[Gregory J. Liebau]

Recently I visited a small museum in Sinj, Croatia, dedicated to archaeological findings in the surrounding region of Cetinska Krajina. I was stunned to see a beautifully preserved Type XVII sword with a particularly long and slender blade. I reckon it belongs to the late 14th or early 15th century based on the forms of its hilt and pommel. I estimated that it was at least 45" in length, but because it was in a case and I had no rule with me, I have no exact measurements... Perhaps I shall email the museum to find out! It has an inlaid cross on the pommel and an inlaid mark on the blade which looks like a cross within a circle, with another cross directly beneath.

I just wanted to share it since I am having a lazy birthday evening on the island of Hvar (yes, you're allowed to be jealous) and knew I would eventually want to post about it. Cheers!

-Gregory

(p.s. I'm no expert on Oakeshott's typology... If this would be better categorized as something other than an XVII, please let me know! I shall change the title and description accordingly. Indeed, so unsure am I that I've already changed the description from XVI to XVII.)

[Luka Borscak]

I hope you are enjoying my country. Ironic, I have never been to Hvar and I have no idea how it's there, but it's because we really do have many islands.
About the sword... It could be a very slender XVI, but I would rather call it XVII with a fuller... Nice sword with nice decoration anyway.

[Russ Mitchell]

These sorts of armor-breakers are widespread in the region in the XIVth century. And they need to be. While central and western europe will eventually take rigid armor to heights undreamt-of elsewhere, at this point they were Johnny-come-latelies to the rigid armor game. East-Central Europe already had centuries of experience at close quarters with cultures which took rigid and layered composite armor types for granted.

You can see swords like these all over Guiron Le Courtois and the Chronicon Pictum, being used in one hand to thrust. And the originals like it I've handled in Hungary were all surprisingly rigid -- even in museum condition would clearly have been very dangerous thrusting implements.