[Allen Johnson]

Been trying to find some documentation on late 16th century arming jacks/coats/gambesons... what ever you want to call them. Specifically what would be worn under the notable 3/4th armor such as the black and white suit seen below.

I've seen some good examples of padded jacks, doublets and coats that could be worn under the breastplates or worn on their own, but I can't find any examples of coats where there are placements for the pointing of armor. Any leads?

Thanks ya'll!

[Lafayette C Curtis]

I'd say there were two factors that made medieval-style arming doublets become less popular in the 16th century. First, normal civilian attire became more padded and structured than ever before, so I suspect many civilian garments could work decently well as arming undergarments without significant modification. At the same time changes in ranching practices made leather cheaper and more available, so we start seeing the extensive use of leather as armour in the form of buff coats (though this doesn't seem to have really taken off until the 17th century).

The second possible cause is that armour components were now tied/pointed to each other rather than to an undergarment; the gorget served as the foundational piece for this kind of attachment, with the arms being linked to it rather than the sleeves of the arming garment underneath. Of course, conventional leg armour in the medieval style still had to be pointed to the undergarment, and I sometimes wonder if this was a significant factor in the move away from medieval-style legs to the extended tassets of three-quarters armour in the 16th and 17th centuries. I once started a topic with a question about this general subject: http://myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=276...ght=points

[Mart Shearer]

Real Armería: Inventario Iluminado, 1554-58


Similar to this Moroni portrait from c. 1560.
[ Linked Image ]

[Jeffrey Faulk]

Mart:

Those two pieces paired together, on the right of the middle row-- what in the world are those? I would think they are two pieces (right and left) of some kind of mail undergarment that are lacking a fabric foundation, but the 'neck' pieces seem to be closed?

[Dan Rosen]