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I have drawn a diagram of the types I will describe, in Fig. 96. These are XIV, XV, and XVA. Thcre are many surviving examples of XV and its subtype, but very few of XIV. I only know of four survivors of this type, though it is frequently shown in art, particularly manuscript illuminations, from circa 1270-1320. Type XV came into use circa 1250, as far as documentary evidcnce shows. The four examples I know of Type XIV arc all of absolutcly outstanding quali-ty, and two of them arc preserved in almost pristinc condition. The best and most important is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (Figs. 97 and 98). This is an outstanding sword, not only for its beautiful quality and perfect preservation, but for its size. It is an enormous sword. The blade is a good 3" wide at the top and is 32" long. Its original cord-bound, leather-cov-ered grip survives; the elegant cross is inlaid with close-set little silver vertical lines of wire, and the pommel has a quoit-like ring of silver around its central boss, whereon is the legend in Gothic minuscule letters, " Sunt hic etiam suiprecuna laudi" which translates to, "Here also are the heralds of his praise."

In its wide fuller, thcre is the remnant, now illegible, of another inscription which seems to havc been etched. This is an early example of this technique, though an even earlier one is on the blade of the sword (a Type XII) taken in 1943 from the tomb, in the Capella Mayor of Toledo Cathedral, of Sancho IV of Castile, who was buried thcre in 1298; and the sword, any-way, is considered to have belonged to his father, Alfonso el Sabio. Thus it can be said that the etched decoration of arms was in use before 1270.

Figurę 97. Hilt of Type XIV sword in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. This is generally held to datę c. 1400, but the style of the sword (as well as its type) and the similarity of the (now illegible) etched inscription on the blade to that on the blade of the positively datcable sword of Sancho IV of Castile (1298) suggests that, in fact, its datę is berween c. 1300-1325.

Figurę 98. The whole of the sword shown in Fig. 97. BL: 81.3cm. BW: 8.7cm.