17th Rapier to identify

[Philip]

Taking another look, there seems to be another basis for determining this sword to be north Italian as well as Germanic.

Here's an Italian sword in the Royal Armouries Museum (IX-155), this one a spada da fante or footsoldier's sword with an unusually wide and prominently-tapering blade, 92.7 cm overall, dated at ca 1560.

Ignoring the blade, one sees a hilt with a guard of essentially the same construction, although without a side-ring (ponte) connecting the ends of the arms where they touch the blade. This omission may be due to the practical necessity of accommodating such a wide blade. However, the arrangement of knucklebow and the loop-guard branching to form bridges joining the arms, without perpendicularly projecting quillons, is quite similar.

There is a parallel with the spirally-cut wood grips. Pommels are different. The asymmetrical shape of the RAM example's pommel seems to have parallels in the notched flat-sided pommel of the typical Venetian cutlass or falchion known as a storta.