Student Writing about Illuminated Manuscripts and Medieval Armour

Today we read and discussed excerpts from two informational essays about the Middle Ages (portions of each essay are included below).

The students provided excellent feedback and constructive criticism about both essays.

A big thanks to Emma and Charles for sharing their excellent work!

Emma
Illuminated Manuscripts

The illuminated manuscripts of medieval times included multiple years of tedious work just to complete, but it was certainly worth the time. Before the scribe could start his work the pages needed to be measured out and have margins drawn in so the writing would be straight and pleasing to the eye. To make this process go faster they would have all the paper in a neat stack, on the first page they measured out the margins and drew them in then they would take a long thin needle and pierce it through all the parchment creating tiny pinholes for the scribe to follow. Finally, the scribe could begin to write. They would begin their work in a room called a scriptorium that was usually part of a monastery. These rooms were strictly silent and the scribes could only communicate by using signals. Although scribes worked for many long years in order to perfect their handwriting, they would make mistakes. These mistakes were either fixed in the margins or scraped up with a knife. When the scribe was finished writing they would commonly sign their name at the end, this revealed that many of the scribes were women. The next step is to have the plain pages decorated lavishly with different precious gems, plants, and metals. The pages seem to light up when you see the intricate designs swirling on the page. The vibrant colors were made from different plants and jewels that crushed to make the strong pigment come out.

Charles

Medieval Armour

When medieval knights went into battle wearing chainmail, they felt secure knowing that they had the best armor money could buy. Chainmail comes from the latin word “macula” which means mesh of the net. Chainmail was first worn by the Roman foot soldiers who would wear it as a defense against spear and sword thrusts. Chainmail was made from interlocking iron circles and it was very expensive. Only the richest knights could afford to wear it. The knights in the thirteen hundreds wore different chainmail pieces. The first piece of chainmail the knight would wear is his chainmail shirt, which is also called a hauberk, then he would put on his chausses which were chainmail leggings. If the knight was rich enough he would have a pair of chainmail gloves. Under all of his chainmail, the knight would wear plain comfortable clothes such as a tunic, a padded hat and wool leggings. The downfall of chainmail began in the late fourteen hundreds when more powerful crossbows were being manufactured to pierce chainmail. However, the real reason why chainmail fell was because of guns and halabrids. A halabrid is a combination between an axe and a pike. It was a long metal or wooden shaft with a spike in the top and a battle axe blade on the side.