Subject: condottiere 'contractor' mercenary captain

Culture: Milanese/Lombard, other Italian

Setting: Italy 15thc

Object: armor

Helmets (Armet, Bascinet, Barbuta)

Harness

* Wilkinson 1971 p64

"The Italian armor, produced at Milan and Pisa, tended to have smooth, rounded outlines with large shoulder defenses, pauldrons, curving over to give a 'chunky' appearance. Extra plates were often added to the shoulder defenses, and the poleyns at the knees and the couters at the elbows were curved around to afford maximum protection. Breast-plates were of two overlapping plates, allowing the wearer some flexibility of movement. Since the lance was held under the right arm, the plates on the right side of the armor were specially shaped to take it. From about 1380 a lance-rest was a common feature; this was a bracket fitted on the right side of the breast plate, and it was intended to take the shock of the blow when the lance struck its target. On the fifteenth-century Italian armors this lance-rest was detachable, secured by a pin and a series of bars. From the lower edge of the breast-plate hung a series of hoops forming the fauld, and from the bottom of these hung another plate, the tasset. Other refinements included the raised rib placed at the tip of the thigh-pieces and at the edge of the breast-plate, around the neck and armholes. This served to deflect the point of a weapon sliding over the surface of the armor."