Shield Typology? -- myArmoury.com

Merv Cannon · Posted: Fri 22 Sep, 2006 1:01 am Post subject: Shield Typology?

After reading a review here, I was browsing the "Museum Replicas"site and, being a bit of a shield freek, I came across this statement in the articles section
..........." The medieval period covers the period from 1000-1450. This era has seen many great kings who fought many battles. The great warriors of the age used medieval shields and swords of different varieties for warfare. Different medieval shields are categorized for research into several types as Type X, Type XI and so on ranging up to type XXII. Each type of shield has its own characteristics"........
Now, I may mot have as many book as some of you, but I have been researching now for over 5 years (almost every day) and I have never heard of any Shield Typology. I see that many of you have bought MR items and been pleased with them ( although they seen to be only set up to sell easily within the USA ! ).......and so I was wondering if anyone knows if such a Typology exists and, if so, in what book ? If its real they seem to have used the same system as Oakshott's swords !

Eric Allen · Posted: Fri 22 Sep, 2006 8:07 am Post subject:

I've never heard of any such typology.

It looks to me like the persons responsible for the blurb took a description of the Oakshott typology and simply replaced the word "sword" with "shield."

Greg Griggs · Posted: Fri 22 Sep, 2006 8:33 am Post subject:

Max von Bargen · Posted: Fri 22 Sep, 2006 9:43 am Post subject:

George Hill · Posted: Fri 22 Sep, 2006 5:52 pm Post subject:

I agree. The fellow writing the catalog blurb was likely confused.

That said, I would like to state that I beleive it is high time FOR a shield typology!

Andy Biggers · Posted: Sat 23 Sep, 2006 6:26 am Post subject:

Agreed! It seems rather odd to me that no one has bothered to create a comprehensive typology for European shields.

Given the level of knowledge of folks on this board, I wonder if this is something we could collectively work on as a community. Who knows, we may actually come up with something that works and that might even be accepted in academic and research circles.

Just a thought.

Andy

George Hill · Posted: Sat 23 Sep, 2006 6:54 am Post subject:

Felix Wang · Posted: Sat 23 Sep, 2006 10:57 am Post subject:

And, of course, bucklers proper. I would tend to divide those into the concave and convex ones, since one type seems optimized to catch the point of an oncoming weapon, the other to deflect an attack.

Merv Cannon · Posted: Sat 23 Sep, 2006 6:04 pm Post subject: Shield Typology

Well...........I have quite a large file on shields, they facinate me as strange as that seems. I have found there are very many different types, and just like everything else that I'm researching, and there always seems to be new data poping up when you least expect it. For example there are those special Spiked shields for Judicial Combat or Hewing shields (Hackenshilde), Encranches, "Adarga" (the adapted Moorish-Spanish Shields also used by Christian Knights), Hungarian Shields, Scottish Targaids, Shields for "Gioco del Ponte" - the Game of the Bridge, (a specialty of the city of Pisa still played today) , and of course, my particular favourites, the ground and hand Pavaises.
It annoys me somewhat that nobody has written anything much about shields except that German book "Das Ritterschilde" Its the same with many areas of medieval research, all the big data seems to be concentrated around the same old areas, whilest others have very little info at all ! And seeing that Medieval re-enactment is one of the worlds fastest growing interrest groups / "sports" it is all the more suprising. A few years ago when I was leaving to go live in central China for a year, at the airport I saw a Knight on the front cover of Americian "Sports Illustrated" ! My city has more that 22 historical re-enactment groups covering Roman to Rennaisance (Not counting colonial, WWI, WWII, etc) and our recent medieval fair attracted over 14,500 people over one weekend ! So......anyone out there wanna write a book ?

Thomas James Hayman · Posted: Tue 03 Oct, 2006 11:32 am Post subject:

Well, i'd be ahppy to share my pavise typology when finished (eventually)

Martin Wilkinson · Posted: Wed 04 Oct, 2006 4:28 am Post subject:

I think this is a good idea, as boundaries can be blurred at the moment as to what is one type of shield or another.

Chris Henderson · Posted: Fri 06 Oct, 2006 1:38 pm Post subject:

I belive they are referring to the coats of arms depicted on the sheilds and not nesesarily the sheilds themselves, seeing as how their is a codifeid typology governing hearldic coats of arms. Furthermore the excerpt seems like a rather elementary explanation of the middle ages, most likely penned by someone trying to explain that there were literally thousands of different coats of arms used during the era to people that know absolutly nothing about history. Or it could simply be that they are themselves not very well versed in history.

