Strange signs on the blade of a rapier

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Raf

Often these were repeated pairing of letters or numbers, and to make things more complicated gemetria and cabalistic codes were used. There were secret societies and groups using all manner of arcane messages.

s.

For anyone not familiar with the term gematria this is the name given to the numerical correspondence for letters in the Greek alphabet. Apparently random groupings of letters , typically 4 , can be read as number. The number relates to theological phrases or concepts where the total of the numbers of the letters added together share the same number . For example 1746 could be read as 'son of the Virgin Mary' or 'the glory of God in Israel.'[/QUOTE]


Thank you Raf for the additional clarification on 'gemetria', I should have detailed that. as you well note, groupings of numbers also were placed to represent magical and talismanic invocations.
Most familiar on blades are 1414 and 1441 which were long mistaken for year dates. Many letters have numeric value and numbers in group could be read as acrostic (the first letter of each word in phrases etc. put together in a group).

Perhaps these characters might represent those in a form of ancient alphabet used in this manner, with the lozenges (diamonds) used to bracket same.