Excerpt from Arms and Armor: An Exceptional Collection Formed in Austria and Containing Many Pieces Acquired From the Collection of the Archduke Charles With a Series of Fine Halberds Formerly in the National Armory in Munich Some weapons, of course, may be considered as works of art, the greater number on account of the quality of their decoration, a minority through a strange rhythm that the logic of technique has impressed into them. There is nothing more beautiful than cer tain detached pieces of armor of the late fifteenth century. The hammered and shaped steel has an abstract and almost Virgina] purity of line. There is no doubt that the craftsman who wrought with the steel to shape his piece of armor had an instinctive feel ing of the beauty Which he created, although he was not able to shape in words what the subtler mind of the epigones is able to analyze. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.