITPooJy8C

[Sean M]

Over on MyArmoury Len Parker found a Norwegian King's Saga written after 1263 which has someone wearing a treja (quilted coat) and a byrnie (mail coat).

I think Dan Howard is right that Odo Earl of Kent on the Bayeaux Tapestry wears a cote of vair over his hauberk. A team in Denmark recently reconstructed a tenth-century Danish costume as containing a cape with the fur outward. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odo,_Earl_of_Kent



This picture of Boethius also probably shows a coat with the fur outside and its only 100 years later than the Bayeux Tapestry https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boethius.jpeg

[Håvard]

Over on MyArmoury Len Parker found a Norwegian King's Saga written after 1263 which has someone wearing a treja (quilted coat) and a byrnie (mail coat).

Together with the Þiðreks saga that you've allready cited, this is as far as I can tell the oldest use of the word 'treja' in Norse sources. Two extant examples of the text reads: Codex Frisianus AM 45 fol (faximile): "hann hafði goða brynio ok styrkia treyio" (He had good hauberk and strong treja); Skálholtsbók AM 8lA fol: "Hertugi hafdi goda brynju og sterka treyiu", (The duke had good hauberk and strong treja). The cited text explains how the rebellious duke Skule in 1240 survived crossing a bridge beeing shot at by 20 men, his shield becomming studded with arrows, his horse getting seven deep arrow wounds and himself beeing pierced by an arrow at the ancle. It doesen't say if the treja was worn outside or inside the hauberk, but in the hird law we see the same term 'styrka vapntræyiu' denoting a standalone textile armour for the lowest rank, probably indicating that the garment was worn as an outer layer.

[Sean M]

Part 1 (the twelfth century) will be published in Medieval Clothing & Textiles 18 this year. I'm looking for work right now but once I stabilize my income maybe we can talk abut the Old Norse sources for part 2.

Part 1 has a lot of references forward to the Norwegian King's Mirror.

[Len Parker]

The 10th century Sylloge Tacticorum https://dokumen.pub/a-tenth-century-byz ... 65316.html has both infantry and cavalry wearing padded armour as an option.
Infantry:
“In addition, they should wear lorikia, or even klibania, of iron or horn. If these are not available, they must have kabadia made of cotton and coarse silk, reaching to the knees. The sleeves [should] reach the elbows, and have openings around there, in order for the arms to go through them. The sleeves should be attached to the back of the shoulders with loops.”
Cavalry:
“The armour should be mail and fully covering, reaching to the ankles and fastened with thongs and rings, or klibania made of iron or horn, or even long tunics made of cotton and raw silk having openings at the elbows, as we said somewhere above. In addition, they should also wear surcoats which have plumes or tassels at the shoulders.”

[Sean M]

I think that may be the oldest source in world history for soldiers wearing protective quilted garments stuffed with cotton (the older Roman manuals mention felt not cotton). But I limited this study to quilted garments made or worn by Catholic Europeans because I can only do so much.

Byzantine and Sudanese and Indian quilted coats are cool, just not what I am focused on right now.

[Sean M]

If you are interested in cotton clothing in the eastern Mediterranean around the twelfth century, an open-access article is: https://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/4176

And there seems to be a ten-page chapter on textile archaeology in Jennifer L. Ball, Byzantine dress: representations of secular dress in eighth- to twelfth-century painting (2005)

Byzantine and Early Islamic clothing (and possibly linen armour) sound really cool, I just don't know much about them.

[Sean M]

I am intimidated by the Byzantine sources because the 8th to 12th centuries were the time of the Arab Agricultural Revolution, when crops such as cotton, sorghum, and sugar cane (not to mention the silkworm) became common across West Asia, North Africa, and Al-Andalus. People in the hot dry east often wore cotton clothing instead of woolen clothing, whereas people in the cold wet west wore cotton under woolen clothing. So the fibres which people used were changing in this period, and cotton was not as common in the Roman empire in 800 as it was in 1200. Its not like western Europe when people were mostly wearing wool, linen, and hemp before the Romans came, and wool, linen, and hemp in 1500.

I like the idea that people in the Early Middle Ages who wanted soft armour mostly wore felt, and that we have been ignoring what they tell us and demanding that they wear quilted coats stuffed with cotton because that is what Our People wore in Our Time so it must be the One True Way.

[Sean M]

Part 1 (sources before the Fourth Crusade) has now been printed in Medieval Clothing & Textiles 18 pages 1-40. I thank the Archive and contributors on page 2. I can provide a PDF copy to people who are interested in a few weeks.