Hello Gentlemen.

I was investigating the usage of helmets during middle ages and renaissance and i found different versions in different sites. For example, in a web site i found that Barbutas were totally replaced by armets in the very early 1500, while in other sites i found that their use were still widely spreaded during XVI century.
Do you know if barbutas, great helmets(I actually don´t know if great helmet is the true name of this helmet, so i´m posting the photo) and sallets were still used among european men-at-arms during the XVI century?

Thanks

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Most agree great helms (also know as heaumes) were out of widespread battlefield use by the end of the 14th century, though there were likely exceptions. After that time, they were used in tourneys, until they fell out of use even for that, being replaced by other helms, often reinforced my pieces of exchange. Helms similar to the helm you pictured probably would have been out of style by the mid-14th century (at the very latest).

Hello again!

I thought I would post some quotes from Blair's European Armour Circa 1066 to Circa 1700 regarding the use and form of the great helm, just to give some dates, with some mention of the bascinet as well:

Claude Blair wrote:

After c. 1250 the upper part of the helm was often tapered slightly. In the last quarter of the century the taper became more pronounced until the crown had become almost conical, usually truncated at the top...A few illustrations of round-topped helms also occur in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, but they are less common than the conical type... As early as 1298, in the will of Odo de Roussillin, there is a reference to a heaume a vissere...during the period c. 1300-40, illustrations of helms with such a feature (as a moveable visor) are not uncommon. They are usually closely similar in form to the normal conical or round-topped helm, except that part or the whole of the front is pivotted to the skull on each side and can be raised upwards. When seen with the visor raised these helms look very much like bascinets and it is not clear which term should be applied to them. Also during the period c. 1300-40 the ordinary helm was occasionally fitted with a pivotted reinforcing-bevor which covered the face-guard below the sights. The term bascinet is uncommon in texts dating from before c. 1300, but thereafter it is found with great frequency until c. 1450 and then more rarely until c. 1550... The bascinet remained the most popular form of helmet throughout the period (1330-1410)... After c. 1330 the bascinet was almost invariably fitted with its own aventail, sometimes reinforced with a plate bevor... Throughout the period (1330-1410) the bascinet when not concealed by the helm is often shown with a visor... After c 1350 there was a tendency for the helm to be relegated to the tournament field, though illustrations of it being worn in battle can still be found until the early years of the 15th century, particularly in Germany and Italy.... As early as c. 1400 the first true tournament helm, of the so-called "frog-mouthed" form, had made its appearance. What appears to be a helm of this type is, in fact, shown on the second seal of the Salzburg gunmaker Gregor Criech, used from 1388...By the second decade of the 15th century this form seems to have supplanted every other...This type of helm remained in use throughout Europe until the 1530's with little variation in its basic form...

I hope this was helpful and interesting. I was actually surprised by the mention of helms being seen in art up to the early 15th century. I think the bascinet certainly was still more common by the middle of the 14th century. However, now that I think about it, King Henry V supposedly wore a helm at Agincourt.

By the way, Rodolfo, if your interested in 16th century helmets, check out this article about the burgonet:

http://www.myArmoury.com/feature_spot_burgonet.html

Stay safe!

Barbuta means literally the bearded one (female form: italian distinguishes between a male and a female form. Male form would be barbuto, a bearded man).

Celata means hidden, the hidden one, again female form.

I guess that both words are italian in origin, since to call an helm a thing with a beard, when this helm just covers the zone of the male face where a beard appears, would mean that the origin of such helm are where it has been devised: barbut would mean nothing in any other languages, if I'm not wrong, or better, it would mean bearded male in lombard languages (hom barbut), the languages of Milan and Brescia, where such helmets were made in great quantities.

In modern french a bearded male is barbu

Thank you very much for your pattience and the intresting link guys. :D

I have something more to ask. Despite the ambiguous terms, I was told that during XIV century pig or sparrow faced helmets (Sorry, i don´t remember the name. :\ ) And i was told too that during XVI century close helmets were widely used by gendarmes during xvi century, but as there are a lot of types of helmet i´m not rally sure, Do you know wich helm was more popular between Man-at-arms during XVI century?


Thanks.

Hello all!

Rodolfo,

The term "pig-faced" is typically used to refer to the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century bascinet visors that had an elongated "snout". Another term for these is hounskull, a corruption of the German Hundsgugel , hound's hood. These were usually called "visored bascinets", or the French equivalent, in Medieval England. These visors could be either side-hinged, or top-hinged, also known as klappvisier. The conical snout of the hounskull or "pig-faced" visors became quite prominent by the late fourteenth century. (Again, check out the myArmoury article about the fouteenth century bascinet for some examples.)

There are actually several surviving examples of bascinets with "pig-faced" visors. There is an interesting one, made up of several pieces from the same period, of the late fourteenth century, in the Museo Civico L. Marzoli, in Brescia. There is a northern Italian once of circa 1380-1400 with aventail in the Churburg armoury. There is a second Milanese one from Churburg of circa 1390-1400 without an aventail, but with a slightly rounded snout. There is another bascinet of circa 1400, missing the aventail, in the Oldescalchi Collection. There is yet another of circa 1400-1410, this time with the central klappvisier hinge, from Kunstsammlung der Veste, Coburg. And there is one of circa 1400 with a plate gorget, but still a pointed snout, in the Musee de L'Armee.

Sparrow's-beak visors are more typical of later helmets. The armet toward the middle of the fifteenth century developed into a shape called the "sparrow's beak" because of the blunt, sparrow's beak-like, point of the visor. This remained in use until the end of the century, and the visor was also adapted for use on the close-helmet.

I believe that the armet or close-helmet would have been popular for fully armoured warriors of the sixteenth century. Keep in mind, however, contemporary sources don't distinguish between the close-helmet and the armet. Both usually cover the whole head and face when the visor is lowered. Blair calls the close-helmet the most characteristic of the sixteenth century helmets.

I hope this helped!

Hello all!

I wouldn't try to analyze period terms too deeply, they weren't always as specific-minded as we "moderns" tend to be. Anyway, languages evolve. I can't understand a lot of the slang I hear on the street, and many words such as "bad" can take on different meanings at different times.

To continue on with the answer to Rodolfo's questions regarding armets and "pig-faced"helmets, I thought I would present a few images of some helmets. These are just additions to those presented in the articles and albums.

The first image is of a German bacinet from the Metropolitan Mueum of Art. It's very similar to one shown in the article about bascinets, but in this case the snout comes to a point instead of a knob. This one has a visor of "pig-faced" klappvisier form.

The next two are early armets. Notice the interesting "crenellated" edge on the one, and the fact that both have slightly conical tops. They sort of look like "modified" bascinets in a way. Note, too, that they retain the vervelles for a mail aventail.

Keep in mind that the "pig-faced" bascinet is most prevelant in the late fourteenth century and very early fifteenth century, and the early armets date to the early fifteenth century. You would have helmets of somewhat different form for the sixteenth. Also remember that you could have several different types of helmet in use at any one time, and different types were more popular in different regions.

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German bascinet from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Early armet.

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Another early armet.

Richard, it becomes clear that the word had a precise meaning at their birth, which became immediately scrambled, as it was common for military matters.

I have read an early renaissance manuscript work by a brescian condottiere: it is written in a nice mix of italian, brescian, latin, a work nicely epitomizing the ignorance of a man at arms of that age.

They were not exactly Petrarchs: their terminology was imprecise since they were not literate.