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Italian, third quarter of the XVIth century Salting bequest, Victoria and Albert Museum

p. 294, also Fig. 1327) necessarily suggested the advisability of protecting the hand as much as possible on either side of the hilt. It was this method of grasping the hilt that led to the actual grip of the rapier being reduced to the shortest possible dimensions, more especially in the second half of the XVIth century. It was so fashioned as to rest against the palm of the hand, and was held there by the third and fourth fingers, the true hold of the weapon being relegated to the first and second fingers. In the second quarter of the XVIth century the two-handed and bastard swords, and the more portable and convenient one-hand or short sword were all in use. Varieties of the close-hilted and back-sword were also coming into fashion; while there existed a peculiar combination of swords known in England as the "case of rapiers." These were not actually rapiers, but were more like swords worn back to back in the same scabbard, resembling those short Chinese swords of comparatively recent date which are constantly met with. In its early complete form, in the middle of the XVIth century, the hilt most often seen—especially in Italy—is the type that, in the collector's jargon of to-day, is termed "swept," an excellent illustration of which we give from a finely decorated example in the Salting bequest to the Victoria and Albert Museum (Fig. 1328). So much ingenuity was displayed in the invention of variations in the form of the hilt, that it would be quite impossible to attempt a classification. Nationality, particular usage, and adaptation to decoration, were all factors which brought about variations in the shape of the "swept" hilt. But the general principle of design of all these hilts will usually be found the same, in spite of the doubling or trebling and even interlacing of the counter-guards and connecting bars. Changes in the shape of the blade are not so complicated as those undergone by the hilt. During the development of the sword into