Anglo Saxon depiction of a dagged mail shirt
Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: Regional History or Period History
Forum Name: Medieval Europe
Forum Discription: The Middle Ages: AD 500-1500
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35822
Printed Date: 28-Apr-2024 at 05:25
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.56a - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Anglo Saxon depiction of a dagged mail shirt
Posted By: Druzhina
Subject: Anglo Saxon depiction of a dagged mail shirt
Date Posted: 10-Oct-2015 at 00:27
From http://www.warfare.altervista.org/6C-11C/Saxon_Viking_and_Norman.htm - Saxon, Viking and Norman  There have been doubts about whether the dagged mail shirt portrays actual Anglo-Saxon wear or is copied from earlier, perhaps continental, manuscripts. I thought it would be useful to see how much the artist might be depending on copying from an earlier illustration by comparing it with the illustration of the same scene in another Anglo-Saxon Prudentius' Psychomacia manuscripts made around the same time. By seeing where the text on the image lubricat incertos dubia sub imagine comes in the latin text, using the list of illustrations in the http://www.vikingage.org/wiki/index.php?title=Prudentius - Catalogue of Illustrated Prudentius Manuscripts and by eliminating as possibilities illustrations of scenes that are available for http://www.warfare.altervista.org/6C-11C/Prudentius-c1000.htm - British Library, MS Cotton Cleopatra C VIII , I have identified the scene with the http://www.warfare.altervista.org/6C-11C/Prudentius-c1000-24r.htm - Anglo-Saxon in dagged mail byrnie as "Good-Works fights Avarice". The crouching figures at the right match "Good-Works distributes Avarice's treasure to the poor and crippled". Then I found it as Fig 33. in http://www.warfare.altervista.org/6C-11C/Laking-1c.htm - A RECORD OF EUROPEAN ARMOUR AND ARMS THROUGH SEVEN CENTURIES by Sir Guy Francis Laking, Part 3: Lances, Spears, Axes, Horse Bits and Stirrups , which gives its folio number as 24. The matching illustration of Good-Works fights Avarice in http://www.warfare.altervista.org/6C-11C/Prudentius-CCC-Ms-23-other.htm - Prudentius' Psychomachia MS Corpus Christi College, Ms. 23 :  The axe wielder has a double-headed axe. Her shield is an unusual pelta that occurs in a few continental manuscripts (e.g. http://www.warfare.altervista.org/6C-11C/Prudentius-Brussels-KBR-Ms-10066-77-Chastity-Lust.htm - Chastity and Lust in Prudentius' Psychomachia MS Bibliotheque royale, 10066-77, Brussels, 10th century ). Her opponent has a circular shield with boss, spear and scabbarded sword. She wears a long flowing robe over another. A similar pelta is in a scene of http://www.warfare.altervista.org/6C-11C/BnF-8318-53v-lower-lg.htm - Avarice & Good-Works in Auctor incertus, Tractatus de vitiis et virtutibus, author uncertain, treatise on the vices and the virtues, BnF Ms. Latin 8318, 9th century . Good-Works is in scale armour with a curved dagged edge with short hanging strips alternating in length. She also has epauls with a swirl and perhaps short sleeves of armour with a different patterning. Similar patterns are found on sleeves and tunics in other folios of http://www.warfare.altervista.org/6C-11C/BnF-8318.htm - Auctor incertus, Tractatus de vitiis et virtutibus The artist of the 1st picture may have had similar sources to the artist of the other Anglo-Saxon manuscript, but although the composition is similar he has chosen to portray different details. Druzhina http://www.warfare.altervista.org/11C.htm - 11th century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers |