[Michael Curl]

Hello all, I am going to be starting a research paper for my Renaissance and Reformation Europe class and I want to do it on armour, sadly my professor banned me from doing it on the Milanesse and Gothic styles that I so love. Instead I must focus on 16th century developments and I was wondering if anyone knew of any good sources. I think Knight and the Blast Furnace stops at the 15th so I have no Idea where to start looking.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Sean Flynt]

"Banned"? How does one write about 16th c. developments without reference to the late 15th c.? That's like saying you can write about WWII, but not WWI.

Well, anyway...I recommend getting Oakeshott's European Weapons and Armour: From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution (try interlibrary loan).
http://www.myArmoury.com/books/item.0851157890.html

Also, Krenn and Karcheski's Imperial Austria: Treasures of Art, Arms, and Armour From the State of Styria
http://www.myArmoury.com/books/item.089090054X.html

Arms and Armor in Colonial America, 1526-1783
http://www.myArmoury.com/books/item.048641244X.html

Landsknecht Soldier 1486-1560
http://www.myArmoury.com/books/item.1841762431.html

[Michael Curl]

They can be in there, but to use your example, this is a paper about WWII, not WWI, so I can't focus on them, rather reference them to prove my thesis (yet made).

[James Arlen Gillaspie]

The Knight and the Blast Furnace does not stop at the end of the 15th c. No way. Also, the so-called 'German Gothic' style does not simply stop to be instantly replaced with the so-called 'Maximilian' style; there are 'intermediary animals', interesting hybrids, and survivals well into the first decade of the 16th century. Italian armour goes through a similar transition from about 1490 to 1510ish.

[Adam D. Kent-Isaac]

The best book on the Greenwich armoury I've read:

The Royal Armoury at Greenwich 1515-1649: A History of Its Technology

Has everything you could want to know about the Greenwich workshop and all surviving armours and garnitures from it, plus really detailed metallurgical information about the different types of steel, hardness, etc which was collected from a study of existing pieces. Fascinating book. Published by the Royal Armouries. I bought it at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY - you can get it on Amazon. Now, for some reason, Amazon lists its price as 100 dollars new and 80 dollars used. But my copy from the Met. Museum's bookstore cost $25. This was about three weeks ago that I bought it.

Any study of 16th century armour has got to include the Greenwich workshop!!

[Michael Curl]

Thank you all so much, now I just have to see if I can get them from Interlibrary Loan. LOL!!!