A Good Musketeer's Rapier, Probably Saxony, ca. 1600

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Dmitry

Hi, Michael.
I'm still not convinced that this was a martial sword as opposed to a civilian's personal weapon.
As far as the blade lengths go, in England at least, in the late 1500s-early 1600s the length was regulated to be no more than a yard or so, and swords were randomly measured by government officials in the streets, and blades that were too long were broken short or taken away. I remember reading a period account regarding the French ambassador who got into trouble because his was way too long.

Perhaps one should distinguish civilian swords from munitions swords.
The philosopy applied to their respective blade lengths followed different criteria. Whereas street swords had contextual lengths, military swords had uniformized dimensions and followed the logic of longer for the horseman and shorter for the foot soldier.