century we meet with a heaume of Pavia in Lombardy,[1] and swords of Pavia,[2] Friesland,[3] Valence,[4] but whether Valence in France or Valencia in Spain it is not easy to determine, and of Verdun,[5] which town at a very much later date gave its name to a special form of sword. At the end of this century, and early in the XIIIth, swords of Poitou steel ("d'acier trenchant cler Peitevin")[6] are referred to. Vienne in Dauphiné also produced swords,[7] and this manufacture must have existed for long, for it is mentioned by Rabelais in 1530, whilst de Villamont in his travels in 1588 speaks of the martinets or hammer mills there for forging sword blades, and as late as 1644 John Evelyn says, speaking of Vienne, "there are many other pretty buildings, but nothing more so than the mills where they hammer and polish the sword blades." A considerable number of blades inscribed VIENNA or VIANNA have come down to us, and probably they were made there, and not at Vienna in Austria. This important manufactory is referred to even as late as 1723. Great swords of Germany are mentioned about 1190,[8] and Joinville says that St. Louis in 1309 was armed with an "éspée d'Alemaigne." It is probable that these swords were made at Cologne, for early in the XIIIth century we read of great swords of Cologne,[9] and in the inventory of J. de Saffres in 1365 occurs "Unam Spatam operis Coloniensis." In the old ballad of the battle of Otter-*bourne, Percy and Douglas fight "with swords of fyne Collayne."
In the XIIIth century we meet with a Bavarian heaume,[10] and a helmet of Aquileia is mentioned by two different writers.[11] Ibn Saïd of Grenada, who wrote about 1250, tells of the excellent weapons made in Spain. In Andalus, which is the name given to the kingdom of Cordova on coins of the period, arms, armour, and military equipments of all sorts, such as bucklers, swords, quivers, arrows, saddles, bits, bridles, and other harness were made, which surpassed those of any other country in the world. Murcia was renowned for its coats of mail, cuirasses, and all sorts of armour incrusted with gold, and at Seville richly ornamented swords were made, in no way inferior to those obtained from India.[12] In this century also we for the first time hear of two centres of manufacture of very great renown, Bordeaux and Milan. A passage in the Chronicon Extravagans of Fiamma proves that as early as 1288 Milan was already one of the most active centres for the fabrication of armour and arms in
- ↑ Li Romans d' Alixandre, p. 30.
- ↑ Garin le Loherain, vol. i, p. 60.
- ↑ Li Romans d' Alixandre, pp. 63, 133.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 131.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 122.
- ↑ Chroniques des Ducs de Normandie, vol. ii, p. 32; Foulque de Candie, p. 91; Le tournoiement de l'antéchrist, p. 28.
- ↑ Chroniques des Ducs de Normandie, vol. ii, pp. 27, 36.
- ↑ Chroniques des Ducs de Normandie, vol. i, p. 444, and Guillaume Guiart, verse 3630.
- ↑ Le tournoiement de l'antéchrist, p. 64.
