Rievocazione dello Spadone 2025, duelli medievali di scherma storica

Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here. We are the Malipiero Weapons Company. For 25 years we have been studying the historical screen, so the screen of the past centuries, under the guidance of Master Massimo Malipiero, who is an expert on the screen of the past centuries, so on the historical screen. The Master teaches here in Friuli, as well as in Italy and abroad, so there are many schools. And we propose, in particular today, a screen essay of the late Middle Ages. So what you will see is the art of armament, therefore the art of fighting, which was in full swing For our screen, we refer to the treatises. Once upon a time, the gentlemen, especially the noble gentlemen, the rich gentlemen, in which the art of weapons was part of their education, to learn it they referred to masters, but also to books, these treatises of weapons, which taught how to use the different weapons that you will see later illustrated. The first treatise that is in memory is the first 33, or Code of the Tower of London, which dates back to 200, in which you can see the art, illustrated the art of the sword and the boccoliere, which you will see later. Here we see two of our warriors entering the field with a sword and a boccoliere. The sword is called a one-handed sword because it is used with one hand. You see, it is a very agile weapon. Here we break the myth of very heavy swords. Sometimes we also see in the films set in the Middle Ages, in the medieval fantasy films, as they say, there is the idea of ​​these swords, of these very, very heavy armors that required great strength. In reality it is not so. The Italian medieval metallurgical art was very advanced, so they made weapons not only light, but flexible and manageable. They made excellent weapons and excellent armors. Italian armors were particularly popular. And they have this protection in their left hand which is called a boccoliere or brocchiero, which allows you to protect the fingers of the armed hand. The boccoliere sword, for its nature, is a very fast and manageable weapon, so it was used not only by lords, but it could also be used by the bourgeois and by people who moved, so people who traveled, precisely because it is easy to bring it back. And in fact, in the first 33, we see the various figures of the fighters that illustrate the art of the boccoliere and there are brothers, monks, who fight each other. And even, a little curiosity, there is also a woman that we recognize by the flowing hair and who goes under the name of Valpurgis, Saint Valpurga. So this is a little curiosity of the first 33. Then there are other treatises, so between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance, they were written by great masters of weapons, and the most important to which we refer was written by a master of Friulian weapons, Fiore dei Liberi da Cividale, who wrote the Flos Duellatorum, or Battle Flower, and it is one of the greatest treatises of the late Middle Ages in Europe. So we follow this book in particular. Now you can see a sample of the boccoliere sword by our two warriors. To you, gentlemen. Thanks to our warriors. I point out that they are not dressed the same because in the late medieval period there was no concept of division, so everyone dressed and armed according to their personal wealth. So there were the great gentlemen who could afford armor and the warriors, on the other hand, less rich, who could afford lower-grade protection. What you see are just two armor, plate armor, which, as you can see, effectively protect almost the whole body. The only parts a little more exposed are the joints, so the armpits, for example, which can be hit, or the ankles or the neck. In fact, many decisive blows in duels were inflicted on the neck and on the armpits. We also debunk the myth of very heavy armor. Why? Because they are really the result of a great... Here, you see, our warrior can be thrown on the ground and can be lifted. They are armor that are the result of a great craftsmanship, so they were made in a way to be comfortable to wear, quite light and resistant. So much so that the warriors, to demonstrate their... let's say... their ability and agility, often did also gynecic exercises in armor. They did evolutions. They could climb on horseback easily, so the idea that there was an organ to put the knight on horseback is a false story. And there are even cases in which, precisely to demonstrate their ability and agility, they danced in armor. No, the warrior says no. We see them fight with two swords, which you see are longer than the previous ones. Their grip is also longer because it is used with two hands, so it can be used with both armed hands. As you have seen before, it is possible to take the blade with one of the hands and use the sword in hooks and pointed games to try to penetrate the opponent's armor. Here, for example. Now we can leave the word, or rather the weapons to our warriors. Here, we thank our armored fighters. As you can see, the armor has a particularly effective protection and