Meaning of “Pisan.”—Mr. Turner (No. 7. p.100.) asks the meaning of the term pisan, used in old records for some part of defensive armour.
Meyrick (Ancient Armour, vol. i. p. 155, 2d ed.) gives a curious and interesting inventory of the arms and armour of Louis le Hutin, King of France, taken in the year 1316, in which we find, “Item 3 coloretes Pizanes de jazeran d’acier.” He describes pizane (otherwise written pizaine, pusen, pesen) as a collar made, or much in fashion, at Pisa. The jazeran armour was formed of overlapping plates. In the metrical romance of Kyng Alisaunder, edited by Webber, occur the lines—
“And Indiens, and Emaniens,
With swordes, lances, and pesens.“
Weber explains the pesens here as gorgets, armour for the neck.
In more recent MSS. pisan may be a contraction for partisan, a halberd.
I cannot agree with your correspondent “A.F.” (p.90), that the nine of diamonds was called “the curse (cross) of Scotland” from its resemblance to the cross of St. Andrew, which has the form of the Roman X; whereas the pips on the nine of diamonds are arranged in the form of the letter H. “Mend the instance.”
Erratum. P. 181 col. 2. line 3., for obscurities, read obscenities.
Cambridge, Jan. 31. 1850.
GASTROS.