Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/236

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Fig. 543. From a picture by Nuno Gonsalvez

Showing the velvet covered brigandine in use, late XVth century National Museum, Lisbon

rest. This brigandine, which might easily date within the third quarter of the XVth century, opens down the front; it has a covering of coloured textile. A somewhat similar defence, and of about the same period, is to be seen in the Castle of Milan; though it more closely resembles the textile covered breastplate referred to on page 159 of vol. i. Again, in the Vienna armoury is shown a very fine brigandine of crimson velvet studded with gilt rivets, which in its classic simplicity of outline reminds one of the example illustrated in Fig. 536. This brigandine is probably Italian and of the early years of the XVIth century (Fig. 540). There are also to be seen brigandines of the same type in the arsenal of Venice, in the Porte de Hal, Brussels (Fig. 541, a, b), and in the museums of Berlin, Munich, Sigmaringen, and Darmstadt. The brigandine jacket in the last-named museum is remarkable, as it might possibly date within the second quarter of the XVth century. This Panzerjacke, as it is there called, has a covering of red velvet over its steel scales, which are attached with gilt-headed rivets, forming a design