View source for Boiled leather

{{Short description|Historical leather material for various uses}}
[[File:Case for a Book MET sf51-117s2.jpg|thumb|Case for a book, with fittings for a carrying-cord, 15th century. The coat of arms (on the other side) suggests it was made for a bishop.]]
'''Boiled leather''', often referred to by its French translation, '''cuir bouilli''' ({{IPA|fr|kɥiʁ buji|lang}}), was a historical material common in the [[Middle Ages]] and [[Early Modern Period]] and used for various purposes. It was leather that had been treated so that it became tough and rigid, as well as able to hold moulded decoration. It was the usual material for the robust carrying-cases that were made for important pieces of metalwork, instruments such as [[astrolabe]]s, personal sets of cutlery, books, pens and the like.<ref>Davies, 94; [http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?searchText=cuir+bouilli 24 items in the British Museum]</ref> It was used for some [[armour]], being both much cheaper and much lighter than [[plate armour]], but could not withstand a direct blow from a blade, nor a gunshot.<ref>Ffoulkes, 97–99; Cheshire, 42; Abse; Loades, 10</ref>

Alternative names are "moulded leather" and "hardened leather". In the course of making the material it becomes very soft, and can be impressed into a [[moulding (process)|mould]] to give it the desired shape and decoration, which most surviving examples have. Pieces such as chests and coffers also usually have a wooden inner core.<ref>Davies, 94; Abse</ref>

Various recipes for making cuir bouilli survive, and do not agree with each other; probably there were a range of recipes, partly reflecting different final uses. [[tanning (leather)#Vegetable tanning|Vegetable-tanned]] leather is generally specified. Scholars have debated the subject at length and attempted to recreate the historical material. Many, but not all, sources agree that the process involved immersion of the leather in water, but not actual boiling.<ref>Davies, 94–98; Cheshire, 42–53; Loades, 10; Abse; Bradbury, 10</ref>

==Military use==
[[File:2 Pickelhauben (1860).jpg|thumb|German [[pickelhaube]], c. 1860]]
Cuir bouilli was used for cheap and light armour, although it was much less effective than plate armour, which was extremely expensive and too heavy for much to be worn by infantry (as opposed to [[knight]]s fighting on horseback)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shop |first=Battle-Merchant Medieval |title=Leather Armor: Protection and Flexibility in the Middle Ages |url=https://www.battlemerchant.com/en/blog/leather-armor-protection-and-flexibility-in-the-middle-ages |access-date=2025-06-07 |website=Battle-Merchant ⚔ |language=en-GB}}</ref>. However, cuir bouilli could be reinforced against slashing blows by the addition of metal bands or strips, especially in helmets. Modern experiments on simple cuir bouilli have shown that it can reduce the depth of an arrow wound considerably, especially if coated with a crushed mineral facing mixed with glue, as one medieval Arab author recommended.<ref>Cheshire, 41–44, 51–53; Loades, 10; Bradbury, 10</ref>

In addition, "armour based on hide has the unique advantage that it can, in extremis, provide some nutrition" when actually boiled. [[Josephus]] records that the Jewish defenders in the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)|Siege of Jerusalem in AD&nbsp;70]] were reduced to eating their shields and other leather kit, as was the Spanish expedition of [[Tristan de Luna]] in 1559.<ref>Cheshire, 47</ref> 
[[File:Crupper Plate MET DP108778.jpg|thumb|Crupper plate for [[horse armour]], 16th century, north Europe]]

