The Defensive Armour and the Weapons and Engines of War of Mediæval Times, and of the Renaissance
Robert Coltman Clephan
9781465656100
281 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
This volume has grown out of some “notes” printed in the Archæologia Æliana in 1898, and added to as any new facts and lights presented themselves to me. The text is compressed as much as possible, with a view to publishing at a moderate cost; and as a more general interest in arms and armour is decidedly growing, I venture to hope that this volume, however imperfect, may supply a want, and that it does not contain too many manifest errors and inaccuracies. The subject is treated chronologically, and no further detail entered into than seemed necessary for presenting it in a consecutive and concrete form. All students, myself among the number, owe much to those experts whose original research and delineation of nice points of detail go to make history in the several branches of my subject, and it is to be regretted that more of them do not undertake further comprehensive work. Defensive armour is the section I am most conversant with, and it is perhaps the one affording the most concrete materials for chronological classification and analysis. The question of the weapons of the “middle ages” and of the “renaissance,” their chronology, description and classification, is far from being in a satisfactory state. There are no books dealing with the subject as a whole, and many of the “notes” and “papers” I have seen spread over many years are, most of them, very sectional and fragmentary in their scope and character. Technical terms vary exceedingly among the different writers, and some more generally intelligible codification is very desirable. International it cannot be, as Germany naturally has her own terms, while those of England are perhaps as necessarily mixed up with Norman-French. There are often great difficulties in the way of reasonably approximating the date and nationality of both weapons and armour, owing to causes which will be touched upon later in these pages; but these apparent inconsistencies must needs be grappled with as far as possible, and herein lies the work of the archæologist. In the case of sword specimens, it very often happens that blades and hilts belong to widely different periods, and even nationalities, and cases of this kind often give rise to much doubt and perplexity; indeed, unless there is evidence that a blade and hilt are contemporaneous, it is always well to consider that they may not be so; for blades were passed down from father to son, and often re-hilted more than once. Hilts also were often re-bladed. The great question of smiths’ marks could only be adequately dealt with in a volume devoted entirely to that subject. This will be seen from the complexity arising from the piracy of marks—such, for instance, as that of the running wolf of Passau, or Scottish blades with the many variations of “Ferrara” impressed upon them. These marks came to be regarded merely as “standards,” and were often used without any intention to defraud—in the sense, in fact, of the name “Wallsend” being applied to express a certain quality in coals. A book dealing comprehensively with this branch of the subject has yet to be written. While gratefully acknowledging much information and infinite assistance from other writers, I have found many manifest errors, which have been both inherited and perpetuated, handed down, so to speak, through long generations of book-making. I have taken as little as possible from books, especially over the period where actual specimens are available, but have endeavoured, by carefully studying many important collections, both at home and abroad, to compare, as far as possible, the types and fashions prevailing at the different periods dealt with, which, however, greatly interweave, especially among European nations, where easy facilities for interchange existed.
