04-20-2013, 06:48 PM
Call me a Necromancer because I found this thread through Google and figured I'd bring the dead back from the grave.
There actually is, I was delighted to discover, a Byzantine Sword Typology that Hoffmeyer penned in the 60s.
You can find the complete typology in my thread, which incidentally I believe is the largest collection of images of Byzantine Swords available in one place online:
www.sword-site.com > feature articles
or
http://sword-site.com/index.cgi?board=fe...d=2&page=1
It is difficult to piece together a coherent picture of what Byzantine swords were like BUT I think when you have a look at the collection of images I've assembled a sense of the different sensibilities of Byzantine swords starts to take form.
We tend to think of swords from Catholic Western Europe being the successors of the Roman tradition, but I would argue, to some extent Western European Swords represent in a greater respect the aesthetic and design preferences of the German inheritors of the Western Roman lands; whereas Byzantium continued to produce swords that were more like the Roman swords of antiquity.
One excellent example in my view is the continuity of the (unfullered) lenticular blade cross section. While this style of sword was virtually unknown in Western Europe after the fall of Rome, it enjoyed perennial and enduring popularity amongst the Romiosi.
Have a look at the collection, there seems to be a real depth of knowledge amongst the forumites here, so I am very for feedback and your opinions on this most fascinating of topics: Byzantine Swords.
There actually is, I was delighted to discover, a Byzantine Sword Typology that Hoffmeyer penned in the 60s.
You can find the complete typology in my thread, which incidentally I believe is the largest collection of images of Byzantine Swords available in one place online:
www.sword-site.com > feature articles
or
http://sword-site.com/index.cgi?board=fe...d=2&page=1
It is difficult to piece together a coherent picture of what Byzantine swords were like BUT I think when you have a look at the collection of images I've assembled a sense of the different sensibilities of Byzantine swords starts to take form.
We tend to think of swords from Catholic Western Europe being the successors of the Roman tradition, but I would argue, to some extent Western European Swords represent in a greater respect the aesthetic and design preferences of the German inheritors of the Western Roman lands; whereas Byzantium continued to produce swords that were more like the Roman swords of antiquity.
One excellent example in my view is the continuity of the (unfullered) lenticular blade cross section. While this style of sword was virtually unknown in Western Europe after the fall of Rome, it enjoyed perennial and enduring popularity amongst the Romiosi.
Have a look at the collection, there seems to be a real depth of knowledge amongst the forumites here, so I am very for feedback and your opinions on this most fascinating of topics: Byzantine Swords.
