English-madeGreenwich armoursabaton, 1587–89Antique Japanese (samurai)sode (shoulder guards), showing the individual lames connected to each other by silk lacing(odoshi)
Alame is a solid piece ofsheet metal used as a component of a larger section ofplate armor used in Europe during the medieval period.[1] It is used in armors to provide articulations or the joining of the armor elements.[2][3] The size is usually small with a narrow and rectangular shape.[3] Multiple lames areriveted together or connected byleather straps or cloth lacing to form an articulated piece of armor that provides flexible protection. The armor worn by thesamurai class of feudalJapan usedlames in the construction of many of their individual armor parts.[4] The Japanese term isita, which can both refer to the lame or its borderings.[5]
The Dos Aguas armor produced inValencia, Spain, is another example of a plate armor made of lames. The tassets are composed of three lames, with the inner edge of each turned out at right angles.[8] The design provided the armor strength due to the continuous arch-shaped flange.[8] The Schott-Sonnenberg style produced inNuremberg also featured a three-lame skirt. The tassets are also composed of lames riveted to the lower lame of the fauld.[9]
^Webster's II New College Dictionary (3rd ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2005. p. 631.ISBN978-0-618-39601-6.
^Kirkland, J. Michael (2006).Stage Combat Resource Materials: A Selected and Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 273.ISBN978-0-301-30710-7.
^abPyhrr, Stuart W.; LaRocca, Donald J.; Breiding, Dirk H.; Metropolitan Museum of Art (2005).The Armored Horse in Europe, 1480-1620. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 72.ISBN1-58839-150-7.
^Stone, George Cameron (1999).A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications. p. 309.ISBN978-0-486-40726-5.
^abLa Rocca, Donald J. (2017).How to Read European Armor. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 53.ISBN978-1-58839-629-7.
^Oakeshott, Ewart (2000).European Weapons and Armour: From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution. Rochester, New York: Boydell Press. p. 89.ISBN978-0-85115-789-4.
