Saturday, August 14, 2010

More on Pavilion Construction

A Jehan de Montfort (...) : pour quatre poullies pour le grant pavillon (...), pour cordes pour les poullies de l'espervier (...), pour habiller l'arbre dudit pavillon (...), pour quatre anneaux pour lesdites poullies (...), pour cordes nécessaires pour le retrait dudit pavillon (...), pour sangles et vettes (...) ; pour fil à couldre (...) ; pour la peine d'un cordonnier qui a adoubé ledit pavillon (...) ; pour deux cannes et demie d'aultre toille pour ledit pavillon (...) ; pour les bastons de la muraille dudit pavillon (...) ; pour l'arbre dudit pavillon (...) ; pour une peau de mouton (...) ; pour deux pelles de fer pour icellui pavillon (...) ; pour deux haches de fer à buscher boys (...) ; pour deux serpes à tailler bois (...) ; pour ung sac de cuir à mettre les ferremens


(Comptes roi René A., t.2, 1453, 327, in Dictionnaire du Moyen Français).

King René's own pavilion...how cool is that? The pavilion is equipped with four pulleys,, and there are rods for the walls, like the battens illustrated in his Book of Love

Oh, and it seems that in Middle English and medieval French, pavilions and tents were seen as different in some way.

My translation:

To Jehan de Montfort (...) for four pulleys for the big pavilion (...), ropes for pulleys for the bed canopy (...), to dress the pole of the said pavilion (...) for four rings for the said pulleys (...), for ropes needed to draw back the pavilion (...), and for straps and ropes (...) for sewing thread (...) for the trouble of a cobbler who has equipped the said pavilion (...) for two and a half cannes* of other canvas for the said pavilion (...); for rods for the wall of the said pavilion (...) for the pole of the said pavilion (...) for a sheepskin (...) for two iron shovels for that pavilion (...) for two iron axes to chop wood (...) for two billhooks to cut wood (...) for a sack of leather to put the iron tools in.

In Southern France, the canne was a unit of measure equal to about six or seven feet: roughly a fathom.

1 comment:

Tracy Justus said...

Yes. I noticed that from reading the inventories of some of the things the Duke of Burgundy lost at the battles of Nancy and Grandson (1476) in _Die Burgunderbeute_ by Florens Deuchler. The clerks distinguished between tents and pavilions.