Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/162

 It has running down the centre on either face a shallow, well-marked groove, from the hilt to the extreme point. The grip of wood is covered with parchment, of which material the scabbard is likewise covered. This is intact. The whole sword, which is of quite simple shape, is in perfect preservation, and especially instructive, as much of the intricate belt attachments, which are still in their original state, is fastened to the scabbard. These fastenings form the subject of a very able dissertation contributed by M. Viollet-le-Duc to his Dictionnaire du Mobilier Français. We show this reconstruction adapted to the St. Maurice sword (Fig. 110).

Early XIIIth century. In the Treasury of the Cathedral of Bamberg, Bavaria From Hefner-Alteneck's "Waffen, etc." ]

Perhaps the scabbard, with its hangers, of the St. Maurice sword of Turin is the only complete example of such sword furniture of the early years of the XIIIth century that has been handed down to us. Herr Hefner-Alteneck alludes to part of a scabbard and belt that was, in 1842, found among some old parchments in the Treasury of the Cathedral of Bamberg (Bavaria). This scabbard is fashioned of wood (the end is broken and missing) covered with white parchment, upon which is a very simple design reserved in the natural colour of the hide on a dark brown ground. At the top is a semicircular piece of leather platted with green and red silk. The leather straps of the