12th-13th Century Jinete Swords?

[anoakenstaff]

Thank you very much for these resources! I really appreciate your help, I'll definitely grab the few I missed.

I have indeed read the Gibraltar paper. It is a great read.

As for Jean's sword: I would loathe to disagree with you, especially as I obviously respect your much greater knowledge, and especially as I am a fledgling researcher myself. However, I would like to raise some points of consideration, if I may.

I believe Helmut dismisses the possibility of the sword being European or Islamic far too quickly. Firstly, more to the point of jinetes and pre-jinete Islamic swords, and as Nicolle notes*- small guards with trilobate pommels are found in quite a number of Iberian depictions, Islamic or otherwise. Besides just the Andalusian example shown, trilobate pommels themselves apparently appear to a frequency enough in Spain for Oakeshott to note them in his typology as 'of a Spanish type' (type L). You might find more examples of Spanish triloabtes in, for example, BL Additional 11695 Beatus of Liebana (available on ManuscriptMiniatures).

(Though here I have to make a note that the pommel of the trefoil shape shows over and over again in other parts of Europe too, mainly France. I'll attach a particularly good example of a fleur-de-lis pommel from folio 024r of the KBR Ms.9961-62 Peterborough Psalter.)

The Met paper also claims that the wrapping of the hilt is atypical for European swords. This much is true. However, it does not appear that it is unprecedented. Besides the fact that the double-looping style does not appear on any of the (small number of) Chinese swords I have seen, it is actually found in Europe. I know of at least three examples, the most clear and relevant one being the effigy of a knight in San Lorenzo Maggiore, near 1300. You'll probably find him as 'Naples Knight A' on EffigiesandBrasses.com.

("As such they (small, curved guards) probably reflected Islamic Andalusian rather than Christian northern Spanish military styles, particularly as they are mostly on swords whose scabbards are carried on baldrics rather than sword-belts. In these manuscripts, however, the down-turned quillons are often associated with the clover-leaf or trilobate pommel rather than the spherical pommel of the Gibraltar sword.")