vervelle

plural vervelles

1. historicalA rivet containing a hole, or a staple, on a medieval helmet, by which a camail was attached (or rarely, on another piece of armor, by which e.g. a lance rest was attached).

   The bascinet is of unusually tall form, and the wearer must have had a long neck, which is an argument against the helm having been made for Joan of Arc. […] The bascinet also retains all of its original vervelles.

   2018, Douglas Strong, Surviving Examples of Early Plate Armour (1300-1430): Volume I: Bascinets, ISD LLC, →ISBN, page 261

   3 more examples

   ... covering the neck and shoulders like a tippet; the camail was attached to the bascinet by a lace drawn through vervelles or small staples; in some examples this arrangement is distinctly exhibited, but in others the vervelles are ...

   1847, Charles Boutell, Monumental Brasses and Slabs: An Historical and Descriptive Notice of the Incised Monumental Memorials of the Middle Ages : with Numerous Illustrations, page 49

   [page 4:] And they should likewise check that they have not sharpened the vervelles of the cervellieres. [page 84:] The vervelles, or staples, were arranged vertically on the right-hand side of the breastplate as can clearly be seen on Real Armería reinforcing breastplate e59 and the Avant armour (figs. 26 and 17); the bracket of the lance-rest was then secured to the vervelles with a retaining pin.

   2010, Noel Fallows, Jousting in Medieval and Renaissance Iberia, Boydell Press, →ISBN

   The Camail, or tippet of mail, which is the distinctive detail of the armour of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century, was either hung from a flat plate of metal which was fitted over the vervelles or staples on the bascinet ...

   2021, Charles John Ffoulkes, The armourer and his craft from the XIth to the XVIth century, Good Press