Alla Tedesca
Italian ‘Gothic’ Armour and the Export Trade
Alla Tedesca
Italian ‘Gothic’ Armour and the Export Trade
This book is being republished as a revised and much expanded printed 2nd edition, including brand new material and photos.
This book is now going to test-print.(see update below)
A4 printed hardback, approx. 170 pages and 170+ illustrations.
Limited edition of 300 numbered copies.
Order price: €79.95 EURO plus shipping*
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Publication update October 8th 2024: The test-printing process of this book is under way. Sales are overtaking ‘Western Alps’, and I now cannot gurantee to ship new orders before Christmas.
How to order:
First, download an order form. For Word.docx format click here, and for Word.doc format click here. NB: you can only use this form to order one or more copies of this book. If you also want to order a copy of Western Alps before this book is published, you will need to make a separate order using a different form.
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Please note: this is the final edition of this book: it will not be reprinted, either as a paperback or hardback. Likewise, there will be no digital version of this edition, either on Amazon or in PDF format. When all 300 copies are sold out, that’s it.
In the 15th century, the international arms trade was dominated by North Italian armourers, who tailored their styles for different regional markets. A good example was armour ‘alla tedesca’: ‘in the German style’. But just what was ‘alla tedesca’ armour like, and what was the response of native German armourers? In this publication I examine these questions, together with the effects of regional armour styles, which like languages, didn’t just stop and start at national borders.
This publication is packed with photography of Italian and German armour, and related works of art. It is a mine of information for students of 15th and early-16th century armour. Sincere thanks are due to the major museums that have generously contributed photographic images, or permitted new photography especially for this publication. There are also photos of items from private collections. Contributing museums and institutions include: the Bernisches Historisches Museum; the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Galleria Borghese, Rome; the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena; Stift Klosterneuburg; the Imperial Armoury, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague; the Royal Military Museum, Brussels; the Cleveland Museum of Art; The Royal Collection Trust, London; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Royal Armouries Mueum, Leeds; the Bargello, Florence; the Museo Civico Bolzano; the Historisches Museum Luzern; the Landesmuseum Zürich; the Rheinisches Bildarchiv im Historischen Archiv, Cologne; the Wallace Collection, London; the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg; the Museum und Galerie im Prediger; Schwäbisch Gmünd and the Castlerock Museum, Wisconsin.
This photography is combined with extracts from 15th century Milanese, Venetian and Florentine documents and period art, all of which I weave together in the text to give a greater understanding of the North Italian export trade in arms and armour. It is apparent that for the German market, sometimes North Italian armourers just slightly adapted standard armours that they already had in stock, while at other times they made new armours that were still very Italian, but with more Germanic features and decoration, and finally some armourers were essentially making fully-fledged ‘Gothic’ Germanic armour, but with Italian construction methods of strapping and articulation, and Italian helmet shapes.
German armourers were sometimes even trained in Milan, which must have affected the style they worked in when they returned home, and some undeniably German armour has Italian features. Then there is the matter of Italian armourers who emigrated to work in Austria, and the book includes a chapter on armour produced in Innsbruck and the Tyrol, which acted as a cultural crossroads for armour design. The book concludes with the onset of the Italian Wars, and how they appear to have affected armour styles both to the north and south of the Alps.
Contents:
Introduction
Section One: National Styles
1. The Lombards. The arms industry of Milan and Brescia.
2. German Armour. The so-called ‘Gothic’ style of the German states that the Lombards were exporting to.
Section Two: ‘Alla Tedesca’
3. Cuirasses. The different methods of constructing and joining breast and backplates, faulds and tassets.
4. Helmets. Sallets and bevors, great bascinets.
5. Arm Harness. Pauldrons, vambraces and gauntlets.
6. Leg Harness. Cuisses, poleyns, greaves and sabatons.
7. The Infantry. Helmets and body armour.
8. Horse Armour. Shaffrons, crinets and barding.
9. Cultural Crossovers: Innsbruck and the Tyrol. How Italian armourers who settled and worked in Austria may have been influential in creating a plainer local style, which was often an elegant fusion of North Italian and Germanic fashions.
10. Trading Places: The Italian Wars. How these campaigns appear to have affected armour styles on both sides of the Alps.
11. Colour Finishes on Alla Tedesca Armour. Building on Beaten Black and Blue, this chapter looks at different surface colour finishes on this style of armour, both inside and outside mainland Italy.
Conclusion. Alla Tedesca Armour.
Appendix: Armourers’ Marks. Signatures struck on the pieces featured in this book.
