2020 Essays

Arms and Armor in Ms. Fr. 640

Tavares, Jonathan

BnF Ms. Fr. 640 offers a unique glimpse into the production and consumption of late sixteenth-century arms and armor. Most period sources, such as guild regulations, court documents, commissions, and inventories, provide only hints about the materials, techniques, cultural experience, and tacit knowledge that clearly once existed. A more vivid picture emerges from Ms. Fr. 640, which is discussed in this essay alongside surviving objects. The essay first addresses the craft of the furbisher or sword cutler discussed over four folios (fols. 94r–97r), and then the use and maintenance of firearms, their projectiles, and plate armor referenced in several entries. Ms. Fr. 640 reveals an industry reliant on a myriad of specialized sub-trades, where no single craftsmen can be credited with the finished product and sale of a sword, and a world in which plate armor and heavy cavalry were steadily giving way to advances and standardizations in firearms.