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Hj: French kand-gunner, end of the iyth century By now hand-guns had grown morę powerful and accurate. The arquebus, for example, was fired by a reliable match-lock trigger system. The gunners of France developed their skills in the successful finał phases of the Hundred Y ears W ar against England. This soldier wears a sallet with circular ear-pieces, a fashion that might have had Ottoman Turkish or even Mongoł origins. His short iron plachart is worn over a cloth-covered brigandine, while at his side hang a primitive powder-flask and an Italian cinquedea short-sword or large dagger. Ttalian arąuebus, łatę 15th century, Castel S. Angelo, Romę; ‘Life of St. Sermin’, French carved relief, c.1490, Amiens Cathedral; Italian sword, c. 1500, Wallace Coli., London.)

The so-called ‘Devil’s Mask’, an Italian armour of around 1490 with wooden horns forming a crest on the sparrow-beak armet. This armour was rediscovered in 1968 and has recently been restored in Florence. (From the church of La Madonna delle Grazie, Udine)

Venetian and German infantry armours of the late I5th and early i6th centuries (Stibbert Collection, Florence)

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