“He found a fresh donkey's jaw and stretched out his hand, took it, and killed a thousand people with it. And Samson said: With the jaw of a donkey, a crowd, two crowds, with the jaw of a donkey, I killed a thousand people.
(Judges 15: 11-16)
Interesting, isn't it? The man took a donkey's jaw and killed a thousand people with it. That is, it is obvious that everything is in God's hands. Wanted, and Samson gained strength, wanted, and he lost it! However, in this case, the conversion of the Bible has a slightly different meaning, namely, source study. The fact is that many theological subjects are reflected in miniatures that artists used to decorate medieval manuscripts. At the same time, their main feature was that, having a ready-made biblical plot, the medieval miniaturist took as a model … the people around him! He simply did not know and could not look anywhere, but what people looked like at that distant time. The concept of historical development was deeply alien to him, so his miniatures were a kind of "photographs of time" and, studying them, we can thus get to know what the people of the Middle Ages looked like at different times, and, of course, what their weapons looked like and armor. Accordingly, both the shepherdess David and the giant Goliath were painted by miniaturists of different eras in completely different ways, which gives us reason to consider their images as very valuable historical sources.
Samson beats enemies with a donkey's jaw. Miniature from the famous "Bible of Maciejewski" or "Bible of the Crusader", which belonged to Saint Louis. Dated to 1240 - 1250. From the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, two leaves at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, one at the Getty Museum. Pay attention to how lovingly, one might say, and competently, the weapons of the people depicted in the miniature and their clothes are written out. We see two felchens at once, although only about half a dozen of them were actually found.
But the modern reconstruction of this "sword", very similar … yes, yes, to a donkey's jaw! But there is no way to prove it!
That is, it is enough for us to arrange medieval miniatures by year in order to clearly see how weapons and armor changed from year to year and century to century. Accordingly, these changes can be seen on effigy sculptures and are complemented by various other artifacts that have survived to our time. But we will talk about the metal products of the Middle Ages, but now we are interested in "pictures", moreover, united by one biblical story. On some - Samson with a donkey's jaw in his hands, on others - the shepherd David kills the giant Goliath.
Well, this is the earliest image of David and Goliath that I could find. This is a miniature from the Psalter from Canterbury, it dates from 1155 - 1160, and is still in the same Morgan library. We are not interested in the shepherd, but Goliath simply asks for a drawing depicting a warrior of this time. He wears a helmet with the top curved forward, a long slit chain mail worn over an even longer shirt, and an inverted teardrop shield.
The next miniature is from France, 1151-1175. The original is at the National Library of the Netherlands. And in this miniature we see the same thing. Unless the chain mail has a slit in front and looks a little shorter, and the shield has a belt - tug.
This miniature is from a manuscript from Germany, 1170-1180. And here it was clearly not without the influence of the Byzantine school. Look, on Goliath, in addition to chain mail, you can clearly see some kind of scaly armor, very characteristic of Byzantine icon painting and painting. But in general, the weapons are still international and uniform!
The capital letter O from the French manuscript of 1180. The helmet acquired a nasal plate with an extension on the face, the shield became patterned, and the legs also finally received protection. They are clearly quilted.
Now we have before us Goliath of 1185 from France. As you can see, the helmet on his head is "swollen", it is possible that it is painted or covered with striped fabric, the body is already covered with chain mail from head to toe, but chain mail chausses on his legs are not in the form of stockings, but simple stripes tied on his legs behind. Apparently, it was more economical that way.
But this is a kind of comic of three pictures, going one after the other. Before them, again, David and Goliath, but now from Spain, a manuscript from Barcelona, which dates from the period from 1200 to 1300. Library of San Lorenzo de Escorial. The first miniature shows how Saul dressed David in metal armor, but he did not like it. He's not used to it.
In the next miniature (it is in front of us) we see Goliath dressed as a typical knight. A helmet, a shield, a spear with a triangular pennon-pennon, chain mail armor, and he already has chain mail stockings on his legs. An element of humor: we see how the stone of young David "shone" on his forehead, so much so that only a spray flew!
Well, here the ill-fated Goliath fell from his horse, and David chops off his head. Goliath's armor, as you can see, is very simple and is not covered by anything from above, but his horse is depicted in a blanket.
On this miniature from the "Aeneid" 1210 - 1220. Thuringia, Berdin State Library, no David and Goliath, but the helmets of that time, as well as their coat of arms, are perfectly reproduced. The horses are wearing quilted blankets, and on the shields we see the coats of arms of their owners.
Goliath from "The Bible of Matsievsky" dressed up for battle as a real dandy: on his head he wears a painted helmet "chapel de fer" (that is, an "iron hat"), on his body a chain mail hauberk with a hood, quilted knee pads on his knees, but his knee pads are made of metal plates with ties, though still the simplest, not anatomical. The shield in the shape of an "iron" was reduced in size, and a surcoat appeared over the armor in the form of a long shirt without sleeves. Recall that this is 1240 - 1250.
"Donkey's Jaw" on a 1300 miniature from Zurich, Switzerland, and the manuscript from which it is taken is in the cantonal library. We look closely and note that the first soldier's sword has crosses, obviously, the manufacturer's "mark", that all the soldiers are already in surcoat, but some have them belted, while others do not. And the helmets … the helmets were conical, that is, they continued to be worn along with everyone else.
Miniature dating from 1300 to 1350 from Austria, State Library of Württemberg. Here we already see bascinet helmets on the soldiers, and even with holes along the edge. That is, at this time they were already quite widespread!
Finally, another picture of a murder with a donkey's jaw: 1450, a manuscript from Belgium, is in the Morgan library. On it we see infantrymen in plate armor, brigandines and with felchens in their hands. That is, everything is the same that other sources tell us about, and, in particular, the same effigies.
Well, now let's compare the miniatures presented here with the works of contemporary artists, well, let's say, a drawing by the same Angus McBride. On it we see the warriors of 1170-1180. Obviously, when working on it, he used not one, but many different miniatures, including those that we could see here. That is, the reconstruction he carried out was worked out very carefully.
The drawing, in which we see the knight of 1190, has been worked out even more carefully, here we see everything in detail, right down to the drawing on the fabric. The sword shown in the figure was at one time described by E. Oakshott, and his photo was in all his books, including in black and white. It should be noted that this is how the knights who participated in the battle of Montjisar, victorious for them, and the tragic battle of Hattin, could have looked like this.
So, modern illustrators depicting warriors of the Middle Ages have an excellent basis for creating their works, and almost every detail of the weapons of this or that armor can be attributed both on the basis of real finds and medieval miniatures, of which there are many thousands today. (!), and only the smallest part of them is digitized and available for viewing on the Web!
