Photograph of this style of pavilion at Pennsic

Making a Medieval Single-Pole Pavilion

by David Kuijt, ska Dafydd ap Gwystl

Webbed by Stephen Bloch, ska M. John Elys

Note from Webmaster: David's original article includes a number of pictures, some of which I haven't scanned in yet and some of which are potentially under copyright. Appendix B contains some formulae, which I haven't Webbed yet. These things will come in time....

Medieval Pavilion Structure and Decoration

Pavilions are great. Over the last decade in Atlantia we've gone from nylon tents to the point where many people have nice canvas pavilions. This is wonderful. However, I have never quite been satisfied with most commercial pavilion designs. For one thing, they are all designed for short people -- I cannot see outside from inside the tent.

Some time ago I observed that the most common pavilion in period manuscript illustrations was a round pavilion with a single center pole. Commercial designs for these pavilions aren't satisfactory. I started looking at medieval and Renaissance illustrations of simple round pavilions, and I made a couple of observations.

  1. No Perimeter Poles. Period pavilions did not use poles (perimeter poles) to hold up the edges. A search of hundreds of illustrations of pavilions revealed none that had anything that could be construed to be perimeter poles. Many of them show a wide section of the opening, where perimeter poles would be visible if they existed, without any such poles. No illustration has any sort of finial decoration, protruding spike, hole, or rope formation that would give positive evidence of a perimeter pole. Some illustrations show a pavilion opened up, so the center pole is visible, without showing any perimeter poles (see figure 3). Finally, in two particular illustrations there is evidence against perimeter poles. The first such illustration shows a group of soldiers breaking camp. They have removed the walls from a pavilion, but the roof is still up. There are no perimeter poles. Figure 13 shows this illustration.
  2. The second such illustration is even more evocative. It shows a military camp after a storm has blown through. Some of the pavilions have been knocked over. One in particular is partially on its side, but retains the conical shape of a single-pole pavilion. This is impossible with a perimeter pole construction, and is strong positive evidence for the spoked-wheel construction that I will describe later. Sadly, I've lost my copy of this illustration, so I couldn't include it with this handout. I'm still looking for it, though.

    [Webmaster: Mary Hall sent me the URL of one such picture. Note that although the picture depicts an event of 1347, the ms. is 15th-century, and the tents and armor look 15th-century to me. The devil's advocate points out that the falling-down tent in the foreground could be artistic license, on the theory that nobody would recognize it as a tent if it looked like a real falling-down tent. However, the optimist points out the skill, relative realism, and beginning attempts at perspective in the rest of the picture, and thinks it unlikely that the artist who focussed the picture on the falling-down tent would have so little confidence in his ability to portray it recognizably.]

  3. Ropes are uncommon. Most period pavilions did not hold up the eaves with ropes, either. A large number of pavilions didn't even have ropes. Very few pavilions have the ropes at an angle broad enough to support the eaves without some internal structure. Two significant exceptions are in frescoes by Simone Martini (c. 1330). These frescoes are shown in figures 1 and 18. The pavilions shown are festooned with ropes, and the angle and number of the ropes make it possible that these pavilions had no internal support structure. They also look droopy and saggy, unlike the taut pavilions shown in most other illustrations.

  4. Splayed walls. The majority of period pavilions had splayed walls, wider at the base than at the eaves. There are some exceptions, pavilions with vertical walls (see figures 4 and 20), but they are not nearly as common.

Based upon the evidence of manuscript illustrations and paintings, the most common period pavilion type is a center-pole pavilion, circular or polygonal, with splayed walls and no ropes. See figure 2 for a good example of this type of pavilion.

So the question then becomes, `How did the pavilion gain its shape?' Clearly some sort of internal structure is used. My first experiment was using an internal wooden hoop, bound into the eaves of the pavilion. This turned out to be awkward, ungainly, time-consuming, and unstable. It was hard to put up and involved a lot of awkward pieces. In any sort of wind it shifted around and distorted. It was impossible to tie down securely, as tightening the ropes distorted it still further, and eventually the hoop broke while being bent and warped by the wind.

