Authoritative reference guide, using the documents in which arms and armour first appeared to explain and define them.

"A substantial and impressive piece of scholarship, one that will serve scholars and enthusiasts of medieval arms and armour very well indeed". Dr Robert W. Jones, Franklin and Marshall College

Medieval arms and armour are intrinsically fascinating. From the smoke and noise of the armourer's forge to the bloody violence of the battlefield or the silken panoply of the tournament, weapons and armour - and those who made and bore them - are woven into the fabric of medieval society. This sourcebook will aid anyone who seeks to develop a deeper understanding by introducing and presenting the primary sources in which these artefacts are first mentioned. Over a hundred original documents are transcribed and translated, including wills and inventories, craft statutes, chronicle accounts, and challenges to single combat. The book also includes an extensive glossary, lavishly illustrated with fifty-two images of extant armour and weapons from the period, and contemporary artistic depictions from illuminated manuscripts and other sources. This book will therefore be of interest to a wide audience, from the living history practitioner, crafter, and martial artist, to students of literature, military history, art, and material culture.

Contributor: Ralph Moffat RALPH MOFFAT is the Curator of European Arms and Armour at Glasgow Museums. He is responsible for the care of, research, and dissemination of information on the people of this City's collection.

Moffat's anthology is supposed to focus on arms and armour, and so it does. In doing so, however, it enables the people themselves to speak, and to be seen and heard by us. It is the people who stand out-striving, worrying, scheming, buying and selling, despairing, winning, losing, and just getting by. In other words, an interest in medieval arms and armour is not the only reason for reading this book. --- Ralph Moffat, Curator of European Arms and Armour at Glasgow Museums, has produced an invaluable work of reference in his Medieval Arms and Armour: A Sourcebook. --- [An] important contribution to the scholarly study of arms and armor, which provides a model for further publications that expand the overall base of information available for future detailed studies. --- Anyone interested in this field of study simply must own this book, and they will find themselves consulting it over and over again. No need for free shelf space, Moffat's sourcebook will best be kept close at hand on your desk or workbench. --- Moffet's Medieval Arms and Armour: A Sourcebook is hopeful. It hopes to spark further scholarship, which this writer also hopes, and thinks likely. This generation of armor scholars, such as Nicholas Dupras, author of an influential PhD thesis, "Medieval Armourers and Their Workshops" (2012), now has a compass, carefully crafted by Moffet with plenty of leads for avenues for graduate and professional research.