[Gabriele C.]

I sent this document to Nathan Robinson to elaborate a feature article or something like that, but i know my english is not easy to understand or maybe the text has been already published in english. So i decided to share it with all of you. I found an interesting source about armors, smiths and arms/armors trading in the period 1277-1288 for the city of Milan.
The title is "De Magnalibus Mediolani", an opera written in latin by Bonvesin de la Riva in 1288 (The Visconti family took the power in 1277 and until the death of Filippo Maria Visconti in 1447 they ruled the city). This work got lost for more than 6 centuries and found in Madrid at the begin of the XXth century.

Here is the pass:

Chapter V

XX.(1) Viso de strenuis actibus civitatis in bello, nunc de ipsis armorum exornatione ac preparamentis, que in bellorum expedicionibus congruunt, videamus. Ubi enim reperietur alterius populus civitatis in mondo ferreis armis tam decenter armatus? Nunmquam profectovel raro. Non enim equitum solummodo, sed etiam peditum videres in bello decentes catervas in acie corruscantibus armis,loricis,thoracibus,lameriis,galcis,galeriis,ferreiis cerebralibus,collariis,cirotecis,tibialibus,femoralibus et genualibus, ferreis lanceis,palis,ensibus,pugionibus,clavis,clipeis decentissime corruscantes; videres equitum acies a pedum plantis usque ad vertices armorum fulgore nitentes et sonipedum tumultus faleris opertos, non solum generis nobilitate, sed morum atque armorum strenuitate quales et tantam et talem civitatem decent ceteros precelentium. Nec mirum quidem si nostri concives, viri honorabilles, pre ceteris gentibus curialitatis et largitatis gratia bravium obtinentes, in decoris armis et militaribus equis in militie tempore delectantur et pre ceteris gentibus exornantur. Naturalis enim strenuitas ubi est, ibi se in tempore suo ostentat.(2) Preterea in nostra civitate et eius comitatu flos est fabrorum et copia, qui cuiusque maneriei cotidie fabricant armaturas, quas quidem per alias civitates propinquas et etiam longiquas in mirabili copia distribuunt mercatores.
XXI. Loricarum enim fabri principales ultra centesimum numerum terminun petunt; quorum quidem singuli subiectos quamplures continent operarios macularum artificio mirabili cotidie insistentes. Sunt quoquequam multi scutarii et demum cuiusque generis armorum fabricatores, de quorum numero nequaquam facio mentionem.

My traslation in english (it's a quite easy latin, compared to the traslation from Cicero,Polibio, Seneca etc.. that i used to do in high school):

Chapter V

XX. (1)We saw the glorious actions of Milaneses (people of Milan) in war, let's see now how they do and decorate arms used during miltary expeditions. In what other city you will find such a spendidly armed, with iron amrs, people? You'll never find. Infact not only knights, but you could even admire the amazing infantry schiere on the battlefield with shining arms, loriche, breast plats, metal foils,elms, iron elms, protecions for the neck (goletta?),gauntlets, greaves,cuisses, poleyns,iron spears,poles weapons, swords,daggers,maces,shields; you could see knights shining from the feet to the head in their armors....(in this few lines he talks about the braveness and noble spirit of Milanese knights)....(2) In our city and in the countryside aroud there are a lots of smiths, every day they forge armors of every kind, that merchants sell in near and very far cities.
XXI.The main smiths of Milano are more than one hundred and each one gives orders to a big amount of workmen, who day by day work admirably on "machines"(?) (probably the autor' s talking about all the istruments necessary for a smith). There are even a lot of shields makers and others smiths who create different kind of weapons, they are so much that i can't say exatly what is their number.


There are many interesting discussion to develop from this extract:

1- The massive arms & armors production of Milanese smiths in the 1270-1290ca. They were able to make a&a for 10.000 knights
(the same source says in the n. XIX that Milano had 30.000 infantry men and 10.000 knights) and sell an incredible amount in foreign countries.

2- The kind of armor they made. Infact the words "loricibus" "thoracibus" and "lameriis" describe three armors. The lorica was the acient roman cuirass (in the variuos form developed trough the centuries), but probably the meaning in the XIII century included all kinds of body protections. "Thoracibus" and "lameriis" seem to mean a precocious development in the plate armor made by Milanese smiths. That could be argued by the following words "galcis,galeriis,ferreiis cerebralibus,collariis,cirotecis,tibialibus,femoralibus et genualibus" that show a kind of armed man completely covered by iron pieces a few decades before the definitive explosion of total plate armor.

I'd like to have a better knowledge of english to express accurately my point of view.

