[Felix R.]

Hello, I was thinking of making an Infantry shield influenced by artwork from Northern Italy in the second half of the 14th cent, to the early 15th.

I had a look at pictures from Altechierro and some interpretations of Osprey Italian Medieval Armies and Italian Militiaman, also there are those line drawings in Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era from Avio Castle, showing Italian Infantry "at work". Finally one picture by Spinello Aretino from Palazzo Publico in Siena, showing naval battle.

So there seem to be three shield types basically, Rondells (and bucklers of course, though only shown in training, not warfare), some seem to be not just plane fut forming a very shallow bowl -how would I reconstruct this?-, second oval shields from thigh to chin in height, or just a little smaller and rectanguar shields of different sizes and with the upper line cut diagonally. Those rectangular shields are always curved. For the oval shields I can´t see curvature in all examples, although a picture from Altechierro shows a slight curvature.

I would like to make one of those oval shields. In Italian Militiaman D. Nicholles referres to Pisan records on the materials, that tharge and pavese (both large shields) were made from fig or willow and covered in leather.

The woods I have available are poplar, beech, and birch (I just made two bucklers from beech). So I would try to make the shield from 2-3 layers, making it about 6-9 mm thick, and allowing for some curvature by glueing and bending of the layers while drying. What would you think wood and thickness wise?
For the covering, I just have limited experience with glued on cotton and rawhide edges. The total covering in leather would be a new thing for me, I only would expect rawhide to work for the covering, as veg tanned leather seems much too soft to me.

The attached pictures, show three types of mentioned shield froms.

Any experience and recommendations are very much appreciated.

[Bruno Giordan]

As for weight just look at the rotelle and their construction.

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p=152761#152761

[Felix R.]

Thanks Bruno, had a look at that thread already, but were not down to the weigth. My Bucklers 30-32cm in diameter weigh about 1400g, considered the weight of the boss, such a rotelle could be around 10-12mm in thickness ( I used beech ply in 12mm). But for the larger oval ones, what is the Italian term, Nicholles names the tabulaccio at one picture.