Versions of cuir bouilli were used since ancient times, especially for shields, in many parts of the world.<ref>Ffoulkes, 97–100; Cheshire, 43 ([[Sioux]])</ref> Although in general leather does not survive long burial, and excavated archaeological evidence for it is rare, an Irish shield of cuir bouilli with wooden formers, deposited in a [[peat bog]], has survived for some 2,500 years.<ref>Davies, 94–95</ref> It was commonly used in the Western world for [[helmet]]s; the [[pickelhaube]], the standard German helmet, was not replaced by a steel [[stahlhelm]] until 1916, in the midst of [[World War I|World War&nbsp;I]].<ref>Stone, 220–221; Ward, Arthur, ''A Guide to Wartime Collectables'', 23, 2013, Pen and Sword, {{ISBN|1473831067}}, 9781473831063, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vOt7BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 google books]</ref> As leather does not conduct heat the way metal does, firemen continued to use boiled leather helmets until World War&nbsp;II, and the invention of strong [[plastic]]s.<ref>Davies, 95; [http://www.ccq.gouv.qc.ca/index.php?id=100&no_cache=1&id=100&no_cache=1&tx_mcccfrechercheavancee_pi1%5Bress_uid%5D=27&type=0 19th-century fireman's helmet from Montreal (text in French)]</ref>

The word [[cuirass]] for a breastplate indicates that these were originally made of leather.<ref>Loades, 10</ref> In the [[Late Middle Ages]], the heyday of plate armour, cuir bouilli continued to be used even by the rich for [[horse armour]] and often for [[tournament]] armour,<ref>Ffoulkes, 97–98</ref> as well as by ordinary infantry soldiers. Tournaments were increasingly regulated in order to reduce the risk to life, and in 1278 [[Edward I of England]] organized one in [[Windsor Great Park]] at which cuir bouilli armour was worn, and the king provided swords made of [[whale]] bone and [[parchment]].<ref>Barker, 179</ref>  
[[File:Traicitié de la forme et devis comme on fait les tournoys BNF Fr. 2695 f27v (cropped).jpg|thumb|Design for cuir bouilli armour for tournaments, from ''[[Le Livre des tournois]]'', 1460s]]
  
The account of the [[Battle of Agincourt]] in 1415 by [[Jean de Wavrin]], who was present on the French side, describes the crucial force of English [[longbow]]men as having on their heads either cuir bouilli helmets, or [[wicker]] with iron strips, or nothing (the last, he says, were also barefoot).<ref>Loades, 39; the passage in Wavrin's text [https://books.google.com/books?id=R6n_GnE9hSYC&pg=PA211 is here]</ref>

A few pieces of Roman horse armour in cuir bouilli have been excavated. Evidence from documents such as inventories show that it was common in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, and used by the highest ranks, but survivals are very few.<ref>Phyrr et al., 57–59; all significant survivals are listed.</ref> In 1547 the Master of Armoury in the [[Tower of London]] ordered 46 sets of bards and crinets in preparation for the final invasion of Scotland in the war known as the [[Rough Wooing]].<ref>Phyrr et al., 57–58</ref> In September that year the English cavalry were crucial in the decisive victory at the [[Battle of Pinkie Cleugh]]. The German [[Count Palatine of the Rhine]] had six sets of cuir bouilli horse armour for his and his family's use in the 16th century. Often the shaffron for the horse's head would be in steel, though leather ones are also known.<ref>Phyrr et al., 58</ref>

Cuir bouilli was also very common for [[scabbard]]s. However surviving specimens of leather armour are rare, more so than the various types of civilian containers. It is believed that many leather pieces are depicted in sculpted [[tomb monument]]s, where they are more highly decorated than metal pieces would have been.<ref>Ffoulkes, 97–99; Williams, 54</ref> Cuir bouilli was also often used for elaborate figurative crests on some helmets.

The material is mentioned in [[Froissart's Chronicles|Froissart's ''Chronicles of the Hundred Years' War'']],<ref>Cheshire, 42</ref> and [[Geoffrey Chaucer]], in his [[Canterbury Tales]], written in the late 1300s, says of the knight [[Sir Thopas]]:<ref>Ffoulkes, 97–98; {{cite web|title=The Tale of Sir Thopas|url=http://www.librarius.com/canttran/thopastale/thopastale167-200.htm|website=Librarius|access-date=5 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110808164207/http://www.librarius.com/canttran/thopastale/thopastale167-200.htm|archive-date=8 August 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

{{Verse translation|
Hise jambeux were of quyrboilly,
His swerdes shethe of yvory,
His helm of laton bright,
His sadel was of rewel-boon,
His brydel as the sonne shoon,
Or as the moone light.
|His jambeaux were of cuir-bouilli,
His sword sheath was of ivory,
His helm of [[latten]] bright,
His saddle was of rewel bone,
And as the sun his bridle shone,
Or as the full moonlight.
}}
(Note: ''jambeaux'' are [[greave]]s – shin armour).

