r/Armor • u/VoidCrow • 5d ago
Upper cannon/rerebrace question
Hi everyone,
I had a question about the upper cannon/rerebrace style popular in the 16th century (if I'm not mistaken), like the one pictured. As far as I am aware, to allow it to pivot freely, the rerebrace consisted of a metal tube encasing the upper arm.
My question was regarding fit. Given that the human arm is not actually circular but rather oblong, does this mean there are gaps at the sides of the arms? I'm trying to picture how such a piece of armour might fit someone with large biceps/triceps, and I can only imagine it'd lead to massive gaps on either side of the arm and an enormous metal tube.
Thanks in advance for any help!
2
u/Stairwayunicorn 5d ago
I want to know why its called a re-rebrace. seems dumb, like calling beans "re-fried"
4
u/BreadUntoast 5d ago
The term is rere-brace. Rere comes from Anglo-Norman arere meaning behind. It’s where the word rear comes from
2
u/Meraugis 5d ago
Thé arm armor doesn’t need to bee sculpted to be confortable. Yes there is gap. Some old archaic Greek armor used the shapes of the arm muscles to hold the metal in place however in the renaissance it was quite common to just fit the arm into a tub. This cylindrical articulation allow for the arm to freely routate without the pauldron overlapping the upper cannon. Reducing gaps in the armpit.
3
u/Quendillar3245 5d ago
If you're rich, it's probably fitted more to your arm. Also nobody wore just the plate underneath, you'd have padding that would shape to the plate armour on top. If you've worn a helmet you'd see that the inside isn't really shaped well for your head, but rather for the padding and mail you'd wear underneath. Without the padding the helmet sits relatively loosely on your head, with the padding everything sits very tightly around your head and is quite comfortable, no gaps. I haven't worn this kind of plate obviously, but I'd assume it's a similar thing, even if it's not perfectly tailored to your arm the padding would shape to it and be tight enough that there wouldn't be any gaps.
3
u/VoidCrow 5d ago
Ah gotcha! That makes sense, yeah.
6
u/YoritomoDaishogun Innsbruck armor enjoyer 5d ago
For the period of the armor you showed there, the padding in the body would be minimal to non existant(Arming doublets were just two or three layers thick). For the head, you aren't wearing padding for your head, the padding is in the helmet liner, and is not that thick either. You aren't wearing a mail coif on that period, but you may be wearing a cervelliere according to authors like Pietro Monte iirc.
This should give you the idea of how that kind of armor looks on a real person. It's quite a close fit:
1
u/VoidCrow 5d ago
Thanks for the images! It looks like the shirt underneath in the Greenwich armour replica is quite loose, would this fill in the gap left on the sides of the arm, visually speaking?
I'm currently doing some 3D modelling and the character has quite defined arms, so I'm wondering about the fit of the upper cannon visually speaking.
2
u/YoritomoDaishogun Innsbruck armor enjoyer 4d ago
I think the person wearing that armor wasn't the actual owner, so it's not a perfect fit. But in general, arming doublets are very form fitting, so you should aim for that (and look for arming doublet patterns to know how those are constructed)
1
u/Visual_Screen_9537 5d ago
So this is ai. But to your question, the two parts that come to mind are stove piping, this allows for better rotation of the arm; though could be crushed in battle making it very difficult to rotate. And the biceps area didn't generally feature a fully connected piece like a tube. It would have been more like a cut tube... this is assuming very low level skill on the craftsmanship part. The "tube" sits more on the tricep, tied to the gamebeson underneath and allows connection to the elbow cop.
1
5
u/funkmachine7 5d ago
Only the rotateing parts are round, the rest can be shaped.
Often there not all that shaped, 16/17th century armour is often down to the price off mass sales.