32516 w25V

‘The Condemnation of St. James’ on a late-13th-century panel of a silver altar madę by Andrea di Jacopo d’Ognabene. (In situ, Pistoia cathedral; author's photograph)

eflective against cutting blows. Since a man on horseback conlcl not dodge missile weapons, be was all but obliged to wear the new piatini heavy plate-armour once lie had abandoned his large shield. Tlie man on foot, however, remained morę agile and often still carried one of several versions of large shield. Hence he neither needed, nor wanted the weight of, fuli piąte armour. The lightness of hardened leather armour, and the fact that it was almost as effective as iron, madę it similarly popular in 13th- to mid-14th-century Italy. The infantryman was, in fact, often issued with a coretto which, in the late-13th century, was probably madę of leather and lackecl sleeves. In the second half of the 14th century the arms merchant Datini described sonie coretti as having short sleeves and metal studs, sug-gesting that this term now referred to a bngandine which was first mentioned in Italy around 1367 as the ‘corazzine brighanline.

The first record of leather upper-arm pro-tections was in the Roman de Meliadus written by Rusticiano of Pisa around 1265, with pic-torial evidence appearing a decade or so later. Separate mail or mail-covered gauntlets appear around the same time, though remaining rarer. By the second half of the 14th century Datini was describing iron gauntlets lined with leather and having tin studs, as well as cuissards and hamais de jambes for the legs madę of iron or leather with iron studs.

The most important piece of armour was the lielmet which was still madę of iron rather than Steel. Helmets had thicker fronts and tops than sides, though sonie 14th-century examples also had a thickened area over the vital motor centres of the brain at the back of the head. Several sliles were available in Italy, as elsewhere, including the broad-brimmed cappella di ferro (or ‘iron hat’), in use from the late-12th century. Early in the 13th century the close-fitting ceroelliera became the most popular form, sometimes woni beneath rather than over a mail coif. The bacinetto or bazinelto, first recorded in Padua in 1281 but present in pictorial sources dating from 20 years earlier, evolved from this and became by far the most common Italian infantry helmet. The barbuia was a specialised form of bacinetto which came further down the sides of the face. It was first mentioned in the mid-14th century. Concern to protect the face was a major characteristic of Italian armour and might have reflected the importance of the crossbow in Italian warfare. Neck and shoulder armour was obviously important for infantry when facing cavalry, and ref-erences to the neck-protecting gorgiera become common in the 13th century. A semi-rigid or thickly padded mail or scalę shoulder and neck armour used in early-14th-century France and England was called a pizaine, which suggests it originally came from Pisa, while in the late-14th century plated versions of the gorgiera were developed.