This entry probably refers to the broader and richer kind of girdle, known as the military belt (cingulum);[113] a similar belt being also worn by women. It was generally employed by men, as was sometimes the narrow girdle, for the purpose of hanging the sword. This belt, frequently composed of silk or gold tissue, seems to have come into general use about the fourteenth century, and was worn round the hips. It was often furnished with a buckle and mordant, but was more usually united by a clasp, which at times was made very prominent, and assumed excessive dimensions. Girdles and belts in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were sometimes studded with medallions of Limoges enamel. There is in the Victoria and Albert Museum a beautiful fifteenth-century Italian belt of gold tissue ([Pl. XXXVIII, 1]). Its buckle, studs, and other ornaments are of gilt metal, and the broad buckle-plate is enriched with niello work, bearing the legend Virtus vin[cit]. Two silver-gilt plates from a Gothic girdle of Flemish work of the fifteenth century are in the possession of Herr James Simon, of Berlin. Each plate is almost square, and measures 1¾ by 1½ inches. The centres are sunk: within one is a figure of Samson and the Lion, and in the other a figure on horseback, probably St. George or St. Michael. The figures, in full relief and delicately modelled, are each surrounded by pearls and blossoms, the groundwork being covered with bright green enamel, on which are small dots of white enamel capped with red. The plates are ornamented at each corner with chased Gothic foliage, and have hinges at the sides to unite them to other similar sections, of which the complete girdle was, perhaps, originally composed ([Pl. XXV, 4]).
Of frequent occurrence in old English wills is the word demysent (or demysens), which refers to the little girdles worn by women: they were known in France as demi-ceints or demi-ceintures. Another species of girdle was called the baldrick—derived from the French baudrier; the baudroier being the currier who prepared skins for the purpose. The term baldric or baudric, sometimes applied to the military belt worn round the waist, was generally employed for a belt worn over one shoulder, across the breast, and under the opposite arm.[114] It was often of a rich description and set with precious stones, and in early times was occasionally hung with little bells.[115]
Among the girdles in the possession of Henry IV[116] one is garnished with heads of stags and small pearls, and another with ostrich plumes and little golden bells. Others, mostly of stuff, are garnished with various flowers, mostly roses, or with ivy leaves, and the majority are hung with little bells. In addition to such enrichments, which included also coats-of-arms, girdles bore inscriptions, engraved on the buckle-plate, or formed of letters sewn upon the band. These latter were often of an amatory or of a superstitious character; for, like other articles of mediæval jewellery, the girdle, on account of the stones, etc., set upon it, was frequently considered endowed with talismanic properties. Chaucer in his adaptation of the older "Roman de la Rose" describes the rich jewelled girdle, worn by one of the emblematical characters in the Garden of Love. It was set with stones evidently valued for their mystic properties.
Richesse a girdle had upon,
The bokell of it was of a ston,
Of vertue grete, and mokell of might.
. . . . . . . . . .
The mordaunt wrought in noble wyse,
Was of a stone full precious,
That was so fine and vertuous,
That whole a man it couth make
Of palasey and of totheake.
Attached directly to the girdle or suspended from it by a hook or chain was a purse or pouch called either a gipcière, aulmonière, or escarcelle, which was made of velvet, silk, or stamped leather. The gipcière (also written gypcyre) is mentioned most frequently in early documents, where it is often described as being enriched with embroidery, and set with pearls and precious stones. Like the aulmonière and escarcelle, it was worn from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century hung from a loop at the right side of the girdle. The heads or clasps of the finest purses were of beautiful workmanship, of silver, bronze, or iron, damascened, or exquisitely chiselled. For ordinary use these heads—known as gipcière beams—as well as the mounts or frames of the purses, were made of brass or latten; and judging from the number that has been found and preserved, in the Guildhall Museum, for instance, their use must have been very general in mediæval times.
"Luckenbooth" brooch of silver (Nat. Mus. of Antiquities, Edinburgh).