greetings to ALL /Armour 1200ad
 

Greetings to All
I am glad to have found this site ,
I have a small film in preproduction
an refrences would be appreciated to: visuals and photos and text on armour from the time of 1200 ad around the time of the start of the black plauge .The province of the person wearing this armour could be Nordic , English Viking, or German ..
Thanks for any refrence to web links
And Again Hello ALL
Bruce :) :)

David Nicolle "Arms and Armour of the crusading era" (cite by memory, so it's possible the title is a little bit different).

A treasure chest of pictures of people from 1000-1200 ad with arms and armour. For this purpose the book is excellent.

This seems to be a popular subject on another forum at present. try here:
http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewto...er=asc&start=0

And here:
http://forums.swordforum.com/showthr...threadid=54732

Edit:
Sorry I didn't read your post properly, the myarmoury.com website has a wealth of information on Medieval European armour.

Osprey also produces many books for the more general and non-specialist reader. They would probably be ideal for your purposes, although I would take some of their reconstructions with a pinch of salt:
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/list...iod.php/per=41

Finally there are many places where you can buy reproduction armour and weapons, although it is horrifically expensive. Check out myarmoury.com's links page.

Thanks and some Intuitive remarks
 

:) Many thanks for the two responses .I will also look into civilian attire of this time since the character is not always in armour .
My intuition tells me that this period 1200 ad was not the high point of intricate or advanced armour work .
Incidentally I forgot to mention that thsi character will be nounted or should I say he will be on horse back .
Thanks Agin
Ill look into thses sources .
Happy Holydays
Salus et Vita !
Bruce

The Archaeology Of Weapons - R Ewart Oakeshott

An Historical Guide to Arms & Armor- Stephen Bull

Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight- Davis Edge and Miles Paddock

A Glossary Of The Construction, Decoration And Use of Arms And Armor in All Countries And In All Times- George Cameron Stone

Again Many Thanks some secondary issues
 

Great .
The more views i have the better the possible accuracy .
A few more questions ..
Is there any one with a refrence to threads showing photos on this site ?.
regarding 1200 ad clothes text armour any refrence is much apreciated .

Or threads showing photos on other related sites .? Same topic .
Secondary Issues ....
The time of 1200 ad was I believe near the end of the second crusade (please correct me if wrong ) .Many sources i read claim that the Black Plague came from Asia or even China and did not reach Europe for some time .
Was trade blamed for the spread of the Plague or were the returning Crusades also blamed ?If I should post this querry elsewhere let me know...

When we decide on the dress matters of this character for the film we will post photos.... if you like ..I know this is site more about history than production ,,
Cheers
and Cups of wine to All
Salus et Vita
Bruce :)

1200 AD is between the 3rd and 4th Crusades. Clothing for this period might be more problematic, although there are a number of reenactment groups who deal with day-to-day life as well as weapons and armour.

I have no ideas really about how the Great Plague or Black Death started. I know that it hit the Middle-East and Europe at roughly the same time, i.e. circa 1347 AD. If you believe contemporary Egyptian chroniclers (and in general they are usually very reliable), Egypt and Syria were hit very badly, even worse than Europe. The chroniclers talk about entire villages being depopulated and some crafts completely dying out because all the practitioners were dead. Egypt also had reccurrences of the plague right through the 15th and 16th century all the way through to the early 19th century.

I am a screenwriting/ medieval history student at nyu.
I am currently taking a class on the Middle Ages in film. The most successful attempts at recreating this period in film have been conducted with excessive amounts of research. And even then they often lack 100% historical realism simply because films and history have to be structured in very different ways.

To really capture the esthetic of the period I would suggest visiting the local historical society or archive and view some period manuscripts. You are in a major city so with a little bit of searching you will probably find some sources. These books will be of great use to your costume designers and art director. Many of the most accurate medieval films utilized manuscripts in this way. Some films that immediately come to mind are: The Warlord, The Passion of Joan of arc, Andre Rublev, The sorceress (Written by a historian), The seventh seal.

The Plague
It is believed, although there are many theories that the plague arrived in Italy in 1347. Traders that were recently in the black sea city of caffa probably brought it back to Europe. Plague mythology states that city of caffa was under siege by Mongols who were infested with the plague. Unable to take the city, the Mongols launched sick bodies into the city.

Trade essential spread the plague. It was primarily spread by rats, lice, and fleas. Areas that were deficient in trade often were not effected until much later periods. The lice and fleas carried the disease and the rats provided them with a mobile host. There were three types of plague

Bubonic- Transmitted by flea bites, was not airborne, associated with black swellings in the groin and lymph nodes. 10-40% of people did not recover from it
Systemic- Most rare and mysterious form. 100% death rate patient often dies within hours.
Pneumonic- airborne, spread through coughing

The disease is though to come from plague reservoirs in certain geographic areas. These areas are the Himalayan foothills between India and Tibet, the steppes of Mongolia, and new mexico.
There were plague cycles in Europe, one of the first griped the ancient greeks but dissapeared until the middle ages.

Thank You !!
This good base of info and, yes !
Searching old literture gives an ethos as well as info.
I once did much research on the Juilo Claudian family of the early Roman Emperors .
I always honor the source material from the era .
In the case of first century Rome it was Cassius Dio , Tacitus ,Seutonius ,Philo Alexandrini , Malalas,Frontinus ,Pliny the elder,Seneca ,and Dio Chyrisostom .
If you could honor me with a few authors names or just sorce titles from
1200 to 1400 or even 1500 that would be great .Just two or three names or titles would be fine .
Thanks again for the careful answers to my questions .

Cheers
Bruce
P s
I agree on the "seventh seal '
They used a chess set fashioned after the one found in grave cashe on the Isle of Lewis (with variations).
Thanks again

I'm afraid I can't offer much help with primary source material, I'm usually quite happy with secondary sources. :)

Such as:
H.E. Mayer's "The Crusades"; S. Runciman's "A History of the Crusades" and David Edge and John Miles Paddock's "Arms & Armor of the Medieval Knight"(This one is pricey though, you might want to try abebooks.com for it).

Understood ..
The secondary sources will be finefor now as they will cite original sources .
Thanks again
Bruce :)

You make it difficult because you want both a wide range of time 1200-1500 as well as a wide geographic area (all of europe?)

Here are some I am listing from my book shelf, I have alot more but you need to be more specific.

Primary sources

Piers Plowman
The Decameron
Froissart Chronicles
Joinville and Villehardouin Chronicles of the Crusades
The canterbury tales
Arab Historians of the crusades
anything by dante


Secondary
A knight at the movies- medieval history on film
Medieval culture and socity
Life in a medieval Village
Life in a medieval Town
The middleages volume I sources of medieval history
Medieval Europe a short history
The west point military history series Ancient and medieval warfare

Just heard about this book......

"British Iron Age Swords and Scabbards" comes out in early 2006. Until the
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British Iron Age Swords and Scabbards' - by I M Stead
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