Another italian name for the buckler is boccoliere.

Sounds pretty similar to chaucer's bokeler, likely it is more ancient than brocchiere.

Here's a few at armour online.

http://www.armouronline.com/weapons_arms/shields/29.html

chris

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Nice stuff,

I really like the museum of London, a must see for people interested in medieval arms and armour if in the city.

RPM

Ah, I didn't think about the gauntlet/shields. They're outside of the medieval era, but what the heck, they're cool anyway. Here's one from the Philadelphia Museum of Art:

http://www.myArmoury.com/albums/photo/3499.html

William & W.:

Agreed, would like to know more about this one. Is it a Victorian repo of some sort?

Or is it a jewel hidden away. Some might take slight at my use of the term..."jewel"...but - it is interesting. I can see extreme practicality in it. Besides the bizarre.

Thank you!

According to the sign in the picture and my fuzzy memory, that's armour belonging to the Spanish ruler and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (Carlos V on the sign). Charles V (see our Feature article on him) lived from 1500-1558, so it's 16th century.

He left behind a ton of armour, some of it pretty out there and in other styles. Some of those were parade armours.

The greaves are optimized for riding, which does nothing to clarify whether it is a parade armour or battle armour. The combination of those greaves and the horizontal plates on/connected to mail is vaguely reminiscent of yushman armour, my knowledge of which is entirely limited to the ongoing "yushman project" thread on these archives. My SWAG is that this is parade armour meant to represent some foreign enemy, but not actually representing it accurately.

http://thestimuleye.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/armour_S.jpg looking closer at the armour plus this photo it looks like the cuirass and pauldron combination goes OVER the maile shirt.

as for whether its a parade armour or field armour but funcionally the ensemble looks like it could function as a light field amour. my biggest concern compared o normal cuirass's used by hussars for example, it leaves our sides uncovered by plate.

the one thing im also SLIGHTLY unsure about regarding this ensemble is the shield/ partizan , maybe im misjudging things bu do you think that polarm would be too unwieldy if used single handed in conjunction with that shield.

but one hing is for certain is hat it provides food for the imagination, and a few 'plausable fantasy armours'

Wow, I forgot all about this thread. :)

William P wrote:

:eek: :wtf: :eek: :!: :?: :!: what the heck.. does anyone know if this is a actual field Armour as in a panoply meant to be used on he battlefield?

If I remember correctly, that is actually one of Charles V's tournament harnesses. It was in DC a few years ago at the Smithsonian, and I got to look at it very closely. It would be a very highly mobile and lightweight harness for bouting safely against an opponent in free play... I wish I could afford one just like it!

As Chad said, don't assume that the weapon and shield automatically go with the harness, as that was a the curator's decision.

Can anybody who's seen the Museum of London 14th century buckler in person tell me whether there is a spike on the boss, and What the construction of the metal rim is like around the edges and back of the shield board? I wish there were some good pictures of the back because I'm trying to make one that's as like the original as possible. I am going to try and contact the museum about that during regular hours.

I emailed Helen Gainaris, Conservation Manager at the Museum of London, and she provided some photographs of the 14th century excavated buckler that are very interesting. I was asked to limit the image size and credit the Museum of London for the photographs. http://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/Onli...amp;rows=1

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current half-and-half state of display

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face-on X-ray

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X-ray showcasing the interesting boss and the clinched nails by which the metal parts are fastened on

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close-up of wooden grip on the back

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cleaning photo in which the shape of the boss is clearly seen

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face view of the buckler during cleaning