" Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era 1050-1350" Topic

Does anyone have this book and like it? hate it? Why? What is it useful for? I'd like a few details about what it discusses. Thanks.

I can't say what I think of the David Nicole book/s with this title in a public forum due to some bizare court decisions in Australia about unfavorable reviews – seems you can only say nice things if you review something.

David Nicole is, according to people who know him, a very nice chap.

Okay, anybody out there who has this that isnt under some sort of gag order?

Just had a look for it on Amazon – from the listing there I very strongly suspect this is a reprint or revised version of Nicolle's Medieval Warfare Sourcebook v.1 and 2.

If this is the case then what you get is a large format hardback with sections on the different warring nations/cultures of the period which are further sub-divided by timescale. The author discusses military hardware, tactics, recruitment and so forth with lots of photographs of surviving arms and armour from his own collection and assorted museums as well as line drawings of the same. What you do NOT get is Osprey style paintings although the book as a whole is sort of like a huge overgrown Osprey.

I found them very interesting and useful – especially volume 2 which covers Russia, the Mongols, Turks, etc which is Nicolle's strongpoint IMO. They are a bit on the academic/dry side though and might not be suitable if you're after more of a tub-thumping coffee table book.

Arms and Amrrou of the Crusading Era (2 volumes – the first is Western Europe, the secdon the East) is a useful reference tool. It comprises line drawings of original medieval artwork (manuscript illustrations, statuary etc etc) broken down by region/cutlure and date, along wiht text giving Nicolle's interpretation of the arms and armour it depicts. I've cross-checked some of the illustrations with the original documents and the drawinggs are reasonably accurate (bearing in mind that they are black and white line drawings of polychrome images or three-dimansional objects). I don;t always agree with his interpretations (I feel that, like most specialists in Byzantine history, he is too quick to suggest an eastern derivation for all technological developments) but I have found it a useful resource to actr as a starting point for finding original examples of medieval depictions of warriors and warfare.

It is not a reprint of his sourcebooks.

It is not a reprint of his sourcebooks.

Woops!

Wow, great. So you find it overall worthwhile, Wardlaw?

David Nicolle does drawings of the source artifact rather than a reconstruction as in WRG & Osprey books.
Compare the sources to his drawings in a magazine article: The Monreale Capitals And The Military Equipment Of Later Norman Sicily

A couple of extracts from vol 1 can be found here

Druzhina
sites of wargaming interest