P-Prosthetics-art

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P-Prosthetics-art - 10/9/18

"Period Prosthetics" by Lord Majnun Ibn Nizami Tabel Ragis.

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NOTICE -

This article was added to this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium, with the permission of the author.

These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

While the author will likely give permission for this work to be reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file.

Thank you,

Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous

stefan at florilegium.org

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This was first published in the November 2007 issue of The Clarion.

Period Prosthetics

by Lord Majnun Ibn Nizami Tabel Ragis

A year ago at Queen's Prize Tournament, I saw a good gentle who was missing a leg. As most people in the Society have at one point in time, I wondered how far prosthetics had developed within period.

I began my research with Master Eadward Boicewright. We found a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525 - 1569) entitled "The Cripples" painted in 1568. Breugel was known as "Peasant Bruegel" for his detailed paintings of peasant life in mid-16th century Flanders, and this painting showed a number of different prosthetic devices. Later in looking at the details of another Bruegel painting, "The Fight Between Carnival and Lent" (1559), other disabled persons were portrayed. With these two painting I began making period-type prosthetics.

I attempted to reproduce five period prosthetic devices of Flemish origin as depicted by Bruegel. The pieces I chose to reproduce were a crutch, hand blocks, post extension device, contour shin shoe, and flat shin shoe.

These prosthetic devices helped people who were missing limbs to walk or to pull themselves through the streets. They are not like the kind of tools a disabled person would use today. For

example, hand blocks allowed a person to pull himself through the street while resting on his upper legs or belly. The little legs gave him more traction while keeping his hands off the ground.

My first step after studying the paintings was a trip to the woods to find appropriate branches for the different appliances. For example, the crutch required a stout branch with a secondary branch coming off as close to 90 degrees as possible. In the woods I had access to for this project, I was only able to harvest one at a reasonable height. In the future, I hope to find more branches that would supplement the other examples in the paintings.

The post extension device required a sizable trunk with a branch close to 90 degrees emitting from the trunk. I managed to find the wood I needed in a fence row. The other devices were formed from straight grained ash and walnut logs.

The hand blocks were formed from ash. I employed drawknives and a shave horse to remove bark. I used a sledge, wedge, froe and mallet to break out the straight-grained stock. I then used a straight chisel and gouged with a mallet to fashion concave cuts, having fashioned the mallet on a lathe from straight-grained ash. Finally, I used hand planes to create contours, straight edges, and fashion corners.

Shaping the wood so that it is comfort- able for the wearer is critical. I found that using a mallet and chisel was similar in nature to the techniques used with a drawknife and shave horse.

When shaving a line in wood with a drawknife changing directions stops the run. Changing directions prevent a run from stripping completely across a piece. The same technique is also applied when using a chisel. The woodworking style and finish I used is for the pauper, not the prince.

Editor's note: This article was adapted from Lord Majnun's Queen's Prize documentation. (He won the Judges' Choice.) Manjun Ibn Nizami Tabel Ragis describes himself as a water seller and storyteller from the lands far East, where the desert winds blow hot. He says he came to Calontir in search of profit but found only that these lands are much too green for a water-seller. So to pay his way in these lands, he apprenticed to Master Eadward to learn a lucrative trade.

After Pieter Brueghel's "The Cripples" (or "The Beggars," 1568).

See it at http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder

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Copyright 2007 by Joshua Bond. <totemcougar at gmail.com>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited. Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author is notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, please place a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.