Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/170

 The tilting set catalogued in the Venice Arsenal as C 5 comprises a helm, great placate, breastplate, and backplate. The skull-piece of the helm is slightly bombé. The visor is in one single piece of nearly half-cylindrical shape, varying in thickness according to the strength required in any particular section. It is fixed with large bolts placed on either side beneath the skull-piece of the helm, and fitted also to the back part of the head-piece, which is simply grooved in chevrons. On the dexter side it has a square opening. As in the case of all tilting helms of this class, the ocularium occupies the space between the front lower edge of the skull-piece and the top of the visor. The helm is attached to the breastplate by two lateral hinges, and by a central hinged strap of iron of oblong rectangular form in which are four holes for receiving as many staples as are attached to the breastplate. These staples, when fitted through the holes made to receive them in the hinged strap on the helm, are rigidly secured by a single metal bolt passing through the group. The great placate has in the front three large movable bolts by which it is attached to the breastplate. The front and backplates are connected at the sides with a hinge and movable bolts, and on the shoulders with two broad strips of steel like a hinge, which contain various perforations to enable their position to be regulated.

On the back are six buckles to which were fastened the leather straps which supported the espaliers which are missing. In the centre eight large apertures are arranged vertically in pairs. All round the rims there are a number of small perforations, intended for the attachment of leather lacings and linings. The great placate carries the lance-rest, which is of the most massive description; now hollow, it was originally filled with some shock-resisting material.

The second Italian tilting set in the Venice Arsenal is numbered C 6. It is much the same in shape and in its parts as that just described, save that it is rather smaller in its dimensions. As distinguished from the preceding suit, this one has the great placate attached to the breastplate merely by means of the four pins near the lance-rest. At the back of the skull-piece of the helm are etched three interlaced rings on a gilded ground with ornaments and initials A. M., as in the case of the preceding armour. This seems to show that it belonged to the same owner. An armourer's mark of distinctly Milanese character also appears on the harness, a mark not unlike that used by the Missaglia family, though the stamped initials are not the same.

The splendid armoury of Vienna supplies us with an example of just such another helm and tilting set (Fig. 473); but in this case the helm, in