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noting the kind of services available to the knight himself should he be wounded. Good care was probably given by monks, who used numerous herbs in their healing. However, a knight was likely to receive the attention of surgeons if in an army or of great rank, or of lesser men if himself of humbler rank. Knights in Southern Italy might be lucky enough to be tended by men trained at the great school of Salerno. Head wounds were less common in knights because they usually wore helmets but were morę likely to suffer dislocated shoulders from falling off their horses. Such wounds were freąuently treated by placing a bali covered in wool under the arm and forcing the joint back. Throat wounds, often from a lance, were usually considered untreatable. Wounds were often left partially open for a day or two until pus formed, before stitching up. The morę enlight-ened used egg white and other remedies as opposed to

boiling oil or hot cautery irons found elsewhere. Amputation might be done with an axe but suturing of blood vessels was known. Barbed arrows were removed either by covering the barb with a tubę or ąuill, or by pushing them through to the other side and breaking off the head before withdrawing the shaft.

TRAINING

The actual training of the Norman knight is little documented. Indeed, references to squires tend to suggest that while some boys of good birth were so-called, a much higher proportion were in fact non-noble attendants who would never attain knighthood and who were paid—often erratically—for the job they performed. From nth- and i2th-century ac-

St Benedict frees a prisoner, a manuscript of c. 10jo from Monte Cassino in Italy. This is one of the rare chances to see a saddle from the front and shows a rounded bow similar in shapc to a Southern French picture which shows a cantle. (Ms. Lat. 1202, Yatican Lib., Romę)

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