So that experiment failed. On a large pavilion the hoop technique was inherently unstable and fragile. Very frustrating; I had the cloth for a fine pavilion, and no way to put it up.

At this point I saw a pavilion owned by Sir Xenophon and Mistress Celynen. Their pavilion was made by a company in England that supplies pavilions to a number of historical and re-enactment groups. As I understand it, the design is based upon a 15th century Burgundian pavilion in the Bern Museum in Switzerland. Their pavilion used a spoked-wheel construction, with the hub passing through the center pole and the spokes supporting the eaves. This system would explain the `pavilion after the storm' illustration in a way that perimeter poles or hoops could not.

So I built a spoked-wheel structure for my pavilion, and found that my awkward-duckling pavilion had turned into a swan.

Diagram of spoked structure

Spoked-Wheel Pavilion Structure

The load-bearing element of the pavilion is a single stout pole in the center. In my pavilion this is an oaken pole 2" across. My original centerpole was pine, 1.5" in diameter, and tended to bend slightly but alarmingly. Oak is much stronger than softwoods like pine.

A wheel-hub is placed 7' up the center pole. The hub slides down over the pole before it is lifted into position, and rides on a brace there. The hub has 12 shallow holes along its edge to take the spokes of the wheel.

The spokes are simple octagonal poles with a 1.5" cross section, slightly less than 6' long. One end has a 10' rope coming out of it. The rope fits through a grommet in the tent eave, then runs outside to a stake. The other end is tapered to a cylinder, so it will fit inside a hole in the hub.


Advantages of the Spoked-Wheel Design

A number of advantages quickly became evident after I modified my hoop tent into a spoked-wheel design. It is faster to put up or take down. Ropes aren't necessary. The tent is stable, and the roof stays taut in spite of weather. There is also more usable space inside.

Photograph of spokes, hub, and a pair of shoes
sitting on top of them above head height

The design also has a number of minor benefits. The Pavilion has a `loft' available, created by the roof spokes. This can be very useful for hanging wet clothing. The spokes can also be used to hang cloth dividers, allowing a lot of freedom in subdividing the available space. Decorative tapestries, painted wall hangings, banners, and fancy cloth walls can be used to make internal rooms. Photograph of spokes, hub, and curtains hanging from
two of the spokes


Medieval Pavilion Decoration

If you peruse the various illustrations included in the handout, you will see a broad range of decorative techniques. Some pavilions are undecorated, plain canvas. Some are enormously fancy, with bright colours, interior lining, and spiral-carved center poles. In between these two extremes you can see a number of pavilions which are basically white canvas with painted linear designs, gothic arches, and similar simple decorations. Some are just in one colour, some are in two or three.

Plain, undecorated pavilions are shown in figures 2, 4, 9, 13, and 21. Some of these are in pictures with other decorated pavilions.

Simple designs, often no more than decorative lines on the seams, can be seen on the pavilions in figures 1, 4, 18, 23, and 25. These would be easy to paint on a pavilion in a few hours, for minimal cost.

One of the commoner decoration techniques for medieval pavilions is various types of gothic arches, painted on the walls of pavilions with associated designs on the roofs. Although more complicated than the simple linear decorations, these too are easy to paint on a pavilion with a little bit of preparation, even in a single afternoon. Examples of these decorations can be found in figures 6, 8, 10, 14, 17, 20, and 24.

Complex multi-colored patterns painted on white canvas are less common, but still occur. Figures 5 and 15 show two examples of such pavilions.

Broad stripes and bands of colour are also used. This decorative technique requires using coloured canvas, either buying it the appropriate colour or dying it yourself. An early (13th century) example can be seen in figure 14, a later (Tudor) one at the top of figure 26.

