Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/335

 knuckle guard are the Venetian swords that formerly existed by the hundred in the arsenal of Venice. We illustrate one (Fig. 674), which is included in Mr. W. H. Riggs' gift to the Metropolitan Museum, New York, a very beautiful weapon, enriched in the most splendid Hispano-Arabic manner. It will be noticed that it still retains the wheel-shaped pommel, though in a very debased form; it is hollow and flat. The blade of this weapon is back-edged.

Italian, of what might be termed the "Landsknecht" type Late XVth century. No. 123, Wallace Collection (Laking Catalogue)

In our account of the earliest form of knuckle guard we have given first place to the Italian swords, because these were the weapons on which they were first found; but within a quarter of a century of their introduction, knuckle guards established themselves in favour throughout civilized Europe. Distinctive in style as were the Italian swords, so were those of the Germans