Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/63

 In France swords of Montluçon are mentioned in 1465 and M. de Belleval states, but on what authority I do not know, that those of Abbeville were in high repute. At a later date this town was celebrated for its firearms. Passau in Germany, for long famous for its sword blades, was already making them early in the century, for in 1409 Mathys, the furbisher to the Duke of Burgundy, whom we have seen cleaning a Bordeaux sword at the same date, supplies a sword of Passau. There is a rather curious entry in the accounts of the Duke of Orleans about this time for engraving anew the pommels of two swords and making a new grip: "Il éspées de Bordeaux, dont l'une est de parement, dont les pommeaux des II éspées sont gravés et garniz à neuf et a l'on mise en l'une IIII ansnes de coustenère pour la pongnée," but entries for furbishing and putting into order armour and swords are by no means uncommon in mediaeval accounts.

In Spain, we know of Catalan swordsmiths working at the close of the XIVth century, and early in the next Charles VI of France possessed two Castillian swords. The anonymous treatise on military costume of 1446 speaks of "fueilles de Catheloigne" as a form of sword used by the coustilleux in France at that time, and describes them as "un pou longuetes et estroites et sont un bien pou voides." In the inventory of Charles the Bold of Burgundy we find "une éspée longhe en manière de coustille plaine." What the difference was between a coustille un peu vide and a coustille pleine is not clear. But the sword blades which were held in especially high esteem in Spain during the XVth century were those produced by the Valencian swordsmiths, and these craftsmen continued to make very excellent blades all through the XVIth century sufficiently renowned for the Marquis of Mantua to provide himself with some in 1552 through his ambassador in Rome.[10] The names of two bladesmiths who worked at Granada for the last Moorish king, Boabdil, are also known.

The XVIth century was the epoch of the very finest enriched armour and weapons, and during the first half of the century these often became works of very high artistic merit. The art of the painter as designer, of the sculptor as embosser, of