Ferrara

Ferrara, ANDREA, a broadsword-maker of the 16th century, respecting whose personal history nothing is certainly known beyond the fact that he was established at Belluno in North Italy in 1585, where, along with his brother, he enjoyed great repute as an armourer. According to a tradition long current in Scotland, he was a Spaniard by birth; but the probability that he was an Italian and a native of the city of Ferrara is quite as strong. It is claimed for him that he tempered sword-blades by the same method as that employed by the smiths of Damascus. See SWORD; and Cornhill Magazine, vol. xii. (1865).