Today's update:

This Wednesday, August 25th, is the seven year anniversary of the myArmoury.com forums.

Wow, how time flies! Thanks to all of you for being members of this site.


Here's a little bonus update from us:

[ Linked Image ]
The Bruhn-Hoffmeyer Typology of Medieval Swords
An article by Alexi Goranov

[ Linked Image ]
Renaissance Armies: The Polish
An article by George Gush


As always, you can see our Complete History of Updates listed right from our home page.

This is a wonderful update. I just want to say thank you to Alexi and the myArmoury team for giving us access to Bruhn Hoffmeyer's typology.

If swords were cars, the Bruhn-Hoffmeyer typology comes across like this:

"Group I automobiles are red with long hoods and molded in color bumpers
Group II automobiles are blue with short hoods and chrome bumpers"

Whereas the Oakeshott typology is more like:

"Group X automobiles are compact coupes with big block engines greater than 300 cubic inches and rear wheel drives. Subgroup Xa cars have front wheel drives instead of rear wheel drives.
Group XI automobiles are subcompact coupes with small engines less than or equal to 300 cubic inches and rear wheel drives. Again, subgroup XIa cars have front wheel drives instead of rear wheel drives."

Just an observation.

The Bruhn-Hoffmeyer typology is an example of people getting fixated on the hilt. It's not alone in being a typology of that kind.

For me, it reinforces how nifty Oakeshott's system of classifying all the parts then using that to place a sword in context really is. The Bruhn-Hoffmeyer system was one that needed to be superseded in my opinion.

Only had a quick look at the typology article and although one can disagree with a typology neglecting blade shapes and only considering hilt shape it does make interesting reading and valuable in cross referencing with the Oakshott typology.

Also congratulations to Michael Harley for the really great illustrations ( don't forget to clic on the line drawings to see the fully shaded and really clear and beautiful drawings: Since I did one of these illustration jobs a while back for " myArmoury " for the Japanese armour article I can fully appreciate the very VERY long hours of work involved in producing these drawings. ;) :cool:

I will have to take the time to read the Polish armies article later tonight but just skimming it, it seems very interesting.

Bruhn-Hoffmeyer and Oakeshott classification are for different purposes.

Oakeshott is intended to relate to the type of sword in a function senseal.

Bruhn-Hoffmeyer is simpler, based on fewer elements, can be used to classify swords when the blade is very badly corroded, or from photos where the blade section cannot be recognised. Bruhn-Hoffmeyer will work as a substitute for photos of that quality, with less space and typesetting effort. It's also no more useful than photos of that quality, so it isn't much more useful to a sword enthusiast than "red sedan" is for a car enthusiast. "Superseded" shouldn't be the right word, but given that, in practice, something like Bruhn-Hoffmeyer will be overused and misused if nothing else is available and known, it might be the right word, at least for the misuse of Bruhn-Hoffmeyer.

:D And a extra bonus,
realy cool animation of polish history to see to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DrXgj1NwN8

enjoy! :cool:

Thank you for the very kind comment Jean, it was a pleasure to give something back to a site that has given me so much over the years.

Here's to the next seven years,
Michael.

It is great to see the article about Polish Armies from the Poland's greatest period :) Thanks for publishing it!