Great Sword W/Finger Guard
Hello all!

All the talk about early great swords and the variability of period examples on the "Early Great Sword" thread brought to mind an interesting example of a slightly later great sword I saw illustrated in The Complete Encyclopedia of Arms and Weapons, edited by Leonid Tarassuk and Claude Blair. Alongside the more well-known type XIX sword with finger guard in the Royal Armouries Collection, they show a great sword (possibly a type XIIIa, but definitely with a great sword's long hilt and relatively broad blade) with a finger guard of circa 1300-1350 from the Armeria Reale, Turin.

I find the presence of a finger guard on a great sword to be intriguing. Does anyone know of any other examples of great swords (types XIIa or XIIIa) with finger guards? And, does anyone have any more information regarding this interesting, and rather different, example of a great sword? Photos would be lovely! (Maybe I'll check the web later, but I thought I would see what I could come up with here.)

Anything anyone could dig up would be greatly appreciated!

Stay safe!
Are you seeking swords with just the single finger-ring or any great swords with finger-rings and other parts of a compound-hilt? (side rings, etc.)

Attached is the image you were referencing.


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sword_finger_ring.jpg

Finger Ring Great Sword
Nathan........Is that image from a book or is there a bigger version on-line somewhere? Do you know the length and blade-lenght ? Close-up details Etc , ?
Cheers
Re: Finger Ring Great Sword
Merv Cannon wrote:
Nathan........Is that image from a book or is there a bigger version on-line somewhere? Do you know the length and blade-lenght ? Close-up details Etc , ?
Cheers

It's the image mentioned by Richard from The Complete Encyclopedia of Arms and Weapons, edited by Leonid Tarassuk and Claude Blair.
Hello all!
Nathan Robinson wrote:

Are you seeking swords with just the single finger-ring or any great swords with finger-rings and other parts of a compound-hilt? (side rings, etc.)

Attached is the image you were referencing.

Nathan,
Thanks for posting the illustration. That's the one all right!

Unfortunately, all the caption said was: "Double-edged sword, Europe, c. 1300-1350. Armeria Reale, Turin."

I was thinking specifically about Oakeshott's type XIII, XIIIa, and XIIa great swords with finger guards, but I would love to see examples with double-finger rings or other components of the compound hilts. I did think this example was especially interesting. It looked "odd" to me when I first saw it. I'm not used to seeing components of compound hilts on fullered, broad-bladed great swords. I don't have nearly the resources about Renaissance swords that I do about medieval swords, so there certainly could be examples of great swords with these components from that period. (After all, the great sword of Oakeshott's type XIIIa did become popular again in the late 15th century.) I know many bastard swords have various combinations of these hilt components, but I'm specifically interested in those examples, if others do exist, that would be classed as great swords of types XIII, XIIIa, and XIIa (those possessing fairly broad, parallel-edged or slightly tapered, fullered blades).

I know I saw a photo of this sword somewhere on the internet; perhaps it was the Armeria Reale site. I'll have to look around and see if I can find it again.

Thanks for any help finding other examples!

Stay safe!
Here is the page from Blankwaffen. Geschichte und Typenentwicklung im europäischen Kulturbereich, by Heribert Seitz showing the sword in question.


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HeribertSeitz-012.jpg
From Blankwaffen. Geschichte und Typenentwicklung im europäischen Kulturbereich, by Heribert Seitz

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