[MR] Dryer Feet, Larger Projectiles, and Going Blind in Twisting Agony

[rmhowe]

Post another 120 class University of Atlantia: 
http://university.atlantia.sca.org/catalog.html 
for those who live in other areas and have no idea what
I'm referring to below. Warning: If you read our class
sessions you may want to emigrate.
...........
On the subject of Pattens (and shoes in general).
They had very nice ones in the excellent class, however I would
like to add the following information for general consumption.
It is meant soley as additional resources many people do not 
know about at this time.

Not everything in the European world is contained in the
Museum of London Books. Keep in mind that those are limited to
finds from one place in one country in a specific period of time. 
These are now being sold by:
Boydell & Brewer  http://www.boydell.co.uk/LIVING1.HTM
Boydell and Brewer  http://www.boydell.co.uk/

Some of us have a lot of books on leatherworking and shoes from 
many cultures. The following book is a particularly outstanding 
new one:

Stepping Through Time, Archaeological Footwear from Prehistoric
Times through 1800, ISBN 9080104469, Zwolle 2001, by Dr. Olaf Goubitz, 
the head (about to retire) leather archaeologist in the Netherlands,
with additional articles by Carol van Driel-Murray on Footwear in 
the North-Western Provinces of the Roman Empire; and 
Willy Groenman-van Waateringe on Prehistoric Footwear 
(other international shoe and leather authorities)). 
Goubitz alone had 8500 shoes to deal with. Their recent, much larger, 
and much more diverse book deals with European shoes of many areas 
(although primarily Holland in Goubitz's case) from the earliest times 
up to 1800. A huge range of decoration and fastening techniques, 
as well as shoes styles and their construction, can be found in 
this book. It is in English, and it is new. Hardback, 397 pages. 
  If you want authenticity, but not necessarily to look like everyone
else, then this may be your shoe book. It covers a lot of Europe over
a wide range of time. 
* There are 17 pages of very different pattens and straps in it 
alone.*
   If you can deal with the Dutch pages (who mostly only take Visa btw)
the following info will aid you possibly:
Foundation for Promoting Archaeology 
(Stichting Promotie Archaeologie)
SPA, Lijnbaan 103, 8011 AP Zwolle
Fax: 00-31-38-4236016   Postbank: 703734.
Email archeologie.spa at wxs.nl  Website: www.archeologie-spa.nl

The only person selling it in English a month or so ago when 
I ordered it is:
Melanie Wilson, 
72 High Street, 
Syston, LE7 1GQ  England 
Booksearch 
Tel: +44 116 260 4442 +44 1509 812806
Fax: +44 116 260 1396 +44 1509 812334
Booksearch at outofprintbooks.co.uk 1/02
http://www.outofprintbooks.co.uk 1/02
Via Bookavenue.com
Tel: +44 116 260 4442  1/02
Fax: +44 116 260 1396 1/02 
Melanie takes credit cards and is in the booksearch business.
    The cost is £35 plus shipping to the U.S. and you get
a whole lot more than you do in Shoes and Pattens.
...........
Separately:

June Swann, who previously wrote other books on shoes,
also recently published The History of Footwear in Norway, Sweden
and Finland, Prehistory to 1950; 2001, paperback, 357 pages; 
Kungl. Vitterhets Historie oc Antikvetets Akademien (Royal
Academy of Letters, History, and Antiquities, Stockholm;
Almqvist and Wiksell International, Stockholm, Sweden; 
ISBN 9174023233. This book is a large paperback
and is in color, you can see the wool embroideries (now faded)
on the Bergen shoes for example. 
Chapters include partially:
Prehistoric Footwear 17; Roman Period 24; Migration Period 350-800
29; Viking Period 800-1050 39; Early Medieval Period 1030-1300 50;
Late Medieval Period 1300-1500 63; 1500-1600 81-101.  The book
continues with later periods, Shoe terms, glossaries, and
bibliographies.
   The scope of the book covers more than just the three countries 
in the title. The wool embroideries on the multiple Bergen shoes are 
in color in this book for example.  Covers prehistoric, some Coptic, a 
few Scottish, a couple Saami, Aran Islands, German Halstatt pottery 
reproductions, the Bergen last, a simple Danish one piece, others from 
the iron age covered by Hald, a number of Roman shoes from Germany, 
migration period shoes, some of the Irish one pieces (inc. probably
the handsomest example of these); shoes from carvings, the Charlemagne 
sculpture, and the Torslunda helmet plaque patrice; the Viking Period 
(Staraja Ladoga; Oseberg; Mindets tomt, Olso; an Ottonian ivory; 
English illuminations; Bergen, Norway; Trondheim, Norway; a walrus 
Ivory carving from the V&A; 10/11th C. Ostfold, Norway gold spur). 
   The Early Medieval period:
Bayeaux Tapestry examples; St. Olav’s Statue from Norway; 11th C. 
Shoe Soles from Oslo; Silk shoe offcut from Trondheim, Norway; Various
shoes from Trondheim, Oslo, Lund, Uppsala, and Bergen. 
    The later Medieval Period:
Illustration of a Polish Shoemaker's workshop; a woodblock of St. 
Crispin and St. Crispianus making shoes from Paris; the Mendel Hausbuch
shoemaker illustration; various other paintings; poulaines from 
Stockholm and Switzerland; a colour illumination from Germany of the 
King of Sweden and Duke of Mecklenburg; various church paintings and 
a sculpture from Sweden; views of a bishop's platform shoes, boots, 
an unusual patten and top piece; Leather overshoe, footwear with 
decorative cut-outs; a shoe with a net upper. Ankle shoes, square 
and ear toed shoes, buckle ankle shoe, cowmouth shoes, an Illustration
from Maximillian's Triumph showing shoe sellers carrying 50 pairs; 
Gustav Vasa and other nobles in colour, a highly embroidered shoe in
colour, sailor's shoes by Goubitz from a shipwreck; slip on shoes, 
an embroidered Tartar boot from the Khan (1582); Tartar decorated 
bowcase, arrow quiver and boots (1549) illustration; a clog seller 
with another high Venetian style chopine at his feet; decorated tie 
shoes. After that it passes beyond 1600 at page 101. There are still
quite a bit of primitive shoes later on in the book, with cuts and
cross sections. 15 page bibliography.
     
