Thread: Odd Sword
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Old 3rd August 2015, 04:27 PM   #69
fernando
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Portugal
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I think i should come back to lettering issue, even if i am in part correcting my previous consideration.
My idea is that, the contents of what i have learnt may be useful for collectors general knowledge.
Having consulted some of my old books in Portuguese armoury (Viterbo 1907-1908), i foccused on the the way the name of Jesus Christ and document dating were practised in the XVI century, when Kings issued letters of previlege to armoury smiths.
I can not type the way these were done, as current keyboards do not have such characters, as also the fonts used by Viterbo printers in 1907 may also be a bit distorced.
This way i show parts in the book where Jesus Christ "initials" are mentioned, as well as a genuine print that comes in a "reformulation of the Rules of the Order of Christ" (ex-Templars), published in 1503.
In both cases the letter H has a place but, above all, it is interesting to know how these symbols may appear in weapons ... and not only.
Also the type of dating is most interesting as, being Roman numeration, is rather different than that used nowadays. I phoned the experts in Torre do Tombo (National Archives) and they told me that, in that early period, Roman numeration had a difftent 'convention' ... which i, for one, was not aware of.
I also upload here a couple examples contained in such letters of previlege so that, if these figures show up in old (Portuguese) swords, won't be a complete surprise.

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