"… and put a copper helmet on his head, and put on his armor …"
(First Book of Kingdoms 17:38)
So, the speech, of course, will go about the helmet, and not about the salad, which was called the salade, which was a derivative of the French salade, and in French this word, in turn, came from Italy, from the Italian celata. In German, celata changed into Schaller, and in Spain celata became the Spanish cabacete, which later became a completely new type of cabasset helmet. It is believed that this helmet appeared at the end of the 14th - beginning of the 16th centuries, and its origin dates from the bascinets, although it is quite possible that these were also simple servilier helmets (comforters), to which the back was attached. By the way, it is the presence of the back plate (the longest in the German samples) that makes the salad a salad, although you can also add a stiffener or "cape" to its front part. Although there are known variants of special infantry helmets of this type without a visor.
Let's take a look at sallet and barbut helmets that are kept in museums and, above all, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which has a rich collection of such helmets. And here we have the simplest sallet or sallet helmet, which differs from the servilera only in that it has a back plate on the back. This helmet is Italian, made in Milan in 1470-80. and its weight is 1625 g.
What is the reason for its appearance? With the fact that it was at this time that there was a decisive refusal to use chain mail as the main means of protection, which fell just in the first half of the fifteenth century. After all, it was then that several new helmets appeared at once: bascinet - "Bundhugel or" dog helmet "and sallet, sallet or salade (a characteristic name for Russian-language literature), which became especially popular among German knights and gunsmiths.
English historians D. Edge and D. Paddock report that these helmets first appeared in Italy (where they were called selata) and even indicate the year - 1407, when this happened. Then, through France and Burgundy, by 1420 they reached Germany and England, and a decade later they became popular in all countries of Western Europe.
In the design of the salad, the gunsmiths' creative approach to enhancing the protection of the head and face, without complicating the very shape of the helmet, clearly manifested itself. Therefore, he received the shape of a hemisphere, and for observation there are slits (or one large slit), and wide fields, capable of deflecting blows directed at it to the sides. Well, and then the most interesting thing began: if you put on the salad, sliding it to the back of your head, like a Corinthian helmet from Ancient Greece, you can look out from under it completely freely. But in battle, it was worn deeper on the face, and a narrow transverse slit was used for review. At the same time, the part of the face where the nose was was protected by a special protrusion in the shape of the letter V, with which the points of arrows and spears were thrown to the sides, and not down to the neck. In addition, since the helmet was open from below, it was much easier to breathe in it than in a closed bascinet or the arme helmet that appeared later. German helmets were quite characteristic because of their back, which had the shape of a long, elongated tail; but the French and Italian in their shape were most like a bell.
Around 1490, another type appeared, which was called "black salle", which was either painted black or covered with corduroy (also black, although the color of the fabric did not play a role). The shape of the forepart, which protruded forward at an acute angle, was also different from other specimens. This helmet was also used by equestrian warriors, the same French equestrian archers, and knights, and even infantrymen who had armor. It is clear that fashionistas covered it with expensive fabrics, decorated it with embroidery, or even precious stones!
True, by the end of the 15th century, helmets of this type began to differ quite a lot in the depth of the fit on the head, since the infantrymen did not need helmets deeply sitting on their heads, like those of horsemen. Since the lower part of the face remained open when wearing it, the gunsmiths needed to protect it with a forehead that covered both the chin and neck, both in front and behind, since it consisted of front and back parts connected to a cuirass.
Typical Germanic salad with visor, tail and forehead from Southern Germany: 1480-90. Higgins Museum. USA.
The salade helmet was popular with both the infantry and the knights. The difference was that the latter quite often (although not always) used options with a small visor, and archers and crossbowmen used options that left their faces open, and the salads worn by ordinary infantry often also had fields that made them look similar on Eisenhuts - "military hats". But salads with fields were also in use among knights, and an open-faced salade covered with cloth was used as a ceremonial helmet that knights wore outside of battle and in this capacity was very popular.
"Sallet the Lion's Head": 1475–80. Italy. Steel, copper, gold, glass, textiles. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
So, having originated somewhere in Italy, helmets of this type gained immense popularity primarily in Germany, where in the second half of the 15th century they became something like a typical German helmet, which became a characteristic feature of Gothic armor, which, in general, then, too, is associated with Germany. Well, later it was the salad that became the prototype for the famous German army helmet.
Sallet with a forehead of the Franco-Burgundian type of the end of the 15th century. It is believed to be made in Italy. Weight 1737 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
However, in addition to the salad, which was very popular both among the most noble knights and among the poorest infantrymen, a similar story happened with another helmet, which also appeared in Italy and also at the end of the 14th century, namely, the barbut helmet … It got its name from … the beard sticking out of it, because "barba" is a "beard". The reason was its design. After all, it was essentially the same "Corinthian helmet" with a T-shaped front slit, into which the beard was visible!
Barbut by the master Bernardino da Carnago, Italy, Milan, about 1475 g. Weight 2948 g.
Such a device facilitated breathing and vision. Such helmets in different versions turned out to be very convenient, both for infantry-men at arms, and for riflemen - archers and crossbowmen, although they were also used by knights. For example, the 1450 Italian armor from the Glasgow Art Gallery is equipped with a barbute. Such helmets spread very widely in Venice, where they were most often also worn by crossbowmen and heavily armed Venetian infantry. About this in the book “The Venetian Empire. 1200 - 1670”, pointed out by D. Nicole, who wrote it in collaboration with the famous historian and artist C. Rotero. Interestingly, in Germany, barbutes were called "Italian salad" or "Italian bascinet".
Salad bascinet with visor: 1500-10 Germany. Weight 2461 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Thus, throughout the fifteenth century. it was the Italian armourers who were the trendsetters of the military knightly fashion. But it also happened that they themselves included in their armor parts borrowed from German craftsmen, as their customers demanded. In turn, the trade relations between Germany and Italy, converging in Flanders, gave impetus to the development of their own production in Antwerp, Bruges and Brussels, from where then fairly cheap armor was sold in large quantities to England.
"Sallet with cheeks": 1470-80 Milan. Weight 2658 g. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. These helmets were worn mainly by infantrymen. Crossbowmen and archers.
Here, in Holland, armor of mixed forms became widespread, similar to those that we see today in the painting of the Dutch artist Friedrich Herlin "St. George and the Dragon" (1460), which depicts a knight in typical Italian "export" armor, but a salle helmet is typically German -Italian sample.
Friedrich Herlin. " St. George and the Dragon ".