Tournament Book, Nuremberg (Germania), late 16th/early 17th Century

Pen and colored wash on paper, leather
Cover: 14 x 10 3/8 in. (35.5 x 26.3 cm); page: 13 5/8 x 9 7/8 in. (34.6 x 25 cm)
Rogers Fund, 1922 (22.229)

Also containing some illustrations copied after the famous early sixteenth-century woodcuts known as the Triumph of Maximilian as well as other historical events that took part in Nuremberg during the sixteenth century, the principal part of this book records the participants of a series of jousts held in Nuremberg between 1446 and 1561. The jousters, identified by their names written above each figure, are armed for the Gestech, a joust fought with blunt lances. The protective equipment for the horses includes blind shaffrons and, for the chest, large crescent-shaped bags or sacks filled with hay and known as a buffer, which are discernable under the long and elaborately decorated caparisons.
Although it neither shows the actual encounters themselves nor lists the results of the jousts, this manuscript nonetheless provides an invaluable record of the colorful costumes, fanciful crests, and humorous, often satirical, emblems that embellished the jousters' shields and horse trappings.

Source: Tournament Book [German (Nuremberg)] (22.229) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art