I'm a dutch guy who is scraping together his first re-enacting kit. I want to portray a anno 1362 west-german professional mercenary crossbowman in northern france.
So I was thinking about wearing pieces of splinted armour. But I have some questions about this. For instance:
I have seen splinted greaves on funerary brasses and possibly splinted cuisses too because of the rivetheads that show. But I've never come across splinted vambraces. Do any of you know any sources for this?
Also, I was wondering if tapered splints are historically accurate, i think they look cool, but sofar all i've come across are the straight bar like splints.
Thanks for the info!

Bertus

--------------------

I was going to write that 'splints' in the form of presumably leather and latten or steel defences are a very German thing, but since you are portraying a German, you are on fairly safe ground.

I have yet to see any depiction other than straight bands of reenforcement for Europe, and I think the occassional reproductions running about out there with trapazoidal sheets over leather are an SCA-isim, probably loosely based on Indian and Turkish mail and plate defences of the 15th and 16th centuries (and later).

I would like to see a first-rate speculative reproduction of these, with reenforces directly copying a pattern on an effigy over cuir-bolli molded foundation, rather than some bar stock riveted over a sheet of belt leather. It would be neat to see how a real pair might have worked or gone together.

--------------------

quote:

---

Originally posted by chef de chambre:
Hi Herman,

I was going to write that 'splints' in the form of presumably leather and latten or steel defences are a very German thing, but since you are portraying a German, you are on fairly safe ground.

I have yet to see any depiction other than straight bands of reenforcement for Europe, and I think the occassional reproductions running about out there with trapazoidal sheets over leather are an SCA-isim, probably loosely based on Indian and Turkish mail and plate defences of the 15th and 16th centuries (and later).

---

Hey, Bob, I think I might be reading something wrong here. Are you saying you believe the use of splinted armor was uncommon outside of Germany? If so, Mac and I were looking at a lovely Italian statue with very obvious splinted arms last week; you could see neat rows of rivets all the way along the lower cannon of the vambraces. We then looked at some other Italian arm examples to compare that with. Also, of course, there's Sir Miles Stapleton's effigy (just to name one of dozens of English effigies with splinted cuisses).

Or am I misunderstanding your post?

--------------------

Splinted vambraces are present on a funeral statue of Gottfried von Arnsberg, d. 1371.His grave is in the cathedral in Cologne, Germany, and it's WONDERFUL! Unfortunately, it's covered in a metal cage, so it's tricky to get a good view.

I posted two photos at:
http://content.communities.msn.com/DavidsArmorSite/14thcenturyarmorpictures.msnw

I can post a few more showing the leg splinting and interesting early sabatons if there is interest.

Regards

D

You do indeed misinterpret what I am writing Hugh. My point is simply that the defence was most common in Germany. While occuring outside of the HRE, it wasn't the "norm", or as common elsewhere as there. For instance, it is a rare occurance in English funerary monuments. I will wager heavily your Italian examples are from Northern Italy, wich was indeed heavily influenced by the 'German' parts of the Empire militarily, until the late 14th century.

As to The St. Ursula reliquery, having seen the painting enlarged, I have no reason to believe that the harness depicts leather defences reenforced by metal. Given the overal reflectiveness of the arms in question, and then comparing it to near contemporary defences (within 10 - 20 years)with heavy decorative embossing, for instance, an identical pauldron in form (Higgins Armory Museum 928.12), and breastplates such as 29.158.163a,b (Metropolitan Museum), I don't see any reason to suspect what is depicted is anything other than an entirely metal defence.

I have not seen a clear depiction of this sort of defence post 1390. Rene of Anjou's "Book of the Tourney" shows cuir-bolli arm defences reenforced with cord and wood slats as specialized gear for the club tourney - alongside such specialized gear as preforated breastplates for ventilation. Significantly, there is to my knowledge no mention of such items in the mid 15th century wills and inventories of 'armour houses' (such as the Howard Houshold accounts, or the De Vere inventory composed after the Earl of Oxfords death, the Caister castle inventories, etc).

It seems such lighter defences were supplanted in the late 14th century with brigandine work defences, which in contrast are much mentioned.

--------------------