Thanks

Gabriele Campagnano

[Randall Moffett]

Gabriele,


As far as the weapons and armour. Yeah translating armour and arms terms is hard and there are tons of tools I'd recommend for translation from latin to english. Sadly I do not know if that is what you would like as it would be more helpful in your language to get a better idea of the definitions and items but I only do translations to english (sometimes spanish and latin). Latham has a great book of medieval latin to english. Lorica is a very lose word for translation. I also am not sure of the translation into english,not to offend. If I have a half hour I will sit down and translate the latin. It is very interesting and at such a date is helful to see the kind of production going on. I hope you do get this out as it shows some good informatons. One other issue might be what armour is mail and what is not. It depends alot on the source as some regions use different latin. I wonder if actually being unfamiliar with italian latin use would be a great factor as well...

RPM

[Gabriele C.]

[Randall Moffett]

I was not saying you had the armour terms wrong just that our sources would help you greatly as they do everyone who is translating and giving you the heads up as one person who does translations fairly often. The warning about mail is one that comes up in most editorial notes on armour translation so figure it was valid here. I agree that lameriis is not mail. Metal strip armour makes sense in itself. Still have not had ten minutes together to translate the piece either. I think it has been translated into English but not sure if all was. I will look into it later. Perhaps a world cat search or something. Have to run, have business in the local archive...

RPM

[Bruno Giordan]

Tibi gratias ago, bene fecisti.

Where the hell is my latin vocabulary ?

Zooks, good to se the good neighbour Bonvesin de la Riva .

[Randall Moffett]

Ok. Looks like it has been translated before on a few occasions and in multiple languages. We are on easter schedule still on campus and I could not make it to the library to get in and get it. It would be good to see the translation and what the translator decided to use.

RPM

[Lafayette C Curtis]

BTW, "loriche" seems to imply mail to me--at least medieval Greek often uses lorikion to refer to a coat of mail--when it's not using the word in the general sense of "armor."

[Randall Moffett]

Lafayette,

It can be. I have seen it mean plate in the mid 14th though.

RPM

[Gabriele C.]

[Gabriele C.]

[Bruno Giordan]

\\\"galcis,galeriis,ferreiis cerebralibus,collariis,cirotecis,tibialibus,femoralibus et genualibus\\\".

I would infer that if cervellieres (cerebrales) are stated as ferreis (= made of iron, i.e. ferrum) , we should derive that the other body parts mentioned are made of leather, as of the period of writing would suggest.

We have knees (genualibus), tibialibus and femoralibus (parts covering tibiae and femurs, so we should have schynbalds and what else?) collariis (gorgets, collars): I think all of them not being made of iron, since the helmets are stated as being iron made while other parts aren\\\'t.

[Bruno Giordan]

\"Non enim equitum solummodo, sed etiam peditum videres in bello decentes catervas\".

Another observation: here we have an exceptional situation being described, that of pedites (infantrymen) dressed as well as knights: the author is sayng that Milan is as rich as allow itself the unusual privilege of arming its infantry soldiers just like knights.

In fact he states that such sight is nowhere to be seen.

Maybe he is exagerating a bit but the truth is that Milan was already an industrial power, as it is today the core of the italian industrialized area.

[Randall Moffett]

Bruno,

You might be right. They could be leather. The use of where it is iron could apply to the other nouns as well if I remember right. If I can find some references (I really cannot remember where I picked this up at) of it I will but I think it is a quick hand of writting a helmet of iron, a pair of iron gauntlets, a iron breastplate with iron sabatones, etc. Like writting It. for item. In this case of iron, ____, ___, ___, etc. More often the material it is made of is unknown. I have actually never seen an inventory where all the items are the same material say ____ of iron, ____ of iron, ____ of iron. If you were changing materials you'd expect it to be stated I suppose and the helmet of iron, the gorget of leather, the arms of latten, etc but in the end most still do not. Of course being familiar with the authors style is likely the key to this issue as they all are writting in their own way. I think he states some things are steel as well. In the end the fact he does not say it is or is not iron does not per se mean it is leather either. it could befabric as well. It could on the other hand mean it is of some leather or splinted construction as well.

I imagine Milan was better armoured and armed at this point but agree that I doubt it was like those around them were that far behind. There is evidence that bits of plate are in some quantity all over main european countries, perhaps not
ireland but England, France, Germany, Spain, etc.

RPM

[Randall Moffett]

Sorry,

jusr reread what I wrote. Basically the idea of what I wrote before has much to do with not using standard punctuation as well. I though I had stated that before but in my haste (I am working on some civic records mid 15th at the time.... just hit some fun stuff by the way!!!) I forgot. So read it w/out punctuation and it makes more sense that of iron applies as it is not a helmet of iron, gorget but of iron helmet gorget. Sorry I neglected to explain that but I am really tied up. Spent a good 30 minutes looking for the copy of the book but I think I must have just been unlucky or they placed all of them back in the wrong place..... (not likely, just that I am rushing... sorry)

RPM

[Bruno Giordan]

The reenactors of the Milanese Communal Militia / at http://www.miliziecomunali.org/ show a good degree of knowledge of old texts.

it would be nice to hear what they have to say of Bonvesin's piece.