On Spanish blades it was quite common to see the name of the maker and his place of work placed in the fuller, but often certain letters were replaced with astrological symbols or magic associated glyphs. This type of embellishment was believed to imbue certain talismanic potential (and quality endorsement) to the blade along with the makers name.
In many cases, as I previously mentioned, names were misspelled, and in other cases, wording seemed incongruent and in effect 'jibberish' as they made no sense. These were cases of 'acronyms', which are first letters of words in phrases, invocations and such which may have had special arcane meaning to certain individuals or groups at the time.
Such 'encryption' was common in Spain because of strong beliefs in magic, occult and superstition as well as the mystic dogma of the Kaballa associated with Jewish Faith, which was prevalent as well. The talismanic properties of these beliefs and followings in their ciphers, glyphs and symbols were important talismanic additions to blades in inscriptions.
A makers mark at the ricasso is always probably the best potential for identification of a blades maker, however those of prominent smiths were of course widely copied. On that point, only comparison of the style and character of the blades by that maker and with provenance will best assure that identification.
Again, as this thread is focused on blade markings and inscriptions I wanted to add my thoughts pertaining to these, and thank you for the added photos which better illustrate this blade's examples.
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