Hypotetical reconstrution of a CoP, 1200-1250 -- myArmoury.com

Daniele Trentin

Hi to all folks!

I need some help from you.

I am thinking about making an hypotetical reconstruction of a coat of plates of the 1250's,.

I already know the main two sources, the St.Maurice effigy and the guard of the Holy Sepulchre, but it is not exactly what I am planning.

I did dome researches, in northern italian communal statutes. In many of them I have found the term lameria, a torso defence which was used over a hauberk (for richer fighters like knights and sergeants) or alone, perhaps over a gambeson, for infantrymen. It is often required as an alternative of the corettum, which has not clearly identified yet but seems to be a leather breastplate or similar, and the panzeria which is a short-sleeved mail shirt shorter and lighter than a hauberk.

I read a book by Aldo Settia, a major italian medievalist, who thinks such armor could have been an ancestor of XIV-century coat-of-plates and later brigandines. He also thinks that the St.Maurice armor could be a lameria, but I don't know in medieval Germany how common were such defences.

Well, I want to make a hypotetical reconstruction of such lameria for a heavy infantryman. What I need right now are sources on how coat-of-plates were made and how common they were in the XIII century.

The only examples I know atre the Wisby ones, dating 1361 but probably outdated for that century, and (I read, I'm not sure) be more likely of the 1320 or so. I wanted to compare such armors with earlier examples, to understand how they have evolved and at the end to make a reasonable reconstruction of such lameria.

I live in an area which had great german influence, being ruled from the da Romano family (Ezzelino II da Romano), so I'd primarly focus on italian and german sources. The period is the middle of the century, the earlier we stay the better is for me.

I would also like to gather some sources and then discuss them. I don't like very much posts like "it was in this way" or "ther did this because I think so", I need the more sources I can get, and any hypothesis should be made from these sources. Thanks a lot in advance for your understanding.

Many thanks to your contribute.

Regards,

Daniele

Mart Shearer · Posted: Sat 10 Jan, 2015 9:15 am Post subject:

http://archive.org/stream/statutidellesoc02ga...2/mode/1up

p.17
Societa Dei Lombardi, 1256
Sec. XXXXVI

Item statuimus et ordinamus quod quilibet de
societate armorum debeat habere
scutum seu scrimetum, elmum vel caçetum,
cubam vel guayferiam vel lamerium
cum insignia societates intus, et eam portare in dorso
in omni exercitu et cavalcata et strenuta.

This is one of the earliest references to the "lamerium" of which I am aware. While it seems comfortable to take this back to 1250, I certainly wouldn't want to push it back to 1200, or even 1225. Further, we are unsure of the differences between scutum and scrimetum shields, elmum or caçetum head protection, or cubam or guayferiam or lamerium body protection. These lames might be a pair of plates, or scale armor. Some might go out on a limb and suggest lamellar armor.

We do see that the armor is to be marked on the inside as belonging to the Society, but that does little to help us with construction. The other two cited sources, the St. Maurice of Magdeburg (generally given as c.1250 though Claude Blair considers that it might be as late as c.1300) and the "Sleeping Guard" from Kloster Wienhausen, c. 1280-1290, are nebulous sources for the appearance of an armor c.1250. Both do seem to depict all vertically aligned plates, like the Wisby Type II defenses. Pairs of plates aren't common in depictions from the 13th century, primarily due to the commonality of the surcoat worn over armor.

Daniele Trentin · Posted: Sat 10 Jan, 2015 1:24 pm Post subject:

Well, Mart, first thanks for the reply.

I have found references to the lameriam even earlier than yours. In 1241 the Paduan Lemizo di Menighini Ardenghi has left as heritage two lamerias, and in 1237 knights serving Ezzelino II da Romano were protected by such defences over their hauberk. These informations are taken from a book from Aldo Settia, which I don't have now, as soon as I recover it I am able to post the original documents.

In 1225 Treviso statutes say that communal notaries must have, among other pieces of armor, "panceriam vel coraciam", the former being a short-sleeved mail shirt, the latter probably similar to the lameria. In the same document people who want to perform some communal services were expected to have "panceriam vel coraciam sive lamam".

From the "Acta comunitas Tarvisii" in 1240, we have the citizen named Alberto del Turco who asks for compensation for his lost equipment, which includes "[...] unius pancerie cum capirono et duarum gamberiarum ad cingendum cum duabus aliis gamberiis et unius lamerie [...]". In another scroll in Treviso we read an inventory of Alberto Orfanello goods, including "[...]et in una mascara et in una lameria[...]".

There are other evidences of such term before 1250. There are even other terms, like corettum and the said above coraciam, which might have been defences similar to the lameria. So it is likely that such armor might have been quite common before 1250 even among infantrymen, especially in german area (most records of proto-plate armor are from german, even in north-east Italy where the da Romano ruled (that is why I wanted to do further researches in german written sources). The records of such armor are much more common as we approach to the end of the century, so it seems reasonable for me to make one for the second quarter of the century.

Unfortunately I don't think we have any reference on how such lameriam were made. I think it might me reasonable to make them in a similar way the Wisby CoP are made...but I don't want to make an hypotesisi without a solid research work, so I've started this topic.