Some pavilions are shown in solid colours, often with painted decoration or accents. Examples are figures 3, 7, 11, 12, 19, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29. These are the richest looking pavilions, and are often used in illustrations to denote the pavilions of the wealthiest and most powerful nobles and kings. Some of the full-colour pavilions are shown with contrasting linings of decorative fabric.

Finally, many pavilions are marked with the arms of their owners. This is often combined with simple linear decoration or decorative arches. Examples can be found in figures 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 18, 23, and 25.

Making a Single-pole Pavilion

There are two simple shapes to sew together: a series of pie pieces for the roof, and a series of trapezoids for the walls. The trapezoids have a rectangular flap at the bottom to help shed rain. The only other complication is the possibility of a running band at the eaves.

I will describe dimensions for three separate designs: a small tent suitable for a dayshade, changing tent, or one or two people; a larger multipurpose pavilion; and a large pavilion suitable for use as a great hall at events, sleeping a whole household, and so on. All of the dimensions I describe are calculated based upon finding 60" wide canvas. The bottom edges of the wall trapezoids, on all three designs, are exactly 60" across. If your canvas has different dimensions you may need to redesign. For example, if you have 96" wide canvas, it is possible to construct an 8-spoke pavilion with 6' spokes.

The small tent uses 8 spokes 4' long. It is 11' tall, 13' diameter on the ground (134 square feet area), and requires 32 yards of canvas to construct. The cost of this tent in materials is less than $200, depending upon the price of canvas in your area.

The pavilion has 12 spokes 6' long. It is 13' tall, nearly 20' diameter on the ground (293 square feet area), and requires 54 yards of canvas to construct. This tent will cost around $300 in materials by my estimate.

The large pavilion has 16 spokes 10' long. It is 17' tall, more than 25' diameter on the ground (516 square feet area), and requires 88 yards of canvas to construct. This large pavilion will cost less than $500 in materials, depending upon the price of canvas.

Three-dimensional rendering of the three sizes At right is a picture, contributed by Brian Wright, of the three sizes as rendered by "3D Studio Max". The green rectangle represents a 6' tall (and rectangular) person.

Construction Notes

HUB:
Diagram of hub The easiest way to make the hub is to laminate four pieces of 3/4" plywood to make a slab 3" thick. Use good wood glue, and be sure to use high-quality plywood. The more laminations (layers) in the plywood the better. Once the glue has dried, cut it to shape (8 sided, 12 sided, or 16 sided depending upon the size of pavilion) and drill one hole in each side using a 1.5" spade bit. You only need to go about 2" deep on each hole.

After the spoke holes are drilled, you need to make a hole through the center of the hub large enough to admit the center pole. The size and shape of this hole depend upon the dimensions of the center pole.

The dimensions of the hub are not crucial to the design of the pavilion. The important thing is that the hub is broad enough for the holes holding the ends of the spokes (8, 12, or 16 spokes in the three designs of pavilion I describe). In my pavilion the hub is 6" radius, and the holes for the twelve spokes are 2" deep. This means that the spokes should be 4" shorter than 6' (in other words, 5'8") so the distance from the center pole to the end of the spokes is exactly 6'.

SPOKES:
go to your lumberyard and buy one 2x4 for every two spokes needed. Pick dry 2x4s with no warp or knots. Rip the 2x4 into two 2x2s on a table saw. You can use them with square cross-section or make them more attractive by beveling the edges with a hand plane, joiner, router, or a tablesaw blade set at 45 degrees. Round one end down with a rasp or file so it has no sharp corners to abrade the tent. File the other end down to a 1.5" diameter cylinder, so it fits in the holes of the hub. The fit does not need to be precise. The twelve spokes on my pavilion cost less than $10 total.

Diagram of center poleCENTER POLE:
The only important characteristics of the center pole are that it is strong enough, the right length, and that it fits in the hole in the hub.

The center poles in manuscript illustrations and paintings vary from moderately slim to enormously huge (see figure 3). If you have a car with a roof rack that can take a long pole, you might want to have a pole without any joint. If not, the following joint system is easy and reliable.

