[Andy Leach]

can someone please direct me towards or provide me with a picture of a Braquemard or Malchus?

image searches have produced........... poor results....... as this is also apparently a slang term.

[Martin Fischer]

Hi Andy,

here's a Malchus from the Nationalmuseum Nürnberg. You can find a lot of these weapons on contemporary pictures of the 15th century - try this:

http://www.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/realonline/

Regards

Martin

[GG Osborne]

Observation: Interesting term "Malchus." Haven't heard that before. Wonder if it is named based on reference to the Malchus who is described in the Gospels as a servant of the High Priest? His ear was cut-off by the Apostle Peter in the Gospels.

[Martin Fischer]

Hi GG,

yes, it is - on contemporary pictures you can often see Petrus cut of Malchus' ear with this kind of weapon.

Regards

Martin

[Andy Leach]

i take it that the Wiki definition of it being a short broad strait double edge are incorrect then? or is the Braquemard functionally different?

[Peter Johnsson]

In german "Malchus" is used as a synonym for "Falchion".
Interestingly, the apostle Peter is often shown using a messer like weapon in the paintings of the scene in the garden of Gethsemane. Again we see how the boundary between messer and falchion can be rather flexible at times.

I think this is an old use of the word, not a modern collector term.
I may be wrong. Perhaps some german speaking members can fill us in?

[Martin Erben]

The term "Malchus" can be either used to describe a Messer or a Falchion in Germany.
I'm kind of surprised that this term is so unknown elsewhere than in Germany, because I always described a Falchion as a "Malchus" when I talked about it to german collectors, so I always thought that it was common....
But it's right, if I think about it, I've never read this term on english pages.

[Martin Fischer]

[Peter Johnsson]

Thanks Martin,

I had got the imprerssion that Malchus was an old name for the category.
Knowing it is a pretty recent term makes it a less significant one: a matter of modern collector/curator terminology in the german cultural sphere, rather than something that tells us things about the original cultural history of the weapon.
Good to now :-)

Since the name has biblical connotations, it seems logical that the name was picked during a time period when bible studies were more important (or at least more common) than today. A 19th C name?

[Gottfried P. Doerler]

the only source i could find about this, is L. & F. Funcken ( i do not know, how accurat they are, they often cite "oldtimers" as demmin and viollet-le-duc).
according to them a "malchus" is german for "baudelaire/bazelaire/basilaire" and could also be termed "sarrass",
a short, lightly curved saber
whereas a "braquemard" is described as largely the same, but with straight blade.

[Stephane Rabier]

Hi,
interesting to see what "braquemard" meant. In modern French language (slang as Andy noted) it means something quite different

[Martin Fischer]

[Peter Johnsson]

Martin, thanks for going back to text sources.

Inspired by you I looked myself in Heribert Seitz "Blankwaffen": he talks about the "Malchius-Falchion-Storta" group of weapons (and Seitz is here talking about the sword hilted weapon, not those blades of similar shape hilted as knives = messers).
(This was where I had my impression the name was of original use: I am sorry about being inexact and vague)

Heribert Seitz further tells that the naming of these weapons were in no way uniform during the medieval period, but varied between language regions.
In France weapons of this type (shortish, single edged blades of falchion form) were known as Badelaire, Baudelair, Bazelair and Braquemart, but also Fauchon.

The word "Fauchon" was used in England in the early 14th C and later developed into Falchion.

In Italy the type was known as Storta (or Stortina if it was of smaller size).

Seitz concludes the chapter on Falchions that in principle some larger "Messer" type weapons can be included in the group.

So perhaps we may draw the conclusion that "Malchus" was a word describing single edged, more or less curved weapons that could be hilted as knives or swords. The use of this word to describe the type has to do with popular depictions in art of the scene where Christ is captured in the garden of Gethsemane. That one name covered what we today recognize as two different types (sword hilted vs knife hilted) did not bother medieval people. It could be both the same thing and different: pretty normal procedure in the medieval world.

That later authors and historians give conflicting descriptions/definitions of what a Malchus or Braquemart looks like is not so strange as the design of these weapons also tended to vary between different areas. Especially Messer/Coltellaccio/Rugger/Ryting/Bauerwehr is an extremely varied group that mostly defies detailed, complete and uniform definitions.

[Martin Fischer]

Yes, Peter - I totally agree with you.

[Mark Jackson]

Had the same problem, couldn't find ANY pictures or illustrations of one anywhere...these are from an old fencing manual.

[Jean Thibodeau]

Interesting how the bottom one looks like a cinquedea with a slightly narrower blade that most ?

None of the above look like single bladed messers, dussac or falchion but probably the messer fighting style(s) would be applicable to any large dagger/short sword when the blade is at least 15" long to maybe the 20" to 24" range ?

[M. Hayes]

This link (http://pendant.forumotion.net/manual-research-f13/la-noble-science-des-joueurs-despee-french-longsword-t81.htm) might be of some interest. it's a discussion of a french version of a German fight-book. In it the messer/dusack is called a "braquemard" .

[Mark Jackson]

@Jean: My understanding is the Braquemar(d) is a double-edged weapon...?

[Jean Thibodeau]