Hi, I am looking for evidence of tent designs for the period 1100-1300. I've been up and down the internet but I can't find much useful material. Most of the images I found are from later periods. I did find websites such as Medieval Pavilion Resources but these have largely gone unmaintained and most links don't work anymore.

All I have figured out so far is that the "geteld" tent design shown in some 12th paintings are in fact copies of the 9th century Utrecht Psalter. So, those paintings don't say anything about 12th century tent designs, just about 9th century designs.

Would a round pavilion with spokes (i.e. no perimeter poles) be acceptable?

Thanks in advance!

Bump. No ideas about tents in 1100-1300?

Here's a few links that you might find useful.
currentmiddleages.org/tents
currentmiddleages.org/tents/tentlinks2

Granted, most of the links are "how to" but there is some good historical documentation references on this page.

I hope this helps with your quest!

Thanks Scott, but unfortunately that's the same website I linked in my original post. Almost all the links about the 10th to 12th century are dead. It's a good resource, but it has gone unmaintained and suffers heavily from link-rot.

Sander,

Did you check out the Maciejowski Bible?

http://www.medievaltymes.com/courtyard/images...otm3rd.gif

http://www.medievaltymes.com/courtyard/images...otm3va.gif

http://www.medievaltymes.com/courtyard/images...otm4vb.gif

I'm sure there are many more images besides these, but since the tents for the most part seem to be the same design and construction, there probably isn't much point in linking many more images.

Not the best quality, but a tent from the 1196 Liber ad Honorem Augusti:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons...zilien.jpg

Well here is a perfect opportunity to pratice your french :)

That guy just finished one here:

http://guerriers-du-moyen-age.aceboard.fr/123...-XIIIe.htm

Cheers,

J

Trying to redeem myself here...

The National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek) has a great website dedicated to displaying Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts in their collection.

A simple search by "tent" reveals six hits. One of the six falls within your time period.

"Judith before Holofernes' tent" is from the Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César c. 1250-1275

As an aside, this is a great website for research!

That's an excellent resource Scott! You've certainly redeemed yourself :)

Bump for an old thread.

I'd like to narrow the original post's time frame to AD 1100-1200.

It's easy to find a lot of stuff for the 13th Century, but dang, 12th Century is tough to research.

If you want to look at Byzantine tents c.1200 there are a couple of resources:
Chronicle of John Scylitzes (11th century) also called the Madrid Scylitzes (held by the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid)
Chronicle of Tetrus de Eboli, depicting the seige of Naples 1190-1197
Both of these show a "soft" shaped form of the later medieval round pavilion, with pegged base and multiple guys off the valance, but no top guys. The roof shape is a bit distorted by what looks like an applied fabric band with decoration.
Sources:
The Moors, by Michael Brett and Werner Forman, p16
Byzantium, by Paul Hetherington and Werner Forman, p66
http://65.102.22.82/tents/JohnScylitz.htm
Warfare in the Middle Ages, by Richard Humble, p80

There is also a late 12th century casket in Vannes cathedral showing a classic round pavilion, though the lower walls are relativley short. No link I know of, this is from "Furniture 700-1700", pages 96-97.

Also a (possibly 13th century) image of three bell tents, at www.mediumaevum.com/image/camp_and_march/7011642.jpg

If you go into the 13th century there are many more images from manuscripts.
In case nobody has pointed it out, there are precisely zero extant tents or identifiable tent fragments between about 900 and c.1517, with the example of a complete royal tent in a Spanish museum, which is all rather unhelpful to you.

Talking about Chronicle of John Scylitzes, you could take a look here:

http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/detalle/1754254

Click on "View Work" and then from the list on the left choose images
Vitr_000026-002_0203.jpg
Vitr_000026-002_0315.jpg
Vitr_000026-002_0412.jpg
Vitr_000026-002_0437.jpg
Vitr_000026-002_0443.jpg
and you could see some fine examples of period art. Of course, in the Chronicle itself there are more images, representing tents (or at least, tent-like object), but I think, these images are the best of them.

And these two tents of the middle

[ Linked Image ]

were made using the images from the Chronicle of John Scylitzes as a source.

I tagged these two sources at Manuscript Miniatures for convienience as well.
http://manuscriptminiatures.com/search/?year=...ew=gallery

Tents shown in the manuscript Liber ad honoreum Augusti
by Pietro da Eboli
ca. A.D. 1197

Images of tents during the the German conquest of Italy by King Barbarossa:

http://warfare.uphero.com/Medieval/Liber_ad_h...-f109r.htm
http://warfare.uphero.com/Medieval/Liber_ad_h...-f110r.htm
http://warfare.uphero.com/Medieval/Liber_ad_h...-f112r.htm

Main source page for all of the above:
http://warfare.uphero.com/Medieval/Liber_ad_honorem_Augusti.htm