page_title: Oakeshott typology
section_title: Type XII
hierarchical_section_title: Oakeshott typology / Oakeshott types / Type XII
caption_attribution_description: English: Albion Swords replica of the 13th-century "Sword of Saint Maurice" of Turin.
context_page_description: The Oakeshott typology was created by historian and illustrator Ewart Oakeshott as a way to define and catalogue the medieval sword based on physical form. It categorises the swords of the European Middle Ages into 13 main types, labelled X through XXII. Oakeshott introduced it in his 1960 treatise The Archaeology of Weapons: Arms and Armour from Prehistory to the Age of Chivalry.
  The system is a continuation of Jan Petersen's typology of the Viking sword, which Petersen introduced in De Norske Vikingsverd in 1919. In 1927 the system was simplified by R.E.M. Wheeler to only seven types, labelled I through VII. Oakeshott slightly expanded the system with two transitional types, VIII and IX, and then he started work on his own typology.
  Among the many reasons for his typology, Oakeshott found date classification unreliable during his research. He wrote that the weapons' dates of manufacture, use, and retirement have been greatly obscured by trade, warfare, and other various exchanges combined with the weapons' own longevity.
context_section_description: Typical of the High Middle Ages, these swords begin to show greater tapering of the blade and a shortened fuller, features which improve thrusting capabilities while maintaining a good cut. The Cawood sword is an exceptionally well preserved type XII specimen, exemplifying a full-length taper and narrow fuller, which terminates 2/3 down the blade. A large number of Medieval examples of this type survive. It certainly existed in the later 13th century, and perhaps considerably earlier, since the Swiss National Museum in Zurich possesses an example that has a Viking Age–type hilt but clearly a type XII blade.
  The earliest known depiction of a type XII sword in art is in the statue of the Archangel Michael in Bamberg Cathedral, dating to c. 1200. The Maciejowski Bible (c. 1245) depicts other examples.
  Subtype XIIa (originally classified as XIIIa) consists of the longer, more massive greatswords that appear in the mid–13th century, which precede the later long-swords and were probably designed to counter the improved mail armor of the time.
  Single-handed transitional type XII swords have a grip about 4.5 inches (11 cm) in length.
  Type XIIa has a long grip similar to that of type XIIIa. The XIIa was originally a part of the XIIIa classification, but Oakeshott decided they "taper[ed] too strongly" and were "too acutely pointed" to fit appropriately.
caption: Type XII, Sword of Saint Maurice, replica by Peter Johnsson, 2005
exif: {}