The large decorative crests that came to top some helmets in the late Middle Ages were often made of cuir bouilli, as is the famous example belonging to the [[Black Prince]] and hung with other "achievements" over his tomb in [[Canterbury Cathedral]].<ref>St. John Hope, W.H., ''A Grammar of English Heraldry'', 2011 revd edn, ed. [[Anthony Wagner]], Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|1107402107}}, 9781107402102, [https://books.google.com/books?id=hMFiu6X5PjUC&pg=PA42 google books]; Barker, 181</ref> His wooden shield also has the heraldic animals appliqued in cuir bouilli.<ref>[http://www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk/bp-tomb/4590809630 "Black Prince's Tomb] Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society, 2015</ref>

==Examples of other uses==
As well as the crests on helmets described above, cuir bouilli was probably used sculpturally in various contexts, over a wood or plaster framework where necessary. When [[Henry V of England]] died in France, his effigy in cuir bouilli was placed on top of his coffin for the journey back to England.<ref>[[Frances Yates]], p. 164 in [https://books.google.com/books?id=eLA_fEAA3yQC&pg=PA164 ''Selected works. 10. Ideas and ideals in the North European Renaissance'']</ref>

A near life-size [[crucifix]] in the [[Vatican Museums]] is in cuir bouilli over wood. This is of special interest to art historians because it was made in 1540 as a replica of a crucifix in silver presented by [[Charlemagne]] some 740 years before; an object of great interest as possibly the first of the long line of monumental crucifixes in Western art. In 1540, the original silver was melted down for church plate to replace that looted in the [[Sack of Rome (1527)|Sack of Rome]] in 1527. It seems likely that the leather was moulded directly from the original and it is possible that the wooden core underneath is actually the Carolingian original, with the leather replacing the sheets of silver originally fitted over the wood.<ref>Lasko, 16–17</ref>

