house of Mathias Corvin. Around the border is the inscription in Gothic characters:
Alma Dei genitrix Maria, interpella pro rege Mathia
This particular shield before passing into the collection of the Musée
d'Artillerie was in the famous Durand Collection, and subsequently in that
of the Duc d'Istre. Yet another development of the wooden shield of the
XVth century may be seen in the Wallace Collection, No. 338 (Fig. 601).
Here the shield is more elongated in form; but the developed central ridge
is very pronounced. On its face is painted a castle in black on a buff ground.
Large numbers of this exact type of shield exist in the arsenals of Germany;
so it would appear that they must generally have been a company armament.
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Fig. 607. Crossbowmen with pavois at the siege of Rouen
1450-1475. From the Pageant of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick
Let us now look at that form of shield which we have previously mentioned as playing so large a part in Italian Renaissance decoration, the shield that marks the return to the old Norman kite shape. Throughout the XIVth and XVth centuries this type of shield was in universal use,
