IN RECENT YEARS THE medieval sword has become increasingly popular as a research topic. Authors such as Petersen, Oakeshott, Geibig, Wheeler, and many more have produced classification systems which are used by modern researchers to categorise and investigate medieval swords. This essay examines the problems of classifying medieval swords and the research questions raised by the terminology used to create the different categories. Although the classification of medieval swords covers a broad chronological range, this paper principally examines these problems in relation to swords from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, using them to demonstrate how these problems are caused and the reasons behind them, as well as why they are augmented in the aforementioned period. The merits and flaws of constructed original classification systems developed in modern scholarship are also briefly addressed, and whether or not they can be useful tools or obstacles in curatorial work and academic research. Finally, a short discussion will investigate if there are ways to make research easier by adopting simpler classification systems, by replacing numerical and/or alphabetical nomenclature with a descriptive terminology, and why a new, modern classification system in the form of a database is necessary.

The aim of this paper is to discuss certain problems that often appear and persist in the study of swords, specifically those revolving around the creation and application of classification systems. It is a theoretical approach to a theoretical subject, adopted in an attempt to question and solve a practical research issue. An important mention to make at this point is that this type of problem, and generally problems of classification, typology, and terminology, do not only appear in the study of swords, but also in the research field of arms and armour as a whole. Most edged weapon categories from this period (c.1300 to c.1550) can be approached in a similar way, and the thoughts presented here can be applied to them as well. This paper will highlight such problems, which when dealing with late medieval swords are augmented because of the popularity of the weapon, both in its original context as well as a modern research topic. Popular methodological approaches will be examined briefly, and finally, thematic routes and new trends of research will be presented.