Iconography of Kite-Shields in the Western European Manuscripts of the Late X-XI Centuries

Историческое оружиеведение

Dr. Dmitry A. Rybel¹ 

[1] Far Eastern Federal University (Ussuriisk, Russia);

关键词: kite-shield;    pictorial sources;    manuscript;    the xi century;    miniature;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The article focuses on how such an item of protective equipment as a kite-shield appeared and was illustrated in Western European manuscript illuminations of the XI century. Archaeological data is insufficient for a full-scale study of shields of the XI century, and therefore the study of pictorial sources is of particular importance. However, the number of pictorial sources is quite large so the research was deliberately limited to analysis of miniatures from manuscripts in the first place. The author critically examines all available manuscripts of the end of the X-XI centuries which contain images of such shields and groups them by geography (France, England, Spain, Germany, Italy). The author considers when and where these manuscripts were written, the problems of dating them and the influence of art traditions. The article also provides the evaluation of the shields themselves, their features and possible ways of illustrating them, their proportions, shapes and colors, image context and frequency of occurrence. This allows to establish parallels between these shields and images from sources of the same period, including non-handwritten ones. The output of the work is the hypothesis on the time of distribution of kite-shields in Western Europe and on the popularity of particular colors and patterns. Based on when images of kite-shields occurred manuscripts, the author attributes their introduction into military use to the end of the X century and the beginning of the XI century and wide distribution to the middle of the XI century.

【 授权许可】

Unknown