In this thread I would like to try and list some of the big gross developments in the 15th century (versus fiddly details like whether a hinge goes inside or outside the armour and whether to use a strap or a turn-pin somewhere). I am not a 15th century guy so I would appreciate thoughts and suggestions!
Headpieces
Early 15th century art from Spain and Austria often shows articulated gorgets of long narrow lames which go all around the neck, they may be related to ...
Grand bascinets with the skull loosely fastened to plates encircling the neck. These ensure that thrusts to the front of the throat always hit plate, but do not protect against blows to the top of the head breaking the neck.
Grand bascinets where the skull is rigidly fastened to the plates encircling the neck. These ensure that thrusts to the front of the throat always hit plate, and they prevent axe blows from breaking the neck, but they are hard to put on and off, heavy, and limit head movements.
Headpieces with hinged cheek pieces fastening closed at the chin (eg. armets)
Headpieces with chin protection pivoted at the side of the head (including some grand bascinets and later close helms and close helm / sallets)
The sallet/bevor system
The armet/wrapper system
Visors which lock open or closed and are not just held in place by gravity and a stiff hinge (date? examples?)
Summing up: It seems like between about 1400 and 1430, there was a widespread belief that the bascinet with camail was not providing good enough protection to the throat, and experiments with alternatives. Eventually most warriors choose one of these alternatives. These satisfy them until the early 16th century, when armourers switch to the gorget of plates which ends under the chin.
Cuirass
'Gussets' on the breastplate (sliding lames at the lower front of the breastplate which slide under the breastplate when the arms go down and forward: some of Lorenz Helmschmied's work in Vienna has them)
Backplates that span from armpit to armpit (versus breastplates with wings like CH-13). There are different constructions eg. the backplates with two "panels" under the armpits and a part that just covers the back, or the Italian backs which have lames at the top.
The plackart with a peak in the middle strapped to the breast and back
Tassets
Tassets of lames (invented in Innsbruck around 1490?)
'Croissant' plates worn inside the cuirass at the armpits (Toby Capwell spotted them in volume 2)
Kastenbrusts with their relatively angular shape in a world where most cuirasses were smooth and round
Toby Capwell is big on the number of lames in the fauld as a diagnostic (more lames = more for combat on foot) and I think that is fair although its not really new
Bracers
Asymmetrical designs with the left side bulkier and covered with double plates "to encounter the lance" (as the French treatise from 1446-1448 puts it)
Pauldrons (lets say shoulder armour which covers the body armour at the front or back of the shoulder)
Haut-pieces that stand up from the pauldron to deflect incoming lances away from the neck
Reinforcements / over-plates for the pauldrons
Reinforcements / over-plates for the couters
Stop-ribs below the articulation of the couter? (In the 16th century these sometimes turn into a thing like half a teacup, eg. on Henry VIII's armour from 1540, either way its to keep incoming weapons from catching in the articulation lames)
warning: 16th century weirdness!
end of 16th century weirdness
Gussets of plate at the inner elbow
Revival of vambraces with floating elbows on fine armour (they are an old idea but in the early 15th century are rare on paintings and sculptures of very fine armour)
Gauntlets
Hybrid gauntlets with scale fingers under one or two lames over the knuckles (eg. CH-18 and the gauntlets on some English effigies)
Mitten gauntlets
Gauntlets with a double plate on the back of the hand like the reinforce for a pauldron
Uncovered gauntlets with articulations below the first knuckle (Wisby gauntlets are something else that draws more on the pair of plates tradition than on articulated armour design)
Legharness
Arse-gussets
Very long cuisses that need collapsing lames at the top
Cuisses with an under-lapped demi-cuisse
Cuisses whose back is a series of vertical splints not a single plate (Blair no. 219, 221)
Legharness where the poleyn and poleyn lames are a separate unit from the cuisse and the greave
Gussets of plate at the back of the knee
Longer styles of greaves (I see a gradual trend over the 15th century for greaves to get longer at the side until they almost reach the ground in the sides and back, Dr. Toby sees more of a sharp transition around 1490 from greaves that go just below the ankle to greaves that go all the way down)
Greaves which end at the ankles (the youngest armour in Mantova has them, Blair dates them c. 1500)
Decoration
Etching
Applied brass borders mark a few styles even if they are not new
Fluting and ribbing characterize different styles even if they are not new
Locksmith's Work
Screwed fastenings
SUMMING UP
I'm a 14th century guy, and it seems to me like after 1430 there is a slowdown in fundamental innovation and more playing around with an established design toolbox to create different looks or change the balance between different goods (like how Milanese armour is very protective but heavy, or English solutions for the bottom of the greave give great mobility but are fiddly). I'm just trying to think better about what are basic choices in designing an armour, and what are technical details that the armourer probably wouldn't trouble the client about. I would appreciate other perspectives!
We have forum threads and social media posts arguing about dates of specific features or collecting examples, and I feel like some kind of overview would be helpful. We have access to so much more art and surviving armour than we had access to 20 years ago!
