hand, that early in the XIXth century this dagger, like many other treasures in the Royal Collection, passed through the hands of the cleaner and restorer, who may have left upon this beautiful and presumably XVIth century weapon the mark of the time. That beautiful dagger sword of the cinquedea type in the Ressman bequest to the Bargello Museum (Vol. ii, p. 277, Fig. 657), which seems to be a North Italian weapon of about the end of the XVth century, shows us to perfection the true blueing such as we consider is lacking on the last dagger illustrated. Here we have the original colour which has never been tampered with, the blue-black groundwork still retaining the original silky patina. The hilt is composed of a simple wheel-pommel, diagonally curved quillons, and a single ring guard. The last dagger of this class we illustrate is that fine example which also was originally in the Ressman Collection, but is now in the Metropolitan Museum of New York (Fig. 847). The quillons and pommel are of gilded bronze, the latter flat and shield-shaped, the former drooping at the ends, where they terminate in monsters' heads. Very perfect Renaissance ornament is introduced into the field decoration both of the pommel and of the quillons. The blade is stoutly fashioned, tapering to an acute reinforced point. Its surface is curiously faceted.
We should weary our readers—if we have not already wearied them—were we to proceed to give an account of the other forms varying according to the country of their manufacture taken by the broad-bladed dagger swords of the early years of the XVIth century; but the forms we have mentioned will suffice to show that, though the decoration of these weapons is seldom duplicated, they vary but little in construction and general outline before they evolve into the true cinquedea.
THE SIXTH TYPE OF DAGGER—THE CINQUEDEA PROPER
Though it comes perhaps rather under the category of the sword than under that of the dagger, we must find room in this chapter for some account of that most distinctive form of weapon known as the cinquedea. The cinquedea, broad-bladed and awkward to handle, was in the early days of the study of armour often wrongly termed the "Anelace." But its very name has reference to its form, the word cinquedea or sanquedea being derived from two Italian words, cinque—five, dita—fingers, and describing the blade of the weapon as having the breadth of five fingers; for it will be generally found that the blade of the cinquedea is from three to four inches wide at the hilt.
