Oh - A Medieval group I'm in also has decided they want to, as a joke, make a Sock Puppet Army and have asked me to teach about medieval puppets and hold a workshop on making the sock puppets.  Two puppet topics I know almost nothing about!!!  How here was my first attempt at a Sock Puppet in 30+ years! 

PuppetSmith Arts Blog - Sock Puppets

Nice little tutorial.  Like how you use the foam noodle as a temporary support while working on the puppet.

George Speaight's "History of the English Puppet Theater" (pp.:11-68) provides a comprehensive overview of medieval European puppetry. This book is now available online at www.archive.org.

Speaight, of course, was writing in the 1950s. More current, and up to date, research can be found at: http://pages.citenet.net/users/ctmw2400/ (see: Chapter 4).

There are only 3 extant medieval illustrations of puppets and theaters (castello) available: 2 in the marginalia of the "Roman d'Alexander" (for example see: folio 54v ) and the "Hortus Deliciarum" (the judgement of "jiggling" puppets). Matheus Bane has written a short .pdf entitled "Champ Bane Marionette" which traces the history and construction of a 1500 Italian marionette in an attempt to re-create one.

The Fool's bauble (marotte) could be considered to be a type of rod puppet; there are several pre-C17th examples still in existence: here and here .

Hope this is of some small assistance.

My initial foray into puppet making was making some Sicilian puppets for the youth of this same medieval group.  And they were based off of  "Champ Bane Marionette".   Thanks for the info!

I think it's awesome that you put a mouth board in your sock puppet design! =)