instead fighting with only the armor that you see on display, so fighting without armor but only with the armor, was considered a very dangerous thing. Maestro Fiore tells us in his teachings that he was challenged out of envy by other masters of weapons. And he tells us, five times, for my honor, but it was convenient for me so I had to play with weapons, only with the armor, so only with the armor, without relatives, without friends, not having hope in others, if not in God, in the art of the screen, in myself, Fiore, and in my sword. So imagine the danger of fighting without protection. Returning to the previous speech, the fact that the gentlemen could move, dance, etc., carrying weapons was told to us by another episode, in which we are in a big ballroom, in the house of a Venetian family, a man pushes another man, and all the men present swing their swords, so even at the party armed men intervened. And everything would have been resolved in carnage if a lady had not intervened, her name was Malipiero, and she sat in the middle of the room, among all the armed men, and basically said, gentlemen, either you calm down, or we ladies, we take and leave you alone. And so everyone put their swords back. Now we will see other techniques, always treated as a screen, like the Flos Duellatorum, in which different weapons are taught. So we don't have only the sword with one hand and a half or two hands, we also have the use, for example, of short weapons like the dagger, but we have the use of spears. Why is this? Because every gentleman, therefore every warrior who respected himself, had to be able to fight with numerous weapons, so much so that duels were often made with different weapons, one after the other. Before another demonstration, however, we will show you how a knight of the time, therefore of the late Middle Ages, used to dress, therefore the clothing of the warrior knight. You see that in the meantime our warrior wears an embroidered jacket, under everything, of which you see only the collar, which served to protect the body from the blows, therefore from the counter-blow. He also wears a coat of rings, which are useful in protecting the body from cuts. In fact, you know that even today those who work in a butchery often use gloves with the rings of the shirt. Then he has small protections for the shoulders, and he has protected legs, from the so-called herniated legs. And you see, these also have an articulated knee, so that our can easily move, which is, among other things, protected from a butterfly knot. Why is this? Because so he manages to protect a weak part, which is that of the knee, from blows, so he manages not only to break the knee, but maybe also to cut the ligaments. And now let's see the other pieces of the armor. Here we see a chest of weapons, so the part that protected the bust, therefore the most important part of the body. Of course, putting on an armor is not a matter of two seconds, like, oh boy, something is happening, wait for me to put on the armor and I'm coming out. There are even miniatures in which there is a sudden attack on a camp, and there are soldiers who are stabbed, while they are still getting in the zuparello, therefore the lining, and the coat of arms. Because, anyway, it's something that takes time, and in general, however, the lord, therefore the knight, had pages of the servants, of the guards, who helped him. Here, you see, this was tied up with belts. Now we have a small coat of arms protection, which is used for the throat, because, as I said before, some very dangerous and decisive blows hit the throat, and therefore they did their best to protect this part of the body as well. Then there will be the protection for the arms, and the protection for the head. You see, these are the protections for the arms, which have the equivalent of the knot with butterfly protection, but this time for the elbow. Here, the weight of the armor is distributed over the whole body, therefore it does not weigh only on the shoulders, or only on the sides, and this allows the warrior to move with agility. Of course, it is not breathable, and therefore, if you find yourself fighting in armor with heat, well, it is not really pleasant. In general, among other things, wars were fought in the middle seasons, especially in spring, when there was plenty of horses, not in winter, when there was no food for the troops or the horses, and not in summer, when it was dying of heat, even if the climate was not like the current one, it was a little bit cooler. Here, they are finishing to protect, yes, to tie the protections for the arms, and then the helmet and the protections for the hands will remain. This style of armor is typical of the late 300s and the early 400s. Then the armor will evolve over the centuries, until it disappears completely, because it will evolve together with the weapons. So, this type of armor was effective in protecting the body, both from the blows of the tip and from the cuts. Clearly, the jacket protected from the cuts, and, instead, the plates were very effective in protecting also from the tips. What you