Rawhide Lantern "Visby"

Visby lantern - Medieval rawhide lantern.

Here you can buy a medieval lantern reproduction modelled on the so-called Visby lantern, made of wood and rawhide.

The medieval lantern is handcrafted from acacia wood and covered with rawhide. In the centre of the hexagonal wooden plate is a spike for a candle so that it remains securely in place.

In the Middle Ages, the main advantage of a lantern over a freestanding oil lamp, a candle or a pine tree was that it protected the light source from the wind and weather and also protected highly flammable materials.

The Visby lantern measures 20 x 14 cm.

The Visby lantern is fitted with a sturdy leather strap that can be used to carry the lantern in your hand or hang it up.

The original Visby lantern comes from the Swedish island of Gotland and is now in the Nordisk museet in Stockholm, from which it was purchased in 1874. The Visby lantern dates back to the early 19th century. Nevertheless, its design language is in the tradition of medieval lanterns, which have survived almost unchanged over time.

So, this beautiful rawhide lantern is therefore perfect as authentic lighting in a Viking camp and is also stylish lighting at any LARP or medieval market

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In the early Middle Ages, lanterns in the shape of the Visby lantern were quite common, as shown not only by archaeological finds but also by several historical illustrations of Rohaut lanterns from the Middle Ages, such as the illustration of a lantern in the Maciejowski Bible "Attack and Persecution of the Midianites by the Israelites".

However, lanterns have not only been a useful source of light since the Middle Ages; they were already known 2000 years ago and were also used in antiquity, as evidenced by finds of Roman lanterns, for example from Pompeii.

Both lanterns with wooden frames and those with metal frames are known from the Middle Ages. For both types of lantern, thinly ground horn plates and rawhide were used. In the late Middle Ages, glass became increasingly popular as a cladding for lanterns.