My center pole started out as a 7' piece of 8/4 Oak, about 6" wide. I got my fancy woodworking store (where I found the wood) to plane it and cut it into two 7' long poles, 2" square, and some waste. The total cost to me was $25 or $30.

Fitting pole together I then bought a 16" section of 2" square metal pipe from a metalworking store. I cut two ends of the 7' poles at a 60 degree (steep) angle, then fitted one end tightly into the metal sleeve and the other one slightly more loosely.

Finally, I beveled the top section, rounded the top and drilled a hole into it, into which I glued a large metal spike. The result is a center pole that comes apart readily, and is quite sturdy.

FLOOR:
The slowest thing about putting this pavilion up is figuring out where the walls should be properly staked. Having a floor, sized and shaped to match the base of the pavilion can vastly accelerate this process. This floor can then be laid out before the pavilion is put up, showing exactly where every stake goes. The floor should be made of some durable, waterproof, rot-resistant material that is easily cleaned. Since it is not attached to the rest of the tent it can be easily replaced or repaired if necessary.

Sewing Notes

First, the caveat: I don't know much about sewing. There may be much better ways to do the stuff I describe below, and I'm sure that an experienced sewing guru would know the better ways to do it. If you want to ask such a person's advice, great. (And by the way, if you find some better way to do some of this stuff, please let me know). If you want to just muddle through, follow my instructions below.

Buy canvas that is pre-treated to be water-resistant and fire-retardant, if you can get it. Buy good canvas. This is not the place to cut corners of cost.

I STRONGLY advise that you not attempt to sew the pavilion without a very heavy-duty sewing machine. You can rent these in some places, or find a friend who has one if you are lucky. Some possibilities for renting or borrowing heavy-duty sewing machines are university theatre departments, theatrical supply stores, or commercial enterprises making or repairing sails or tents. Dont try to use an everyday utility sewing machine if you can avoid it. It will be very frustrating and take a long time, breaking a lot of needles. I'm speaking from experience, here.

Flat-felled seamGet some experienced sewing guru to advise you on any questions you have regarding the sewing. One important thing to do is to get them to show you how to make a flat-felled seam: all the seams on the pavilion should be flat-felled seams for strength. Luckily for anyone who (like me) is a sewing ignoramus, all the seams are straight and simple.

Cutting out the large canvas pieces can be a chore, especially marking the long straight lines. The easiest way to do this is to lay the fabric flat, then take a surveyors chalk-line and use that to mark the cutting line.

NOTE!!!! There are NO SEAM ALLOWANCES marked on the pattern. You MUST allow some appropriate seam allowance on the outside of each pie piece for the roof and of each trapezoid for the walls. I'm not exactly sure what seam allowance is best: I added a 1" seam allowance. If you forget to do this, you will waste an awful lot of fabric.

First, finish all the rain flaps on the edge of each roof pie piece. The rain flap is the 12" deep rectangle at the bottom of the pie piece. You can dag it if you wish, hem it or edge it with some contrasting coloured edging.

Now sew all the pie pieces for the roof together. At the peak you will need to sew a large metal ring or grommet to the pieces. Alternatively you can take a short section of 1/2" rope (something that will not rot: nylon or hemp, not cotton) and wrap the thin ends of the pie pieces around the rope before sewing them down. This will leave a hole at the very peak of the roof for the center pole to go through.

Finish the top edge of each wall trapezoid, and the mud flap at the bottom (the rectangle 5' long by 1' deep).

Now work your way around the tent, sewing one trapezoid on at a time. Note the dotted line on the pattern that marks the edge of the flap -- that is where the top of the wall must be sewn to the roof. Make sure that the roof rain flap is on the outside. Sew the seam attaching one trapezoid to the other along the side seam as well as the roof seam.

