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rewarding study of the sword. The sword - which should not bc studied mereJy as an archaeological artefact, but as the most beautiful weapon ever devised by man: the embodiment par excellence of the true spirit of chivalry, symboiizing the virtues of justice, loyalty, valour, and honor.
Too often nowadays, a surviving medieval sword eonie fresh-ly to notice is regarded only as an archaeological artefact to be examined, classified (if possible), given an accession number, and placed in "the study collection" of a museum - which means that its fate is to be stowed away in an underground chamber with other objects for which no place can be found in the galleries where they should be displayed; but even when properly displayed, they are dead; studied, but not comprehended. Even a rather worn and battered sword, recovered from the bed of a river or from the ground, still, to those who care, retains much of its living purpose, pnwiding it can be handled. Another thing, most important, which must be borne in mind by those who study armour and arms, is that what there is in the 21st century to be studied, is only a tiny proportion of what was originally madę and uscd.
My brief is concerned herc only with the sword in medieval Europę, between say, 500 and 1500 A.D. Though happily very many do survive, a very few in good, cven usable condition, they form only a smali percentage of the countless hundreds of thousands which must have been madę during
Ml
Fig. 121. Early form of Rapier c. 1530, Spanish. Authofs Collection
Figurę 120. Possibly a Spanish sword, c.1490 - 1500, showing an S-guard and semi-developcd hilt. Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
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