Stephen Hand · Posted: Fri 06 Oct, 2006 6:14 pm Post subject:

As George alluded to, a typology is complicated by the fact that shields of very similar form were used quite differently and shields of very different form were used close to identically. For example, flat or gently curved kite shields are shown being used like every other large flat shield, while the deeply curved kite shields of the 12th century are shown being used very differently. The approximately 2.5 foot diameter targets shown in Italian manuals of the 16th century are shown and described as being used very similarly to the 6ft tall, 2 ft wide duelling shields shown in various 15th century German manuals.

Any typology needs to take into account form and also how the shield was used. In terms of use there are four basic shield types, bucklers, small targes, large flat (or gently curved) shields and large deeply curved shields.

Cheers
Stephen

Merv Cannon · Posted: Mon 16 Oct, 2006 6:21 am Post subject: Shields

Hi.......I am making a correction to my previous post regarging the only book I have found devoted entirely to Shields......I incorrectly stated that the name of the book was...."Das Ritteschild" .....whereas in fact the correct name is.....
"Der Mittelalterliche Reitterschild " ......my only image of the book is so small that I cant even read the Author's name.
I think at least one fellow forum member has this book and I'd appreciate if they could provide a quick review and info on where one might obtain one .
Thanks !

Merv Cannon · Posted: Wed 18 Oct, 2006 6:15 am Post subject: Shield Book

I found the details of the above mentioned book for those interrested.........Its available on Amazon Germany here.................

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3935616...78-2538901

Randall Pleasant · Posted: Wed 18 Oct, 2006 7:52 am Post subject:

Nathan Robinson · myArmoury Admin

Felix Wang · Posted: Wed 18 Oct, 2006 7:48 pm Post subject:

I just posted a few comments, which I shall repeat here:

This work is an outstanding book on two levels. It is divided into three parts: the first is a history of the shield, the second is a catalogue of the surviving medieval heater ("knightly") shields, and the third is a manual for building your own shield.

The first section is fairly straightforward. It is illustrated with numerous line drawings, and while it does not go into deep detail, it does have the important virtue of trying to cover the whole Western history of the shield. As for the drawings, do not worry - many of the images can be found in photographs on the Internet.

The second section is invaluable. It shows the gamut of designs for the medieval heater shield, in particular the strapping options (and a few enigmas in that category), with full color photos of the shields and statistics.

The third part is very valuable also. It is the longest and most detailed treatise I have seen on the subject of building shields; talking about forming the wood, covering the shield with parchment or cloth, making and applying gesso, and making and applying paint (egg tempera). It is well illustrated with photos of works in progress. The major subject he doesn't address is metalwork for bosses and the like, since the existing medieval heaters didn't have any.

Yes, this is in German. I thought it worthwhile to translate the whole thing myself, using schoolboy German and Babelfish and online German dictionaries. I still think it was a good investment of time. I strongly recommend anyone interested in shields to invest in this work.

Merv Cannon · Posted: Wed 18 Oct, 2006 8:52 pm Post subject: Shields Book

Thank you Felix ! Thats just what I wanted to hear.......I knew someone had been engrossed with this publication but I couldnt remember who. So..............after I get one.........How much do you want for the translation ! ? Big Grin

William Carew · Posted: Sun 24 Jun, 2007 7:58 pm Post subject:

Resurrecting an old thread, but I just wanted to lend my support to the concept of a shield typology. I've actually thought about doing something like this myself (mainly restricted to Migration through to Renaissance period Europe), and I may still do so, but if anyone else is interested, perhaps a coordinated group effort might yield better results (and could also perhaps encompass a greater range, eg, African, Asian, Middle Eastern etc)?

Oh, and I agree that it is far preferable that any typology be based on physical form alone. Trying to get too clever with function adds unneccesary complexity (just as it would have with, say, Oakeshott's sword typology), especially given the same item could be used a dozen different ways. Not to mention that including theories on shield use would probably date the typology quite rapidly in light of ongoing research, evolving theories and new discoveries. Wheras a basic shield typology based on form alone need only adapt to new discoveries in terms of shield forms.

Cheers,