Before you go too far, decide how many doors you want and where. To make a door, just finish the adjacent vertical edges of two wall trapezoids rather than sewing them together. I've found it very convenient to have two doors on opposite sides of my pavilion. This allows me to open both doors and let a breeze through in hot weather, and it is often convenient to have a back door.

Once the walls and roof are sewn, you need to make small reinforced cups of some of the remaining scrap canvas. These cups are sewn to the edge of the eaves. Their function is simple--they lock one end of a spoke in the right position on the edge of the roof.

Construction of cups
Take a square of canvas and fold to make a triangle. Sew it down and finish the edges using any simple method (hem, serge, whatever). Fold again, to make another triangle. Sew one edge so that you have a triangular cup shape, with the hypotenuse open. This sounds complicated, although it is very easy to do; I hope this illustration will help explain it.

[Webmaster: For a dissenting opinion on how to build these pockets, see Pavilions in Greydragon.]


Placement of cups inside tent Now sew the cup down (making sure not to close the cup) so the end of the pole will fit inside the cup. Sew one such cup at every spoke position (where the horizontal seam at the eaves crosses a vertical seam down a pie piece and wall trapezoid). Photograph of pocket


If you want to have ropes on the tent, sew simple loops to the outside of the eaves to take the ropes.

Stake loops are constructed by sewing heavy-duty woven cotton straps to the bottom of each vertical seam on the walls. Make sure you sew them down securely. You will need one loop for every vertical seam joining two wall trapezoids; doors will require one loop for each trapezoid edge at the door opening (two loops total).


Stakes

Get your local blacksmith to make you enough 15" or 18" stakes. For simple stakes it won't be very expensive, and you might as well have good stakes for a good pavilion. If you have no local blacksmith, get some 12" tent nails. Don't use aluminum or plastic stakes -- they won't last, and they aren't good enough.

Optional Detachable Walls

For the pavilion shown in illustration 13, it is clear that the walls can be detached from the roof. I don't really recommend this for your first pavilion. Sewing the walls to the roof makes the whole thing more secure, less work to put up and take down, and so on. The pavilion will not be steady (or even stay up) if one of the walls is removed because the walls hold up the roof.

However, if you are making a very large pavilion, it makes more sense to have the walls be detachable so they can be transported separately. If you want to make a pavilion with detachable walls, I advise sewing toggles and loops every six inches across the dotted line marking the edge of the roof pie segments, and along the finished top edge of the wall trapezoids. You will need to be very careful and precise. Small errors in placement will cause gapping and other problems, letting wind and weather in at the roofline.

Painting and Decoration

Some pavilions were plain undecorated canvas, but many of the ones shown in manuscript illustrations are brightly coloured or painted. I haven't experimented in dyeing canvas, so I can't give any useful advice for reproducing the beautiful full-colour pavilions that can sometimes be found in illustrations. Consult with some local fabric guru and experiment.

Painting a pavilion is quite simple. Most pavilions were painted with simple lines, gothic arches, and the like. This turns out to be quite easy to do. I bought commercial exterior acrylic latex house paint from a local do-it-yourself store. You need to thin the paint with water so that it soaks into the canvas a bit. This makes it much easier to brush on in a single application -- undiluted house paint tends to bead up on the surface. You must avoid diluting the paint too much, though, or it will wick out from the design rather than sticking to where you apply it. I found that thinning the paint with an equal amount of water gave me a good consistency. As an added benefit this also cuts the cost of the paint in half, as you get two gallons from every gallon you buy. Don't paint your pavilion indoors -- find a big slab of clean concrete or pavement to lay the pavilion out and paint it. The paint will bleed through the canvas slightly, so dont paint on a surface where this will matter. Be very careful to avoid spills onto the canvas, as they are impossible to clean up.

Most single-pole pavilions seem to have had a decorative finial, often a golden ball. Some pavilions have whole statues on top, as shown in figures 26 and 29. Flags are also fairly common, sometimes in conjunction with a gold ball. A decorative finial of some sort makes the pavilion look nicer, but it also has a practical purpose in plugging the only hole in the pavilion fabric, at the top. I've experimented with a number of simple ball designs but I haven't found one I'm really satisfied with yet.

