Italian Harness Kit Plan, 1390-1410

No sources for the pictures provided

Initially planning, blindly, with a “Spoleto” visor but reconsidered and now going for a
kit sourced from effigies and extants, some from 1380s with spillover towards 1415
along with artistic interpretations.

The status fitting the kit is of a middle class person. A professional soldier in a free
company operating in Italy. Armor would be made from mild steel, thickness at 2mm on
the head, torso, and upper arm cannon. 1.5mm on the rest.

The kit plan has lots of possible combination, variation, and upgrades. Especially the
arm harness as the loose maille over an upper cannon was just starting out to be a
fashionable thing. Major upgrades possible for the kit is the addition of full closing
greaves, a full cuirass with reredos/saloon door backplate, and an early great bascinet.
Another potential upgrade is the ability to turn the whole kit as an interpretation of an early 15th
century knight, mainly based on the St George altar made in Valencia, Spain.

1
 Arm harness style would
be maille over closed
rerebraces with a plain
round shoulder cop.

Full leg harness but with

schynbalds only. Fully
enclosing greave upgrade
later

2
Hand & Limb Protection
 The visor style chosen for this is one of a kind, dated in
c.1400 and is of Italian make. There is a good amount of
extant “keyhole” visors that I find to be ugly hence them
not being chosen as a potential visor to be reproduced.

The Klappvisor is called by some as a proto-barbute due to

the cheek plates. Eventually the mid-late 15th century
barbute became a standalone; did not need a visor to
achieve its purpose.

This visor seems to be quite unbreathable so I would

recommend to putting breaths on the right side of the
visor. My inclination would probably have breaths for both
sides like the bascinet on the next page.

All of these head protections mentioned henceforth would be

worn in conjunction with a padded aventail.

Klappvisor
(1400-1410) Head Protection 1
3
 I prefer a pointier visor style for bascinets hence my
choices put here. Barred oculars would be ideal for
more protection (for harnischefecten) but smaller
slits would do the job.

Bascinet Visor Style, Oculars

& Breaths 4

Head Protection 2
 This torso protection has tons of stylistic variation by
way of decorative rivets and textile cover.

In my opinion, this would fit the middle class feel really

well as most men at arms of that status are depicted
wearing front opening ones. That is not to say that they
would not be able to afford simple breastplates.

Front Opening
Corrazina/Brigandine
5

Torso protection 1
 Back protection
arrangement could be either
or a combination of these.

Back Opening Corrazina 6

Torso protection 1.1
 The simplest (and probably the cheapest) armor
protection I can go for. Self-explanatory and provides
lots of possible upgrades as stated on the first page.

*Breastplate on Maille 7
Hauberk (9mm ID)
Torso protection 2
 One of the possible upgrades
visualized. Armet with a wrapper
is one of the major things for this
kit. Shoulder armor would be
taken from the 1396 effigy rather
than the asymmetrical pauldrons
of this time. Visor style could be
pretty much anything but the
main one of interest is the armet
that would characterize the
Italian style from the mid-15th
towards the rest of the century

Advanced Italian Armor 1400-1420s 8

Concept *very unlikely to be chosen/most likely an upgrade down the line