"Polish knight in the Plock Bible, 12thC, in scale armour?" Topic

Judas Maccabeus portrayed as a Polish knight (in scale armour?) in the Plock Bible, second quarter of the 12th century.

Although this bible was made in the Meuse region, it is feasable that the figures were added after the book was taken to Plock in Poland, as they are painted in the margins.

Piotr Pudlo makes comparisons with other illustrations that he thinks are wearing scale armour:
'Herod's Guards' in the Golden Gospel of Echternach, Lower Lorraine – c. 1040 could be mail;
'Pharaoh's Army' in the Exultet Roll from Fondi, southern Italy – 11th c., NAL 710, may be scale;
'Count Guy' in The Bayeux Tapestry – the late 11th c. may be scale;
'Defenders' in the Siege of a city, carved reliefs in the Church of S. Nicola, Bari, Italy – the early 12th – non-mail but not necessarily scale;
Egyptians flee into Ascalon and Defeat of Turks outside Antioch – eighteenth century drawings from Les Monuments de la Monarchie Françoise of lost early or mid-12th century painted windows illustrating the First Crusade – St Denis, Paris, France probably includes some scale armour;
one soldier in scale armour on the 'Return of the Milanese' carved relief from Porta Romana, Milan, Italy, 1167;
Scandinavian knight on the Tapestry from Baldishol, Norway, c. 1200 could be in mail;
a soldier in scale armour in 'Abram Blessed by Melchizedek' in Reims Cathedral – the first quarter of the 13th century;
The arrest of Jesus, in the Armenian Roslin Bible manuscript, c. 1270 non-mail but not necessarily scale.
Does anyone have the other illustrations he refers to?

The Plock Bible and Norwegian knight on the Baldishol Tapestry have coifs that are shown fairly tight around the neck. This would be more difficult to do with large scales rather than mail. The scale coif on the Porta Romana frieze has a wider neck than the mail coif of the soldier next to it. The Exultet Roll from Fondi also has wide armour necks on the coif, but David Nicolle thinks they are mail.

Mail armour is sometimes depicted with larger shapes. Do you think the Plock Bible knight is wearing scale?

Druzhina
12th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Well, we can be fairly certain that scale was around because several of the potrayals show scale and mail in the same depiction. Unless there is some other illustration in the Plock bible , by the same artist, that we can compare with, we would have to take this one on its merits.
On that basis he would very likely be wearing scale because the tightness near the neck would be a matter of the artists interpretation rather than accurate copying of a model.
Ashdown colkected the various medieval depictions of mail and surmised that they represented real differences in armour. Nowadays we are inclined to see the different reoresentations as nearly always mail, but scale is a possibility and as there are no consequences to deciding one way or another ( Neither mail nor scale represents any great technological leap forward. or any particular cultural conbection) one might as well pick what the picture seems nearest, mail or scale.

Just going visually it appears to be scale rather than mail, to my eye anyway.

I have found some more images of marginal figures in the Plock Bible for comparison. Those that are attached to illuminated letters look less likely to have been done separately. Where they overlap the letter some of the paint would have to have been scrapped from the letter. This is probably why some think that some initials as well as miniatures were completed in Poland.

Solomon

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers