Building a historical pavise

[Sean M]

Over on his YouTube channel, Tod has a series on an English recipe for reinforcing shields with an extra layer of half-tanned leather, hide glue, glass powder, and iron filings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGYRM0AmCx4 He used rather thick leather so its hard to say how much the glass and iron filings helped. In the comments, a @notfeedynotlazy pointed to a text from 13th century Castille which says that the leather is glued to shields with cheese paste.

EL ESCUDO: El escudo era de madera, forrado de cuero (56) ... El cuero se pegaba a la madera con <<engrudo de queso>>. (59)

THE SHIELD: The shield was made of wood, covered with leather (56)... The leather was glued to the wood with <<cheese paste>>

(56) Libro de Alexandre 657, ms. O, 685, ms. P
(59) Libros del Saber de Astronomia IV, p. 69

MENENDEZ PIDAL, GONZALO, La España del siglo XIII leida en imágenes, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, 1986 (above quote is from page 261) https://books.google.ca/books?id=2OSITP ... &q&f=false

I don't have library access to an edition of the Libros del Saber de Astronomia from the reign of Alfonso X of Castille and I can't find one online. Can anyone help?

Edit: aha! https://bibliotecadigital.jcyl.es/

Capitolo II. De cuemo se deue partir esta canal. et en quántas partes.

Quando etso quissieres fazar. parte esta canal en quantas partes quissie-
res. segund fuer su grandeza. et aya en cada parte dellas un forado pe-
quenno. por o cosra ell argent uiui de la una parte á la otre. et cada
una destas partes bea bien fuertes. que se non corrompa por la fortaleza dell
argent uiuo. et cúbrela con cuero caballar ó asnar. et con engrud de queso.
assí cuemo cubren los escudos por tal que sean mas fuertes. et pon nom-
bre á este çerci. la madre.

... (Make a receptacle for quicksilver). And cover it with horse or donkey skin. And with cheese paste. Just as when they cover the shields when they want them to be stronger. ...

Edit: thread from 2011 on the recipe which Tod is using http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... 4&t=131492

[ryn S]

Here is a video of someone make a replica pavise: https://youtu.be/ZvvvGGR8i8U

[Sean M]

Elisabeth Singer, "Die Setztartschen des Wiener Bürgerlichen Zeughauses: Geschichte, Bedeutung, Konservierung." In Robert Waissenburger (ed.), Studien 79/80 aus dem Historischen Museum der Stadt Wien. Wiener Schriften Heft 44 (Jugend & Volk: Wien and München, 1980) p. 84 (my translation)

(The fifteenth-century pavises in the Wiener Zeughaus) consist as a rule of soft wood (linden) and are assembled in three parts. The sides are formed from roughly 2 cm thick, slightly concave boards, the central rib is carved into the desired form. The solid attachment of all three parts is assured by glue and the insertion of wooden pegs (Holzzapfen). This wood core, which for the better fastening of the additional layers was not smoothed and in some cases even shows criss-cross incisions, was almost impregnated with glue and covered many times with material similar to hemp, which was probably meant to equalize tension between the wood and the canvas. On both sides of this prepared underlayer were placed canvas or parchment.

The article by Daniela Karl in Schilde des Spätmittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit has another three-plank hand pavise where the trough is joined to the side planks with dowels.

I am sure there were many ways to build a pavise, but the three-plank pegged construction works well with our technology (we buy lumber as milled planks not as a half log or a quarter of a log).

Three-cornered shields from the 14th century are usually made of boards 7-15 mm thick. Shields got thicker in the 15th century, perhaps because weapons were becoming more powerful.