Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/122

 that delightful medium of gold inlay applied to the surface which can also be seen on the blade of a cinquedea-like sword dagger in the same collection (Vol. ii, p. 279, Fig. 657). It has been suggested, but we do not know on what authority, that this medium of gold decoration, in which much of the drawing of the subject is left to the imagination and only the higher lights are inlaid or rather plated with gold, was peculiar to Bologna. Prince Ladislaus Odescalchi of Rome possesses a fine cinquedea, with its leathern scabbard complete, which we illustrate (Fig. 863). In the case of this specimen the quillons are etched much in the manner of the blade, but by an artist of indifferent skill. In the Museo Civico of Venice there is a noteworthy example with a hilt of silver magnificently chased. Nearly all the important continental armouries show specimens of the cinquedea. They are to be seen in the armouries of Turin, of Vienna, of Berlin, and of the Porte de Hal, Brussels; while many fine and genuine examples are in the private collections on the continent.

The richest hilted cinquedea in existence, decorated as it is with silver, partly gilt, and even with jewels, is that example which is said to have been a gift from the Emperor Charles V to Francis I in 1526, formerly in the collection of Prince Colloredo of Prague. The present writer has never had the opportunity of examining this weapon, and consequently is unable personally to vouch for its authenticity. But he gives an illustration of it produced from a mid-XIXth century publication (Fig. 863). Two other cinquedea with hilts of almost equal richness were formerly in the collection of Prince Charles of Prussia. These, too, the present writer has never seen, knowing them from photographs only.

By the double process of description and of pictures we have now given illustrations of the various types of cinquedea, together with accounts of the varied decorations applied to them; indeed, it may even appear to the reader that we have unnecessarily duplicated our representations of these weapons. On careful scrutiny, however, it will be found that though all bear a strong family likeness to one another, each has some distinctive feature either in the hilt or blade. Of the variations of the cinquedea type of dagger sword we have previously spoken under the heading of transitional daggers of the XVth-XVIth centuries (ante, pp. 62, et seqq.).