Dan Howard · Posted: Sat 10 Jan, 2015 2:01 pm Post subject:

IMO any armour term that begins with "cor" is probably made of leather/hide (from the latin corium). Leather armour seems to have been more common in Italy than further north or west. The early references to lameria helps the argument that it is a scale/lamellar construction rather than a CoP. Gerald of Wales wrote about some of the Danes who attacked Dublin castle in 1171 wearing laminis ferreis arte consutis. Do we want to push the CoP back to the 12th century?

Mart Shearer · Posted: Sat 10 Jan, 2015 3:23 pm Post subject:

On the concurrent thread, I gave the following.

On the leather cuirie, Claude Blair gives this:

Sean Manning · Posted: Sun 11 Jan, 2015 3:22 am Post subject:

Dan Howard · Posted: Sun 11 Jan, 2015 1:19 pm Post subject:

There is an argument that the "cuirass" (and all of its variants) was so called because it was initially made from leather.

Mart Shearer · Posted: Sun 11 Jan, 2015 1:54 pm Post subject:

Sean is correct, as we see the corset as a corpus body armor rather than one of corium leather. After discussing the 13th century usage of corset on Armour Archive, it seems most likely to have been a sleeveless mail "vest".
http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewto...p;t=153028

The Italian urban militia regulations are quite similar to the later London regulation, where several armor types worn over an aketon are considered equivalent in meeting the requirement of being "properly armed".

Dan Howard · Posted: Sun 11 Jan, 2015 2:29 pm Post subject:

Sean Manning · Posted: Mon 12 Jan, 2015 3:22 am Post subject:

Mart Shearer · Posted: Thu 15 Oct, 2015 6:12 pm Post subject:

The 1322 inventory of Roger de Mortimer at Wigmore Castle includes
ij. paribus de plates
j. quirre
ij. paribus lameriorum

So a definite distinction between pairs of plates, curies, and "pairs of lames". This seems more-and-more likely to be the medieval term for scale armors.

Dan Howard · Posted: Fri 16 Oct, 2015 2:30 pm Post subject:

Randall Moffett · Posted: Fri 16 Oct, 2015 2:41 pm Post subject:

Curious indeed. That said know terms are often rather fluid so I am not sure we can be sure Mart but here is sure seems to be looking like three distinct armours.

Could it be something other than scale or leather? I think pair of plates seems to be relatively solid for the most part from what I have seen.

Fantastic find.

RPM

Mart Shearer · Posted: Fri 16 Oct, 2015 2:43 pm Post subject:

Back to Daniele's original question, there are the "Sleeping Guards" at the Round Chapel in Constance from around 1260-1300. Although there are rivets visible on the helms and kettle hats, there don't seem to be any carved on the body. Nevertheless, the form is so similar to that on the Maurice at Magdeburg that it seems they obviously represent pairs of plates.

http://www.bildindex.de/bilder/mi06641g02a.jpg
http://www.bildindex.de/bilder/mi01850a03a.jpg

Mart Shearer · Posted: Fri 16 Oct, 2015 2:52 pm Post subject:

Bartek Strojek · Posted: Sat 17 Oct, 2015 1:22 am Post subject:

Daniele Trentin · Posted: Sat 17 Oct, 2015 5:39 am Post subject:

Well, thanks a lot for reviving this thread with such precious informations!

Mart, first of all thanks for the great pictures.

About the terms found in the inventory, it is curious that the word "lameriorum" is quite similar to the word found on Italian statutes, which is "lameria", and it is quite widely accepted to represent an armour with metal strips attached to a leather/cloth base like the one worn by St. Maurice in Magdeburg. We have also records of German knights during the battle of Benevento (1266) wearing armors over their hauberks (they may be lamerie but I'm not sure, I must get the source) causing great problems to their enemies...

Do you think that the "paribus de plates" and "quirre" refers to, respectively, a metal and leather defence? In Italy we have a similar case with the "corettum" and "corettum de fero": the "corettum" seeming a semi-rigid leather defence, quite commonly found in the first half of the XIII century...later (from about half of the century) it seems to evolve into the "corettum de fero"...it seems quite likely that it retained its shape and/or function, evolving into an iron armor...

I have now a question: can we connect such terms (lameria, pair of plates, cuirass or similar) to an existing armor without doubts? For the XIII century it is not possible as we have no evidences I'm aware of except mail...maybe in the XIV century (better if in the first half) we have something more..

Randall Moffett · Posted: Sat 17 Oct, 2015 6:06 am Post subject:

Mart,

I was just wondering if as Daniele posted it might be another type of Pair of plates build different or something. I'd love to see scale in text as there are a few examples in art and it looks cool. Nearing done with my scale aventail and thing it looks wonderful but just throwing another possible avenue out there.

Daniele,

Connect them without doubts... probably no. Not unless we have a clear description or an illustration with text stating this is X. But we can go through and do our best to look at what the could be meaning as best we can.

RPM

Dan Howard · Posted: Sat 17 Oct, 2015 3:34 pm Post subject:

Mart Shearer · Posted: Sat 17 Oct, 2015 8:47 pm Post subject:

Randall,

Of course they could have had various terms for various types of pairs of plates. There are hauberks, haubergeons, and corsets all apparently made of mail, but varying in if they had hoods, or sleeves, etc.. I do hope this is the descriptor for scale armor, as we keep finding it in visual sources, and haven't got another term in the literature for it.