This portrait by Alonso Sanchez Coelho (a prolific portrait painter of this period) shows us another young prince. It is particularly interesting because it gives a full view of the dagger matching the sword. Daggers were worn on the back, with the hilt to the right, and are therefore often obscured, or showing only their pommels.

The sword seems to have a simple hilt with no ring on the quillons, no knucklebow. The quillons are slightly curved. The decoration seems to be achieved by a sort of checkered chisel work (this shows up on other portraits, and on museum examples). The dagger has a big ring and S-curved, rather short quillons.

Another portrait from Moroni, which perhaps is not that good of a match costume-wise, but particularly pertinent because the sitter was the Spanish governor of the city of Milan from 1564 to 1571. It is therefore very likely that Lovino knew him!

His sword is clearly visible, with outer guards of type 43 and inner guards of type 9. The pommel is matched with the quillons ends and with pairs of decorative elements on the rings, once again. The hilt appears to be fully gilded. The fluting could be a good match for the manuscript but the pommel type is different.

This other portrait by Moroni is very distinctive because the sitter appears to be left-handed.

It is difficult to be certain of the type of guard on the sword, beyond the fact that it has no knucklebow and a ring on the quillons. The dagger also has a small ring. The quillons are thin and long, again with gilded decorations on the steel.

Another portrait by Coelho showing a young prince. We get a good view of the dagger here. It has very short quillons and probably no ring. The pommels and hilts are again matched, with an interesting pattern of circular gilded motifs. There is no certainty about the sword’s type, but it has a simple hilt again, with a ring on the quillons.

It is also hard to pass that portrait by the great painter François Clouet. This is the elder brother of Henri III, who Lovino dedicated his treatise to. He was king just before, 1560-1574. The costume matches the plates really well.

It is also an illustration of just how much cover the hilts could give at this date. The outer guards are probably Norman’s type 37 here, while the inner guards form type 11. All told this would give a great cover to the swordsman’s hand on both sides. The hilt seems to be fully sculpted and gilded, as you would expect of a kingly weapon. The structure formed with flattened bars is quite interesting; note how the knucklebow and the other guards form a 90 degrees angle at the root of the quillon, giving it a square section near the quillon block.

The sitter of this portrait by Anthonis Mor is unknown, but the quality of the painting warrants its inclusion.

Although the sword and dagger do not show much, they are interesting by their sheer simplicity compared to all the other. The hilts seem to be plain smooth steel, but maybe the golden highlights here represent damascening too thin to show up? The sword also has the long quillons that we have already met on the left-handed gentleman.

A last portrait from Coelho, again of high nobility, again of a fairly young boy, at 13 years old (the sitter eventually died at 17).

This time we get an extremely good view of the sword’s hilt. It is unequivocally of Norman’s type 28, with straight quillons, bulbous elements at their ends as well as on the rings recalling the pommel. There is an alternance of gold and silver or plain steel on many of the elements.