Finally, the flap at the end of each roof segment is often decorated. They may be dagged or painted, sometimes with mottoes and sayings in contrasting colours to the tent.

Appendix A: Pavilion Plans

Fabric and Layout

Pattern pieces These patterns are based upon 60" wide canvas. The trapezoidal wall pieces take up the full width of the canvas, so can only be laid out in one direction. The most efficient way to lay out the triangular roof pie pieces is shown below. It is possible to lay them out so as to use less fabric, but not advisable, as it involves cutting along the bias of the fabric. Cutting along the bias will allow stretching of the piece, which will distort the pavilion in the long run.


Cutting pattern

Appendix B: Mathematics

All the calculations involved in planning a pattern for a circular (actually, polygonal) pavilion are fairly basic trigonometry. Start by drawing a scale-drawing silhouette of the pavilion you want, with dimensions for the height of the eaves (the level of the spoked wheel), the height from the eaves to the peak of the roof, and the width (radius) at the eaves and at the ground. Decide how many spokes you want. The number of spokes you wish may be fixed for you by the width of the fabric you have -- it is not possible to make a 12-sided pavilion that is 10' radius at the base when you only have 48" wide canvas, for example.

So the total height of the pavilion is (H + L), and the angle Ø between any two spokes is 360/S degrees.

In addition, we will be calculating the values for the following:

The important formula here is that the opposite side of a segment or sector of a circle, C, can be determined from the radius of the circle R and the angle Ø as follows:

C = 2R sin(Ø/2)

So substitute G in for R above to calculate Base, and substitute E in for R above to calculate Top.

Base = 2 G sin(Ø/2)
Top = 2 E sin(Ø/2)

The rest is application of the Pythagorean theorem. The length of a wall segment in your diagram is the hypotenuse of a triangle with sides of length H and (G - E), so by Pythagorus:

ApparentWall = sqrt(H2 + (G-E)2)

Similarly, the length of a roof segment from the diagram is the hypotenuse of a triangle with sides of length L and E, so:

ApparentRoof = sqrt(L2 + E2)

Now as a slight complication, the apparent lengths of the wallpiece and roofpiece on your diagram are actually the length of the angled side of the trapezoid and the long side of the triangle, not the true length we are interested in: the length perpendicular to the base of the trapezoid and the roof triangle.

This necessitates one more set of calculations using the Pythagorean theorem.

TrueWall = sqrt(ApparentWall2 - ((Base-Top)/2)2) = sqrt(H2 + (G-E)2 - ((Base-Top)/2)2)
TrueRoof = sqrt(ApparentRoof2 - (Top/2)2) = sqrt(L2 + E2 - (Top/2)2)

Now all that remains is to add a 6" wide rain flap at the bottom of the roof piece, and a 12" wide mud flap at the base of the wall trapezoid.

I strongly recommend cutting a 1/12 scale model of your pavilion out of paper and taping it together before you cut any fabric. This is a good way to ensure that your pavilion will have the proportions you want, and check against any mathematics errors. You might also want to make a little 1/12 scale human figure to put beside it, so you get an idea of how big the pavilion will actually be. I didn't do this, and I was slightly shocked at how large my little day-shade pavilion ended up. It sure didn't look so big when I made the paper model.

Fabric Estimation

Estimating how much canvas your pavilion will use is also fairly simple. The fabric must be at least Base in width. The walls will use a length of fabric equal to (TrueWall + 12") for each of the S segments. For the roof segments it is usually possible to cut two segments from a width of fabric as described elsewhere in this article, so you will need (S/2) pieces that are (TrueRoof + 6") long each.

For example, my estimates for my pavilion (12 segments) were that each wall segment needed slightly less than three yards (36 yards total), and I could fit two roof segments in three yards (18 yards total), for a grand total of 54 yards of fabric.

