BEAVER HATS—PISAN.
Allow me to say a few words in reply to your correspondent "GASTROS." His quotation from Fairholt (Costume in England), who cites Stubbes's Anatomy of Abuses as the earliest authority for the use of beaver hats in England, is not a satisfactory reply to my query; inasmuch as I am aware that beaver hats were occasionally worn by great people in this country some centuries before Stubbes was born. For example, Henry III. possessed "unum capellum de Bevre cum apparatu auri et lapidibus preciosis;" as appears from the "Wardrobe Account," of the 55th year of his reign. I have, therefore, still to ask for the earliest instance of the use of hats or caps of this material in England; such hats, as well as gloves, are mentioned in several English inventories made between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Is there any example earlier than the time of Henry III.?
"GASTROS" has also obligingly replied to my query as to "the meaning of the term Pisan, used in old records for some part of defensive armour," but he seems to have forgotten that I expressly stated that term had no relation to "the fabrics of Pisa;" at least such is my belief. With regard to the inventory of the arms and armour of Louis le Hutin, taken in 1316, printed in Meyrick's Ancient Armour, to which he kindly refers me, it may be observed that the said inventory is so perversely translated in the first edition of that work (just now I have no means of consulting the second), as to be all but useless; indeed it might be termed one of the most extraordinary literary performances of modern times, as the following instance may suffice to show. One of the items of the inventory is, "une cote gamboisée à arbroissiaus d'or broudées à chardonereus;" and it is thus rendered into English, "a gamboised coat with a rough surface (like a thicket;—note) of gold embroidered on the nap of the cloth!" The real signification is "a gamboised coat embroidered in gold, with little bushes (or trees), with gold-finches [on them]." But I am rather wandering from my point: I never could ascertain on what authority Sir Samuel Meyrick asserted that "jazeran armour," as he calls it, was formed of "overlapping plates." The French word jazeran was derived from the Italian ghiazarino, or ghiazzerino, which signified "a gorget of mail," or what some of our antiquaries have termed "a standard of mail;" in France this word always preserved its relation to mail, and in process of time came to be applied to so lowly an object as a flagon-chain: see Cotgrave's Fr. Dict. ed. 1673. Roquefort, indeed, says a "jaserans" was a cuirass, but to my apprehension the passage which he quotes from the Roman d'Alexandre—
"Es haubers, jazerans, et ès elmes gemez"—
seems to prove that, in that instance at least, a gorget is meant. At any rate, the translation of the passage in the inventory to which "GASTROS" refers should be, "three Pisan collerets of steel mail," not that given by Meyrick. Here we have clearly a fabric of Pisa: whereas the pisan, of which I desire to know the meaning, invariable occurs as an independent term, e.g. "item, unum pisanum," or "unum par pisanorum." Of course I have my own conjecture on the subject, but should be glad to hear other opinions; so I again put the question to your correspondents. In conclusion I would observe to "GASTROS" that they must be very late MSS. indeed in which such a contraction as pisan for partisan can be found. If you have room, and think it worth while, I will from time to time send you some corrections of the more flagrant errors of Meyrick.
T. HUDSON TURNER.
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.
Norman Pedigrees. In reference to your correspondent "B.'s" inquiries, he will find much information in the Publications de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie. Under their auspices, M. Estancelin published in 1828 a full history of the Earls of Eu. I am not aware of any full collection of pedigrees of the companions of William the Conqueror: the names of several of the lands from which they took their designations yet remain.
W. DURRANT COOPER.