see is an helmet that has a vest, so this visor that is possible to raise, and that could be also taken off entirely, and it is protected up to the neck and the shoulders by a vest of mesh. So there are, you see that the protection is extremely effective, there are cases of duels that went on without a single scratch from the two opponents. Here, another myth to debunk is that the duels lasted hours, hours and hours. No! As much as the warriors were trained, the duels could last a few minutes, especially if one was able to immediately understand which blow to inflict to send the other down. Here, so now you have seen how a warrior of the late 300s and early 1800s is entering the scene with these two very strange weapons. These are axes that were used yes, they are covered, rightly, they were used in duels, and notice that they have an aspect for which, on the one hand, there is a kind of hammer head, so a hammer weapon, then there is a kind of pick, so a weapon that can be used just to break or to hook, and then there is a tip. Often the axes also had a metal tip that could be used. And now we will show you the game of the axe, so how it was fought using this weapon. Here, this other warrior, you see, has a slightly different protection, it is a brigantine, so this reinforced body externally coated with fabric, of which you see the edges. To you, gentlemen. Here, as you can see, the decisive action was a hook of the contender's leg. Now you see the axes covered for safety reasons, but the one that was the head was made of metal. We thank our warriors. And now you will have a taste of the game with the two-handed sword against the boccoliere sword, so two different weapons used with different techniques that, however, could be found against each other. So we have a warrior who has a sword that can stab with both hands but does not have a protection for the hands, while the other has a shorter sword but it is protected on the hand. To you, gentlemen. Here, this is a disarmament, so he grabbed the other's sword. Here, the swords were not sharp for all the blade, there was only the last third of the blade that was sharp, the so-called weak one. You see that these two warriors fought with their faces uncovered, so having an helmet or not having it had its pros and cons, in the sense that, once uncovered, I could receive blows in the face, but at least I could see well, while helmets often reduce the visual. And now we will show you a dagger encounter, so an encounter of a short weapon that could also be used not as a weapon, it is better to be covered anyway because it is a weapon that, if vibrated with force, can hit deeply the body, but being a short weapon, being a weapon also easy to hide, it could also be carried by people, normally, to defend themselves. Now I give up the microphone. Here, excuse me if now I will not explain with great details. As you have seen, it was a very dangerous short weapon because it was fast and could be wielded in two ways, so from above, vibrating blows of great power, but also from below, with very penetrating blows. However, Maestro Fiore also teaches to defend oneself from the dagger with bare hands, and you see, it was still effective. Now we will see another short weapon, called Falcione. You see, it is a weapon slightly curved, with a different balance from that of the sword, that is, it has the weight a little more concentrated towards the tip, and this gives the possibility to give more powerful blows, but at the same time it is a well-balanced weapon, so it gives the possibility to make a very fast attack, and also this dangerous one. Falcione was sharpened from one side only, and had a slightly thicker and was used with a particular technique that we will see now. To you, gentlemen. Here, as you can see, the duel was resolved with a disarmament. As you have noticed, it is a very fast weapon, and you have also noticed that the warriors kept their free hand behind their back. One, because they wanted to keep their left hand intact, and two, because if necessary, it could be pulled out to make so-called tight games, so, grips, to try to disarm the other or to give him a joint key, so to force his joints so as to immobilize him. These you see are not two colossal cotton-fioc, but two spears with the tip reduced to a globe, let's say, for safety reasons. The spears, in this case, are short spears. Normally they had a tip with a metal tip. I can show you one without the fabric protection. You see? And they also had a tip, so a wooden rod, a metal tip, and a metal tip, and they could be used both on foot and on horseback. Now we will have a taste of the use of the spear on foot. Your turn, gentlemen. Here, in this case, you have seen that the duel ended not only with a disarmament, but with a fight. We thank our warriors. This was the last duel we showed you. We hope you enjoyed our little journey on the screen of the Tardo Medioevo. If you want to visit our school in Madre and Udine, you can find La Compagnia del Magliepiero on Facebook, we have a website, and on our main social networks. And we say goodbye in our own way.