The Bascinet in the 14th century

Introduction: the bascinet

The bascinet was a type of revolutionary knight helmet during the transitional period. It was introduced in Italy in  the first quarter of the 14th century and remain very popular across Europe for the next 200 years. 

The word "bascinet" was derrived from the ancient French word "baycin" - a water basin/bowl. The term was original applicable to any helmet that had hemispherical shape, for example the skullcap Cervelliere. However, bascinet refered to a specific type of helmet that directly evolved from it.

Despite its evolution from a simple and plain Cervelliere, the bascinets developed into one of the most sophisticating European helmets, providing flexible and excellent head protection to the wearers . 

The purpose of this post is to examine the three development in regard to the bascinet

Soldiers wearing different types of visor-less bascinet. The Silver San Jacopo in the Cathedral of San Zeno, Pistoia, 1376.

Illustration of soldiers wearing visored bascinets in late 14th century. Batlle of Mons-en Pévèle 1304 from the Chroniques de France ou de St Denis. dated 1398

Bascinet Origin: The Cervelliere

The origin of the bascinet is the  hemispherical steel cap called Cervelliere. It was introduced in the late 12th century to provide protection from the tophead to the forehead of the European soldiers. 

Soldiers either wore it alone or under or over a mail coif. In the 13th century, it became a common practice for knight to wear a Cervelliere under a great helm.
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Overtime, the Cervelliere extended to the neck of the wearer, becoming the first bascinet. 

The 12th century Cervelliere. The State Hermitage Museum

Illustration of a soldier wearing a cervelliere underneath a mail coif. The Maciejowski Bible. 1240s.

Modern illustration of a 13th century knight of Templar's head protection: a cervelliere underneath a mail coif and underneath a greathelm.

1st Development: the Extension to the neck

When the Cervelliere began to extend downward to the neck of the wearer, it became known as the bascinet.
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The earliest surviving bascinet is currently located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (the MET). It was created around the first quarter of the 14th century. Knight stopped wearing this helmet underneath the mail coif. Instead, he wore it over the mail coif as  demonstrated in the effigy of Sir Robert du Bois.

The early bascinet did not have an aventail attached or a visor to protect the wearer's face in comparison to later bascinets.
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It is interesting to note that a series of small holes in the lower part of the 1325 bascinet were not meant to be attached with an aventail (Camail). They are places where the bascinet and the padded lining joint together by sewing. 

Early Bascinet 1325. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Bascinet over the mail coif.Effigy Sir Robert du Bois Effigy in Fersfield Church Norfolk. 1311.

The small holes keep the bascinet in position with the padded lining inside.

Overtime, the shape of the bascinet changed significantly in shape and coverage.

The bascinet appearance changed from hemispherical into conical, egged-shaped. It was more pointy, making a direct weapon hit to the head much more difficult due to deflection. 

It covered most the wearer face, down to the chin. The only part it did not cover is the face, allowing the wearer to see better in hand-to-hand combat. 

Pointy, egg-shaped Italian Bascinet. 1325-50. The MET.

The visor-less bascinet covers the entire head of the wearer, but not the face area. ca 1350-1400. The MET.

2nd development: Aventails

As the quality of steel in European improved in the transitional period, the mail coif became obsolete. Instead of wearing a bascinet over a mail coif, which was much heavier, knights chose to wear a bascinet with an aventail (camail) attached.
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An aventail is a piece of riveted mail that help provide protection to the wearer neck and upper shoulder. Eventually, the aventail was replaced by a plate armor called gorget in later centuries. Subjects related to the gorget will be discussed in detail in the future posts. 

The effigy of Sir Hugh Despenser created around 1349 is the example of a bascinet with a aventail. There is a clear line on the helmet that was used to attach the aventail to the helmet. 

A bascinet with an aventail. Effigy of Sir Hugh Despenser, ca 1349.

3rd Development: Face protection

To appreciate the introduction of visored bascinet, it is important to understand the role of helmets in battle. 
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For knights in Europe, there were a need to balance between face protection and field of view in combat. When charging enemies from a far, it was critical to maximize face protection against arrows and powerful thrusts from opponent knight's lances. The great helm in 12th century was designed for such purpose with maximum coverage of the knight's entire head in exchange for very narrow field of vision. 

When engaging in a prolonged hand-to-hand combat, visibility was much more important. A knight who had a tunnel vision would fail to see and counter enemy blows from multiple angles. Before visor was introduced to the bascinet, it was common practice for a knight to wear a great helm over a bascinet when charging the enemy and to remove the helm when in melee.

A great helm is wore over a bretache bascinet. Viaarmorari

1. The Bretache Bascinet:

The bretache is a nasal guard that attaches to the bascinet. Early bretache was made from riveted mail that connects to a aventail. It evolved to a piece of plate armor as in the illustration of from the monument of Ulrich Land Schaden. Some European knights wore a greathelm over this type of bascinet.
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Effigy of Ulrich Land Schaden 1369.

Bascinet with a movable nasal plate (left a sketch of Ulrich Land Schaden) and how it cover the nose area (right, modern sketch).

Modern reproduction of a bretache bascinet. Armstreet.com

2. Visored Bascinet:
The most advanced bascinet type in 14th century was the hounskull (pig-faced) bascinet. Many historical bascinets of this type were well preserved. 

There were two types of visored bascinet depending on how the visor attaches to the helmet. In the Klappvisor, visor was hinged at a single pivot in the center of the brow of the helmet skull.  The double-pivot type the visor was attached to two pivots – one on each side of the helmet. Other than that, there were no significant differences between them. 

The visor was pointy in the nose area, so it could deflect incoming projectiles and weapon blows to the wearer's face. When in hand-to-hand combat, the visor could be lifted or even detached to provide the knight extra needed vision.

It was because of the introduction of the visor, the practice of wearing a great helm over the bascinet was ceased to exist. Knights favored the light-weighted hounskull bascinet in battle while the great helm and its successors stayed in jousting tournaments.

German Klappvisor Bascinet, ca. 1420–30. The MET

The double-pivots Bascinet 1371-1399. Royal Armories.

Successors of the Bascinet

The bascinet continued its development in the next centuries into the great bascinet and eventually be replaced by the more advanced armets. The discussion about the great bascinet and armet will be discussed in future posts. 

Great Bascinet (1510). Royal Armouries

Armet (1531). The Met.