Cuir bouilli has also been employed to [[bookbinding|bind books]], mainly between the 9th and 14th centuries.<ref>Wijnekus, 170</ref><!-- As with the book cases, the binding was tough, and allowed decoration.{{fact|date=October 2017}} --> Other uses include high boots for especially tough use, which were called "[[postillion]]'s boots" in England.<ref>Davies, 96</ref> Another use was for large bottles or jugs called "blackjacks", "bombards", or "costerns". There is an English reference to these from 1373.<ref>Davies, 95–96</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Portable Reliquary Case MET sf1984-24-2s4.jpg|Portable Reliquary Case, French, c. 1400, 12.6&nbsp;cm long 
File:Box MET sf56-150abs3.jpg|Late 15th-century box, 4 x 12 x 7.4&nbsp;cm, Italian. The interior is painted.
File:Box MET sf49-61-1abs1.jpg|Box, probably for ink powder, 15th-century Italian, textile interior and wood core
File:Book Box MET sf52-131abs1.jpg|Book case, 15th-century Italian
File:Case (étui) with an amorous inscription MET sf50-53-1s3.jpg|[[Etui]] "with an amorous inscription", 1450–1500, Italian, 21&nbsp;cm long
File:Case (étui) with an amorous inscription MET sf50-53-1d1.jpg|Detail of last. This piece has a wooden core.
File:Pechelbronn-Musée du Pétrole (17).jpg|French miner's hat, after 1840
File:Hunting Knife, Sharpener, and Sheath MET DP102099.jpeg|Hunting Knife, Sharpener, and Sheath. French, c. 1880, as a fake 15th-century set.
File:Braunschweigisches Husaren-Regiment Nr. 17 Totenkopf Paradehelm Cut out.jpg|Braunschweigisches Husaren-Regiment Nr. 17, Death's Head [[pickelhaube]]
File:Historischer Feuerwehrhelm (Elektriker), sächsische Form, um 1910 (DFM).JPG|German fireman's helmet (specialist electrician), c. 1910, containing no metal parts at all
</gallery>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*Abse, Bathsheba, in Abse, Bathsheba and Calnan, Christopher, "Leather, 2. iii, Moulding", [[Grove Art Online]], Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press. Web. 13 Oct. 2017, [https://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T049783 subscription required]
*Barker, Juliet R.V., ''The Tournament in England, 1100–1400'', 1986, Boydell Press, {{ISBN|0851159427}}, 9780851159423, [https://books.google.com/books?id=O0-D57pOb4sC&pg=PA181 google books]
*Bradbury, Jim, ''The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare'', 2004, Routledge, ISBN 1134598475, 9781134598472, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3FRsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA255 google books]
*Cheshire, Edward, "''Cuir bouilli'' armour", in ''Why Leather?: The Material and Cultural Dimensions of Leather'', ed. Harris, Susanna, 2014, Sidestone Press, {{ISBN|978-9088904707}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HjOUBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA41 google books]
*Davies, Laura, "Cuir bouilli", Chapter 10 in ''Conservation of Leather and Related Materials'', Eds. Marion Kite, Roy Thomson, 2006, Routledge, {{ISBN|1136415238}}, 9781136415234, [https://books.google.com/books?id=9WsABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA94 google books]
*Ffoulkes, Charles John, ''The Armourer and His Craft'', 2008 (reprint), Cosimo, Inc., {{ISBN|1605204110}}, 9781605204116, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HqRsCyAeg8cC&pg=PA97 google books]
*[[Lasko, Peter]], ''Ars Sacra, 800–1200'', Penguin History of Art (now Yale), 1972 (nb, 1st edn.) {{ISBN|014056036X}} ([https://books.google.com/books?id=PwJb18lq5gkC&pg=PA11 2nd edition on google books])
*Loades, Mike, ''The Longbow'', 2013, Bloomsbury Publishing, {{ISBN|1782000860}}, 9781782000860, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_KWjCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 google books]
*"Phyrr et al.", Stuart W. Pyhrr, Donald J. LaRocca, Dirk H. Breiding, ''The Armored Horse in Europe, 1480–1620'', 2005, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), {{ISBN|1588391507}}, 9781588391506, [https://books.google.com/books?id=V8WFr7Fjdi8C&pg=PA72 fully available online]
*Stone, David, ''The Kaiser's Army: The German Army in World War One'', 2015, Bloomsbury Publishing, {{ISBN|1844862917}}, 9781844862917, [https://books.google.com/books?id=1e7sCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA221 google books]
*Wijnekus, F.J.M., and Wijnekus, E.F.P.H., ''Dictionary of the Printing and Allied Industries'', 2013 (2nd edn.), Elsevier, {{ISBN|1483289842}}, 9781483289847, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VQghBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA170 google books]
*Williams, Alan R, ''The Knight and the Blast Furnace: A History of the Metallurgy of Armour in the Middle Ages & the Early Modern Period'', 2003, BRILL, {{ISBN|9004124985}}, 9789004124981, [https://books.google.com/books?id=GpVbnsqAzxIC&pg=PA54 google books]
*Wright, Thomas, ''The Archaeological Album; Or Museum of National Antiquities'', 1845, Chapman & Hall, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vP3X7GxH_skC&pg=PA39 google books]

==External links==
{{Commons category|Cuir bouilli}}
* [http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Articles/Perfect_Armor_Improved.htm Water-hardened leather for armour]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060902070400/http://www.dagorhir.com/HowTo/cbgryml.htm Boiled leather in wax]
* [http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/leather/hl.html Cuir Bouilli/Hardened Leather FAQ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070823204110/http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/leather/hl.html |date=2007-08-23 }}
{{Types of armour}}
{{leather}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boiled Leather}}
[[Category:Medieval armour]]
[[Category:Body armor]]
[[Category:Leather crafting]]
[[Category:Leather]]