I think that I first came across this sword on myArmoury, but I can't locate the thread. Can anyone please tell me more about this sword. It is in the Askeri Museum in Istanbul, which means that it was probably in the Alexandrian Arsenal before that. I figure it must date from sometime in the XVth century, probably the first half.

I am fascinated by this sword. Thanks for any help that you can give me.

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Hi Roger,
Here is the link to the thread where I first posted this sword... can't really add any additional information to what little info is there already. It is probably not from Alexandria however.

http://myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p=306442#306442

Thanks, Mark. So, not an Alexandrian Arsenal Sword, maybe Spanish, from the second half of the 15th century.

Probably a Venetian infantry sword, mid to late 15th century.
Lots of these are on display in the Palazzo Ducale, Venice.
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Here's a higher resolution version of the third photo... the caption is visible and shows that the museum considers the sword to be Spanish, for what it is worth. I agree that a Venetian origin is also a strong possibility - seems to be a lot of similarity between these earliest complex-hilted swords from Spain and Venice.

The museum has another sword with double finger-rings/pas-d'ane and knucklebow, but altogether different in style compared to the first. I think there is no doubt that the latter sword at least is Spanish - very similar swords are shown in a number of Spanish altar paintings.

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Here's another very similar sword to the one originally posted: it's in Valencia, and according to legend is the sword of King Jaime I. Anyway, another Spanish connection. I'm guessing the rear quillon was originally perpendicular to the blade and was bent later... and the fuller is off center, seems like it may be single-edged for most of it's length? The video clip shows the full length of the sword around 40 seconds in.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFhYYGN5E6E

Venice's empire was the frontier between Europe and the aggressive Turkish Empire. Venetians bore the brunt of the confrontation, alternating war and peace with them, so mixing comemrcial relations and war according to the historical moment.

Theater were often the greek islands belonging to Venice.

The commercial routes from the Turkish domianted areas passed through Venice, while the Spaniards were busy with increasing their americans settlement after Columbus' trips.


The Turks got Costantinople in 1453, last defenders of the byzantine capital were also venetians, with few lucky ones escaping to freedom after defeat.

Despite all these major wars, venetians and turks were also busy making business among themselves. A commercial base of the turkish empires was allowed in Venice, for example, but thewy couldn't settle permanently so they couldn't carry wives as, unlike other populations who could be absorbed by the venetian empire (greeks, slavs, people from other italian states, germans) they were never perceived as assimilable.

The other power that competed with Venice in this area was Genoa, often with bitter disputes between them and the venetians btw, but as far as I know Genoa is not known to have generated some peculiar sword style nor it was known as an arms and armor center: while Venice would have the brescian area producing weapons and armor for itself and export, and later the bellunese area for the making of schiavonas.

So the above sword may have ended up in turkish hands also because of some peaceful trade, even being spanish in origin, in this case, or betetr, being a brescian product in spanish style.

Have a look at the sword in the background... could it be a depiction of the "Castillon C" pommel? This woodcut appears in an edition of the Spanish novel "Primaleon" printed in Venice in 1534.

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