[Matthew R.]

Greetings everyone,

I am looking to get a custom project done and I wanted to add a little cusom made inlay on the pommel of the sword. This inlay would portray my family crest. However, I do want the sword to be historically accurate so I want it to be an Italian made sword that bears the crest of my Italian family. My family came from the region of Bergamo in the north of Italy, so a northern Italian design would even be more accurate. I am looking for a sword design anywhere between 1100-1500.

One of my favourite swords (and my original choice, before I became more historically minded) was albion's Duke. The main question is would I be safe in assuming that it was possible that a soldier could have used a type XIIIa sword in northern Italy during the middle ages? Or, should I go with a definative Italian design? I am sure that all types of swords could have been used all over Europe at some point, but just others were more popular and eventually lead to them being considered "Italian" or "German" but I could be wrong.

I have traced my family history back to 1450 thus far, but I would like a sword from an earlier period if possible. And if anyone has any information on the Aresmino family prior to 1450 please let me know! Thanks for the help.

Matthew Resmini

[Felix Wang]

Most medieval sword designs were widely used; and (as you doubtless know very well) northern Italy had considerable influence from the Germans. I see no reason why a XIIIa sword could not have been used in Bergamo in the 13th century.

Alas, I do not have my copy of "Records of the Medieval Sword" beside me, so I cannot point to any specifically Italian example of this sword type.

[Matthew R.]

I am thinking that book will be a smart investment as I want most of my swords to be replications of historical examples. I am going tog et one from my University's library very soon, so hopefully that will help.

[Craig Peters]

If you're looking for a sword that's distinctly "Italian", you'd probably have to select something from the 15th century. Prior to that, the swords in Italy were really not that different from any where else. I should mention that even the "Italian" swords that I refer to from the 15th century could be found elsewhere, but they're probably the most "Italian" swords in character. I'm thinking of some of the transitional swords with more complex hilts and the beginning of cut and thrust style weapons.

[Bruno Giordan]

On that period we were using typical european weapons, with a lot of trade going on with germanic territories: the Spadona in Brescia's Marzoli, it has a famous Albion reconstructted twin, has a german passau blade and a brescian hilt, but it could be vice versa for any of our weapons.

Berghem (Bergamo in standard italian) is middleway between Milan and Bressa (Brescia in modern italian).

The two town hosted a great deal of armouring and weapons firms, with a huge trade in being with the rest of Europe.

One month ago I went to see an important sword exhibition in Aosta, with many type X and type XII - XIIa weapons on exhibit: a tuscan weapon of the XII century featured a clearly late viking pommel....

Salücc