The half moon symbol in early Spanish swords

[cornelistromp]

Originally Posted by fernando

Yes i have Jasper ... and that has been already mentioned somewhere around here. Actually i thought i spotted his whole work in the Web but i now realize i was wrong. The thing is, del Canto manuscript, which apparently was never printed and edited, belonged to Count Valencia de Don Juan, by the time this noble published his work Catalogo Historico-Descritivo de la Real Armeria, in 1898. Apparently del Canto manuscript is a very exhaustive work, with numerous illustrations, mainly foccusing in the art of sword fencing and, for what matters, is 'only' 40 years earlier than that of Palomares. From the quotatins i have read so far, nothing indicates that his (possible) description of smiths marks tells us something new. I will keep digging into this. So far i enjoyed learning about Lhermite, who lived in the exact period and has resourced important material on more than 20 smiths, their marks and the type of blades they used to forge. This yes, must have a been a genuine work as, according to experts, the terminology he uses to describe their respective products should only be learnt through personal contact.
Attached a page of del Canto manuscript, where e compares the sizes of the different "instruments".


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Hi Fernando,

very interesting! do you know where can I find the literature of Lhermite?

thanks+regards,