Postscript

I'd like to thank Branwynn Ottersby, my squire and partner in chaos. She and I did all the sewing on the original single-pole pavilion, attempting with our blood and curses to prove that two people who had no skill at all with sewing could still make a pavilion. She also graciously consented to proofread this article. Id also like to thank Sorcha de Glies, who tested the improved design described in this article, and proved with her blood and curses that having someone who actually can sew improves the whole product.

List of Illustrations

  1. Military encampment. Detail from a fresco by Simone Martini, 1328. Palazzo Pubblico, Siena.
  2. An assault on a castle. Swiss, late 15th century. Royal Armouries.
  3. Scene from the life of Alexander the Great. Cassone panel, about 1450. British Museum.
  4. Battle of Arbedo. Swiss, after 1500. Zentralbibliothek, Lucerne.
  5. Burgundian camp scene, c.1460. Chateau de Grandson.
  6. A camp before a tournament, c.1360. British Library.
  7. Siege, 15th century. Bibliotheque Royale Albert Ier, Brussels.
  8. Military camp or laager, late 15th century. Mittelalterliches Hausbuch, Bodleian Library.
  9. The Dream of Constantine. Piero della Francesco, c. 1455.
  10. Negotiations in tents. French, 14th century. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale.
  11. Detail from Field of Cloth of Gold, 1520. Versailles Museum.
  12. Royal war tent. 15th century.
  13. Army breaking camp. Giovanni Bettini, c.1460. Bodleian Library.
  14. Council of war. Fresco, c.1280. Barcelona.
  15. Tent of Hope. King Rene's Book of Love, 1457.
  16. Meeting by the Stream. King Rene's Book of Love, 1457.
  17. Honour's Tent. King Rene's Book of Love, 1457.
  18. St. Martin Renounces His Weapons. Fresco by Simone Martini, c.1330. Assisi.
  19. Bertrand de Guesclin accepts the surrender of Randan. 15th c. Bibliotheque Nationale.
  20. Storming of Nantes. Woodcut, early 16th century. Cleveland Museum of Art.
  21. Siege in the Holy Land. 15th century. British Museum.
  22. Legend of Cloelia. Cassone panel by Guidoccio Cozzarelli, late 15th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
  23. Encounter between an Army of the Living and an Army of the Dead. A Bernese master, 1505. Milan
  24. Voyage d'Outremer. French. Bibliotheque Nationale.
  25. Turkish Siege. 15th century Latin codex. Bibliotheque Nationale.
  26. Three Tent Designs. English, c.1520. British Library.
  27. St Ursula: the Pilgrims Arrival in Cologne. Carpaccio, c.1495. Venice, Accademia.
  28. Life and Times of Henry V. 15th century. British Museum.
  29. Setting of the Pas de la Fontaine des Pleurs. Mid 15th century. Bibliotheque Nationale.
  30. Surrender of Calais.
  31. Chronicle of Alfonso X. Spanish, late 13th century.
  32. Ivory Mirror Case. French, 14th century.
  33. Maciejowsky Bible. French, c. 1250.
  34. Gaming in camp. French, early 15th century.
  35. Military camp after a storm. The camp is shown suffering from the effects of the violent storm which occurred on the night of 25 July, 1544. English, National Army Museum.

Addendum by Webmaster

Photograph of spoke pocket, showing
inner-wall attachment In at least one of David's several tents built on this design, an "inner roof" of light, breathable (and decorated) fabric has been added, leaving a space between it and the real, more-or-less-waterproof roof. The photo at right shows how this inner roof is attached, while the next photo shows the appearance of the inside of the tent.
Photograph
of interior of tent, showing inner roof

All photographs on this page are by Diane Cormier, who took them on the 1999 Pennsic Pavilion Class Field Trip.


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Last modified: Fri Apr 10 13:39:33 EDT 1998
Stephen Bloch / sbloch@boethius.adelphi.edu