This book is available from the largest bookstore in Sweden.
http://www.Ronnells.se./home.htm
Ronnells Antikvariat AB, Birger Jarlsgatan 32, Stockholm, 
Sweden, S114 29. Phone: +46 8 545 015 60. Fax: +46 8 545 015 69. 
Email: ronnells at svaf.se;  Bookseller Inventory # 45769
Price: K 340.00 (approx. US$ 32.43) plus shipping from Sweden.
I suggest you request surface mail, as Swedish postal rates
by air are tremendous. 

Of the two, I would prefer Goubitz's if I was going to buy one.
It goes the entire constructional distance, and is far beyond
Primitive Shoes by Hald in this, or the limited range of
Museum of London books.

(I have bought from both Melanie and Ronnells many times.)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
As to Siege Engines:

There are books available from the Royal Armouries:
http://www.armouries.org.uk/
http://www.armouries.org.uk/publications/books/mono.html

The Springalds and Great Crossbows book by Jean Liebel 
has an excellent article on making skeins from horsehair.
Translated by Juliet Vale. Royal Armouries, 1998, 
ISBN 0948092319, pb, 86 pages.

They also have:
Alm, Joseph: European Crossbows, A Survey. This survey 
of European crossbows was published in Swedish in 1947. 
It was immediately recognised as the definitive work on 
the subject. Soft Illus/photos 1994, 122pp., 71 b/w 
illustrations,  $28.00  Royal Armouries Monograph, 
ISBN 0948092203 £12.95.

They have no problem with credit cards either.
.............
Dover has recently reprinted the Ralph Payne-Gallway book 
on Crossbows. I am unsure whether or not it contains the 
siege engines and catapults sections (I have two older ones - 
one does, one doesn't pre-Dover). I think it does. 
Payne-Gallway also wrote a separate book on siege weapons and 
I once borrowed it and compared it to the chapters in the back 
of one I had and it had almost all the same information and 
illustrations - rearranged.
............
If you can get one, Egon Harmuth's Die Armbrust (The Crossbow)
is the successor to Payne-Gallway and Alms in German, from Austria.
Published sometime around 1980. Small Hardback.
............
Much Roman written documentation on siege weapons may be found in
Vitruvius' Ten Books on Architecture. Mostly this concerns building
them based on ratios or proportions. Not much on pictures.
............
The best is probably:
GREEK AND ROMAN ARTILLERY: Historical Development & Technical Treatises
. 
ISBN 0198142684 & 0198142692  Usually sold as a set.
By E.W. Marsden; Presents a comprehensive account of ancient artillery 
from its invention in 399 BC to the collapse of the Roman Empire in 
the West 400 AD. 495 pages in two volumes. Hardbound, illustrated, 28
plates. 
Published by Oxford University Press. 
    They have some nice shooting catapults like many of you wish to make 
clearly illustrated. Keep in mind the Romans were looking for
efficiency, 
and power versus mass for transportability. Just like you need. Very
well 
illustrated. Even depicts repeat firing models and their mechanisms.

Edward R. Hamilton Bookseller  
Falls Village, CT 06031-5000 
http://edwardrhamilton.com/index.html 
Item # 0961701 Remainder: Your Price $49.95 

There have been a number of diverse articles on Roman siege engines,
mostly in archaeological journals or old historical magazines. Since 
they are not easy to find I won't mention them here. However, 
Scientific American has had issues on Trebuchets, Crossbows, and I 
believe Composite Bows in past decades. (I have a couple of three ring 
binder full of stuff gleaned from many decades.) 
xxxxxxxxxxxx

As to Viking Wire Weaving techniques:
The book to have for this wonderful craft to make you go blind is: 
Great Wire Jewelry by Irene From Peterson, 1999, HB, 61pp.
(translated into English from Smykker fra Vikinetid
(Jewelry from Viking Era) 1997 by Aschehoug Dansk Forlag A/S), 
ISBN 1579900933,  and sold by: 
Lark Books, 50 College St., Asheville, NC 28801
1-800-284-3388  
http://www.larkbooks.com/  $14.95 U.S. / 21.95 Canadian
http://www.larkbooks.com/home.nav/dynamic/search/results/?sectdir=
lb&cat=full&prod=478&lsid=6e92d6388db8578e80e3d4b81d03a28e  
Remember to copy/paste in the full line.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Master Magnus Malleus, OL © 2001 R.M. Howe
*No reposting my writings to newsgroups, especially rec.org.sca, or
the SCA-Universitas elist. I view this as violating copyright
restrictions. As long as it's to reenactor or SCA -closed- subscriber
based email lists or individuals I don't mind. It's meant to 
help people without aggravating me.* Inclusion, in the 
http://www.Florilegium.org/ as always is permitted.
(Stephan, you can edit this to subject if you like.)