A Commonplace Book

You have several options: high, low, diagonal, none, none visible, and baldric. Often more than one belt is worn. High: usually fairly narro...

Gallica Mandragore British Library Getty Museum National Library of the Netherlands

The International Animators Union voted on Thursday to declare that Pluto was not a planet but in fact a dog. "It was actually a fairly...

A period of particular interest to those attempting to recreate the visual effect of a medieval man at arms, since so much of the body can b...

Geoffrey Chaucer writes about the new drama Serpentes on a Shippe . Where else can you hear dialog like "Aaargh! There is an adder in m...

In shopping for (or building) a reproduction of a 14th c. breastplate, look for one that's the correct length. Don't expect the brea...

This one . Beautiful, isn't it? There are so few harnesses surviving from the period that it's important to know that this one was F...

Teams of jousters wearing a common livery were a fairly common feature of festive jousts in the 14th and 15th century, particularly when the...

I'll be near Slippery Rock, PA and away from the blog for about a week. More bloggy goodness when I return.

Around the beginning of the 15th c. there was a fashion particularly associated with deeds of arms to the outrance. Gentlemen who wished to ...