Nuremberg Chronicle; depictions of edged weapons from the late 15th Century

[Philip]

Originally Posted by shayde78

Oh, the fifth picture of this post contains an image of fortifications outside the main gate of a city/town. I included because I'm curious what is being represented. Not quite an edged weapon...but related, right?

The ninth picture is the one with the executioner swinging a two-handed sword that may depict a blunt tip. Again, this could just be a fault in the engraving, but the fact that such swords were often rebated caused me to make note of this

.

The spiky things outside the gate are cavalry repellant -- chevaux-de-frise or "Friesland horses" as they became known in France. I don't know the reason why the French tied them to this particular geographic location since am not sure exactly when and where they were invented. Typically they were arranged to block mass cavalry charges, since horses are understandably shy about having their tummies poked. In this case they would work fine for impeding footsoldiers en masse, too, since they would be forced to bunch up to access the approach footpaths, making them easier targets for the defenders.

The tip of the headsman's sword does appear to be blunted, but am not sure whether this might be due to it being clipped by the margin of the picture. After all, the image of St. Lucia stabbed through the neck (appearing elsewhere) shows the sword without a point because it falls at what would be the margin.

You might be interested in checking out Donald J. LaRocca's article, "The Renaissance Spirit" in the anthology Swords and Hilt Weapons (ed. Michael Coe), p 52. A woodcut by Hans Burgkmair (1473-1531) from the biography Der Weisskunig (Emperor Maximilian I) shows the headsman about to do his work on a victim kneeling atop the scaffold, and his sword clearly has a point. The blade's contour also has a distinct taper, like Oakeshott Type XII or XIII, not the parallel-edged or subtly widening shape of the "classic" Germanic heading-sword blade (incidentally, also used in Poland and Hungary.)