In Aosta (Northern italy, close to the french boundary) it is open a great sword exhibition: you can see together Charlemagne's coronation sword, Frederic the Second imperial sword, the sword of Estorre Visconti, a SIGVINAIS type XII from eastern Europe and more.

All together in the same building.

Tomorrow yours truly will be there, hopefully with a new memory stick in the camera ...

http://www.clponline.it/mostre.cfm?idevento=C...DF051400A5

Text in italian only, but a press release in french is also available here (http://www.clponline.it/docs_cms/C37C2EC0-E700-A74A-20E26FDF051400A5/FRA_cs_ABonDroyt.doc)

Thanks for posting this. I just got back from Aosta, and saw this exhibit. A good show. They have a progression of swords from a nice spatha and viking swords up to a huge German two-hander. Aosta is a beautiful city and well worth a visit by itself.

Strangely they forbid to take pics.

There is also one of the few surviving early medieval daggers, but the pic in the catalog is barely sufficient to show its complexity.

Yes, I was disappointed by the no photos rule. They kept a sharp eye on us as we stowed our gear. ;)

I was also diappointed by the catalog. I ended up not getting it... it didn't seem like there were that many photos, and little details. True? I had to look quickly as I had two small boys around.