To continue this soliloquy, I recall many years back with Jens as he sought the origins of the katar, and we came across the 'manople' as shown in Calvert (1907), and in Stone (1934). This curious weapon with trident like prongs downturned below the gauntlet was obviously a match to the pata and its shorter counterpart the katar.
However we wondered, how did it fit in? Further the date period 14th-15th century was provocative in the earlier period than commonly associated with katar and pata, yet it is shown as a 'Moorish' boarding weapon.
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The Maratha empire did not officially begin until 1674, so the notions of this weapon being used as a 'boarding weapon' perhaps on the vessels of the Marathas, who had a navy of sorts, in these early times is of course unlikely. Further, the Marathas were not Muslim, thus not Moorish, so on both counts this description is flawed.
The most obvious and glaring perplexity in the description is of course, this strange term MANOPLE, which does not seem to occur anywhere else in arms literature. While notably unusual, I honestly never thought to seek the character of the term further, until now .
Interestingly, by definition, in Spanish, the term 'la manopla' means loosely a glove or mitten ! That fits, so to speak.
So it would seem most likely that somehow this curious weapon came into Spanish hands by some means, probably in the 18th century, and writers seeking to classify it, close the eponym 'manople' descriptively, and assumed the early period and use accordingly.
The trident like appendages however were notably unusual for the forms of pata usually seen and it is curious whether this feature actually existed on some examples in earlier periods. We will likely never know, as no other example of this form exists as far as known, and all we have of this one is the telling photo from the Armeria in Madrid.
So theres the update, now the questions remain.......has anyone ever seen a pata with this kind of projecting blades from the gauntlet?
Were patas actually used as weapons on the Maratha vessels? I would note here that the term Maratha is often spelled in older accounts in English, MAHRATTA.
Has anyone ever seen the term 'manople' used in literature in other languages ever been used, particularly of course that in Spanish or Portuguese (I miss Fernando!).