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bout 600 or more pages, Hardback. A Tremendous re - work by Brian Price. An extremely indepth and masterful description of text, photographs, sketches, charts, etc. A highly prized reference book in my personal library!k

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This is a "must-have" book for any enthusiast in European armour of 14th century - while some of the ideas of author might be outdated by nowedays standarts, it is still extremely valluable source of information.

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This book is hard not to keep picking up, even though I've had it in my library for quite a while now. It is morbidly fascinating, and offers an insite into a battle, a period, and a geography I knew little about before reading this book. It has been critiqued by people much more informed than I, so I won't do that. Instead, I'll let myArmoury readers know that this book brings the combatants to life through the study of their deaths, their wounds, and their armour (no weapons, as would be expected in mass graves). The wound pathology is fascinating, and in some cases immensely sad. The armour is ... unexpected. The book is loaded with photos. For this period, I found I had to unlearn misconceptions and relearn the truth about armour of the day. I recommend this book because it offers such a rare glimpse into an event that otherwise would not have made it into very many history books. If you never read it, the pictures alone are worth it. The reason I gave it a 9 and not a 10 is that, from a scientific perspective, the date gathering and analysis is a bit wanting, and I think the methodology has left us with unanswered questions that could have been answered e.g. a mass analysis of wounds versus a skeleton-by-skeleton analysis.

—Updated Oct 28, 2008 :: 1 of 1 members found this review helpful

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Very specific to the time period in question. I used some of the excellent photographs and sketches to design the coat of plates I wear. If one wants information that is outside of the arm, or the wounds that were suffered at Wisby then this is not the book. I find it a very solid reference piece.

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I love this book both for its historic uses but also it is good for beginning armourers to see a step in plate armours development that is not usually looked at much. Wisby is such an important find and this book is a great one. I have read it half a dozen times and look forward to rereading it.

—Updated Jul 17, 2006 :: 1 of 1 members found this review helpful

Hollywood, move over. Here's the real deal. The amount of money you need to spend on this book is well worth it. You'll get full coverage of the real thing in medieval battles.

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a very detailed summery on the Visby battle graves. it also includes all of the coat of plates designs. great for the reenactor wanting to make a period COP ;)

—Updated Dec 16, 2005 :: 0 of 1 members found this review helpful

—Updated Nov 24, 2005

This book is indeed a classic, but it isn't for everyone. It is an old-fashioned scholarly work, not light reading. The detail is staggering, and may overwhelm a general reader. The section on battle injuries tabulates data on all of the corpses recovered from the battle graves, and charts abnormalities in great detail - such as tables of the number of arrow wounds to skulls from various angles. (There is a limitation in that the corpses were not excavated as separate bodies: one skull and its associated two shoulder blades and one pelvis; so the pattern of injuries per corpse is not determined.) The section on armour includes an extensive history of relevant armour development, and discussion of many individual pieces of armour and reconstruction thereof.

I don't know of any other book like this; it has a wealth of information to be mined, but is best taken (for me) in parts.

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