modern italian kitchen design 2012
- start with the wrapsfor the knees. this is kind of like a padding. and also the spurs. usually start by arming upfrom the feet first, and work your way up. because everything overlaps. -and there are 15th centurydocuments that actually talk about starting with the feet andworking your way up. - spurs.
- and even running the riskthat you're disappointed, we don't have a horse backstage. so the spursare just for show today. - okay, this first part of armorare the greaves. they completely enclose the leg. (indistinct chatter) - well, he can't wear a micbecause the armor suit's too tight,it has to be well-fitting. so the armor for the lower legsgoes on first.
you can see the strapsand buckle combinations that will closethe two parts together. they're hinged on the outside,and on the inside-- which is more protected--you have the leather straps. it will ideally prevent themfrom being cut, and the armor popping openif the leather straps are actually on the inside. and the next part that goes onis the protection for the thighs.
i'm not going to confuse youwith all the technical terms. almost every generation,but different centuries over the time had their ownspecial terms for each piece of armor, whicheven to people like jeff and me nowadays can get very confusingwhen you mention one technical term that can meanthree different things over three different centuries. one term you might knowis a gauntlet for the protection for a hand, of course, and thatdidn't change very much.
the main point, obviously,that you want to achieve is flexibility so you can move,but at the same time, you want the plates to overlap,which creates more thickness, more protection. but you also want the plateswhere they overlap to overlap and fit togetheras tightly as possible, which was usually a signof really high quality armor. the sort of mediocre quality--and i'm not talking about the really bad qualitythat i showed earlier--
but the mediocre qualityyou can sometimes see or repairs that some of the platesdon't quite fit together. the really well-fitting platesfit so tightly together that it's even difficult to pusha piece of paper between them. so now you see the arming pointsthat are just attached to the doublet over the pointsof the hip, which is where the thigh bonearticulates, of course. he's now donning,the other way around than most of you would probably,a skirt of mail.
this is the italian fashion. italians-- at leastuntil the late 15th century-- in order to protect the groin,would wear a mail skirt. then there's also variations. jeff today is wearinga mail doublet which has, as you can see,is wearing an arming doublet, which has mail voidersor arm protections sewn onto the fabric garment. italians would sometimes alsojust wear a second mail shirt
over the doublet. and now the standardis going on, the mail collar, which will hopefully addprotection for the area where the breastplate endsand the helmet will overlap. but there is of course a gap. in the 15th century,the neck protection or the breastplate andthe helmet were not connected as in the henry viii armor thatwe saw of the 16th century. so there can be a gapbetween helmet and breastplate.
and for that, he's wearingmail underneath, which also gets lacedto the garment that he's wearing underneath. should a weapon get betweenbreastplate and helmet, this will hopefully offeradditional protection. - okay, next we havethe cuirass, which there's two piecesto this cuirass. the upper partand the lower part. - so you can tell it takesa little while to put on armor.
and this is whyin the two images that you saw, there were two squires or pageshelping that will, of course, speed up the process. but here we have a teamof husband and wife, and i'm not going to getin between that. i think they know exactlywhat they're doing. and stacy, by the way, alsowears armor and also jousts, like jeff. so they help each otherputting on the armor
before they start jousting. so they're very familiarwith each other's armors and how to put them on. - i want to make a pointright now. the breastplate,the cuirass weighs probably about 15 to 20 pounds. and it's very tightin the waist. and the reason for that is sothat it sits right on my pelvis, sits right on my hips.
so it's, instead of hanging offof my shoulders, it's right here at my centerof gravity, and so it makes it a lot easierfor me to move my arms. and the whole idea behindthe armor is that the weight of itis supported by, like dirk said, points,and it's all over the body. so i'd rather wear my armorthan have to carry it somewhere. - that's what you havethe little boys for, to carry your armor.
(laughter) yeah, the italians interestinglykept the strap connection, even for the two partsof the breastplate for a long timethroughout the 15th century. from a modern,logical point of view it seems somewhat strangeto have a leather strap there which someone with a swordcould cut, but since they had it for, youknow, about 100 years, roughly-- so that's three generations--i think they knew
what they were doing,it must have worked. it gives you more flexibility. - yes, it does. what it does is allows myshoulders to move independently. you see how it can shiftback and forth like that? and another nice thingabout this type of breastplate, the italian breastplate-- the cuirass herewith the placard-- is that there's two layersof metal right here,
right over my chest. and in the early years,they only came to here, but as the century progresses,they grow. this part gets larger and largerto cover, so you have two layers of plate protectionover your chest. so, which is another aspectof armory is that there are layers of material to keep youprotected from axes and swords and missile weapons. - now comes the armorfor the arms.
and crossbows, yes. that'll be a different program,crossbow. this is also... there aresort of not just visual, but also very subtle differencesin quality of armor. armor made by the best masters, you can tell they're thickin those areas. for example, the frontal part ofthe helmet and the front part, the left part of the breastplatewhere they need to be thick, where they need to offerthe most protection
for first line...as a first line of defense. and in orderto save weight, though, those parts of the armor thatwere not immediately exposed to an enemy, like the backof the helmet, the back plate, they could be slightly thinner,lighter. that way you could still offerthe best protection exactly where you needed it,but you could get rid of a little bitof excess weight. not much, but some.
