CHAP vu WEAPONS 109 to be met with in museums, and we can only judge of their design and use from illuminated miniatures and paintings. The firearm, being, ^s it is, subject to further development, cannot be taken into full consideration in this work except so far as it affected the defensive armour and in time ousted the staff-weapon. With this bare enumeration of the principal weapons in use from the twelfth to the eighteenth century we draw our all too meagre notes to a conclusion. The subject is so vast, because each example is distinct in itself and because no general rule holds absolutely good for all, that many volumes might be produced with advantage on each epoch of the defences and weapons of Europe. No better advice to the would-be student can be given than that of Baron de Cosson in the Introduction to the Catalogue of Helmets and Mail (Arch. Journ., vol. xxxvii). He writes : ' For the study of ancient armour to be successfully pursued it is of primary importance that a careful examination be made of every existing specimen within our reach. . . . Every rivet-hole and rivet in a piece must be studied and its use and object thought out. The reasons for the varied forms, thicknesses, and structure of the different parts must have special attention. . . . This alone will enable us to derive full profit from our researches into ancient authors and our examination of ancient monuments. This pre-liminary study will alone enable us to form a sound opinion on two important points. First, the authority to be accorded to any given representation of armour in ancient art . . . whether it was copied from real armour or whether it was the outcome of the artist's imagination ; and also whether a piece of existing armour is genuine or false, and whether or no it is in its primitive condition.' To this may be added that in studying armour at its best epoch, that is during the fifteenth century, we find the dignity of true craftsmanship proclaimed, and utility and grace attained without the addition of that so-called decoration which with the advent of the Renaissance was the bane of all the crafts.