A History of the Idea of Glued Linen Armour

[Sean Manning]

Until I published this article, some scholars knew about the medieval armour in Niketas Akominatos, and many people knew about the glued linen armour in Peter Connolly, but there was no way to connect the two. Akominatos mentions salt and wine but not glue, and Connolly mentions glue but not salt or wine. My article shows how the glue appeared as Akominatos was summarized in French, then translated into English, then summarized again. It also shows how other medieval and early modern sources describe cloth armour made in a different way.

Then I define four criteria which any interpretation of the armour with the shoulder flaps needs to meet, and list methods which meet those criteria. The glue theory fails one of the criteria.