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Toni Leivonen
Location: Finland Joined: 20 Jul 2014
Posts: 16
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 Posted: Thu 18 Jul, 2019 3:07 am Post subject: Different great/two-handed swords? |
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In short, are there any common differences between the greatswords from spain, italy and germanic areas? Anything that we could say is common in the weapons from that region? What seperates a zweihänder from a montante from a spadone?
I'm guessing there's propably differences within regions as well, from different times, how the blades have evolved?
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Neil Melville
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| Posted: Fri 19 Jul, 2019 4:51 am Post subject: |
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Yes there are considerable differences in size, style, elaboration etc in both blade and hilt, between countries and regions and even within a region, e.g. Scandinavia. I devote a whole chapter to this subject in my recent book 'The Two-handed Sword, History, Design and Use', published by Pen and Sword in England, but available in Sweden at least, and on Amazon. 230 pages and over 100 illustrations. I hope you can find a copy.
Neil
N Melville
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Pedro Paulo Gaião
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| Posted: Mon 22 Jul, 2019 3:31 pm Post subject: Re: Different great/two-handed swords? |
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| Toni Leivonen wrote: | In short, are there any common differences between the greatswords from spain, italy and germanic areas? Anything that we could say is common in the weapons from that region? What seperates a zweihänder from a montante from a spadone?
I'm guessing there's propably differences within regions as well, from different times, how the blades have evolved? |
There are, I'm no specialist myself, but Montantes era more intended for using the point while Zweihanders have this deal of swinging it and so.
There is a theory that such Two Handers evolved from Spanish Peninsula and them came to Italy and there to the actual continent. Considering Paul Dolstein's drawings of Landknecht in 1504-6's as a safe referential for contemporary equipment, such swords weren't in their arsenal yet (though Maximilian's xylographies shows fully armoured knights with Zweihanders). The Swiss were using the Two Handers long before the Germans, as a 1470 or 1480's Bernese Chronicle shows: officers carrying them as their weapon while some pikemen and halbediers had them as their side-weapon (rested in the belt, like a normal sword). The Swiss latter passed laws banning it latter, but by the time of the Zwinglian Reformation it was again in use (at least by some cantons).
“Burn old wood, read old books, drink old wines, have old friends.”
Alfonso X, King of Castile (1221-84)
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