but i think this shouldshow you that once he'scompletely dressed, even then he won't need a crane to get on his horse,which is not here, by the way. so in those days also, you know,getting ready for battle, with a tournamentit didn't matter that much, but for battle,it took a little while, if you're thinking in termsof several hundred or even several thousandof troops.
and as i told you, it's not justthe knights wearing armor, it could be other troops, too. the element of surprisecould really give you an element of surpriseif you had that advantage that you could catch an armyunawares or unprepared when people weren't armed anddidn't have their weapons ready. that could bea potential disaster. okay... getting the arms.
so you can begin to seehow the mail takes care of those parts of the body thatare really difficult to protect with metal strips or, you know,plates of mail. henry viii, of course,could afford the best armorers of his time, so there you sawthe inside of the arm, even the inside where you havea lot of movement was protected with small stripsof metal that would work almost like an accordion or a venetian blind.
it is much simpler to just puton italian armor like this that allows youa lot of movement and just coverthose parts of the body where you have a lot of movementunder the arms, inner side of the elbowswith mail. that offers additionalprotection and ideally, the more he moves,the more difficult it'll be for an opponent to actually getto those weak points or weak parts of the armor.
now the shoulder defensescome on, which in italy tend to beasymmetrical and rather large. gives you a bit moreof an air of masculinity. and also a lot more protection. and the reason for the asymmetry is what jeff and imentioned before, two right-handed peopleattacking each other, they would attack each other'sleft side first, so this is whyyou're just seeing
the right shoulder defensecoming on. the left shoulder defenseis almost twice as big as the one on the right. because they would be facingeach other like this, the left shoulderis the exposed one. so that one is thicker. do you need a hand, stacy? you're okay. - the point as you saw... itdisappeared inside the cuirass.
- ah, see at that point,the page would probably get smacked over the headfor that kind of mistake. in those days, that was okay. it's not going to happen today. and it's not okay today anymore. (woman asking question) the weak points are, you know, wherever platesdon't exactly cover. for example, the armpit,so that's where the mail
offers some additionalprotection, but he needs the movement, and also he will demonstratewith the lance, this is also wherethe right shoulder is a little bit smaller,has a cutout so that the lance can go under the arm,and he can maneuver it in front. so what you would try is...of course two people fighting, none of them are standing still. what you would try is to getwhatever weapon you have--
if it's a sword, you would tryto get in between the plates and push through, or with an axe or a hammer,you would just try and knock him unconscious, and then oncehe's on the ground, it's easier to deal with him. let's phrase it like that. so it's actuallypretty effective. i mean you know,they would not have bothered
for several hundreds of years,centuries, with armor like this if it hadn't worked, clearly. the gauntlets. - so here i am armored up. armored up. i can move. i can fight. if i... if i am down on the ground,right?
down on the ground,it is, you know, a weak area. like dirk said, somebody couldjust sit on me and defeat me. or i can get back up again. you know, i'm not,i'm not totally... you know, just becausei fall on the ground doesn't mean i can'tget back up again. okay, i'm ready for the helmet. - ready if you are. that is, you know,one of the disadvantages
is not so muchthat you can't move, the weight does slow you downa little bit. it gets pretty warm,and if you put on an italian-type helmetlike this, which is actually of the type that i showedearlier where we took off the front defense and found thatoriginal surface underneath. the hearing is not that well,so this is also, you know, obviously on a battlefieldyou had shouting because of the stress, becauseof fear, because of aggression.
but it was also if you wantedto be heard by the people around you,you really needed to shout. this is a specific italian,very ingenious invention. this is an additionalface defense. the technical term,for obvious reasons, is wrapper. it wraps around the front,and again, it's intended to offerone additional protection to cover the gap betweenthe helmet and the breastplate. and you see how nicelyit works together
with the shoulder defenses. it'll be very difficultto get a weapon in there. especially as long as he triesnot to let me get a weapon anywhere near him. now one of the piecesthat comes on, one of the last piecesis the lance rest. that could also be on therealready. it's the lance rest is alsoone of the main questions that always comes up.
what is that strange thingsticking out from the breastplate? that helps you to...you rest the lance on there. he will demonstrate thatin a second. it's not so much becausethe lance is very heavy, it helps you to absorb the shockwhen you hit your opponent. it will actually take finaladjustments in the field. (applause) thank you, stacy.
so jeff will demonstrate... don't take out the lights, yeah. that works. will demonstratehow the lance rest works. and he can actuallylet go of it. that's how it works. you know, i can stand herefor ten minutes explaining to you how it works. that takes care of that.
and as you can see,the lance is not that heavy. it doesn't really needthat kind of support. it offers a shock absorber,and it also offers you more ability to maneuver thelance and aim at your opponent. and ah, yeah, that should go inbetween the wrapper, exactly. so one of the thingsthat you will see when someone is wearingfull armor, the vision slit obviouslyobstructs your vision, but you can still seequite a bit.
the one change that you haveat that point is people wearing full armor,the visor is closed, they look a little bitlike birds. you can tell that they're movingtheir heads a lot more than someone like you and me. we have quite a goodperipheral vision. perhaps not like a rabbit, butstill-- or a dog-- but still. once the vision is obstructedwith the vision slit, you can still see very well
as long as you keep movingyour head around. that will allow you pretty goodcontrol of your surroundings. and i think that concludesour afternoon. thank you very muchfor your patience. (cheers and applause)