[Ansteorra] Rapier question

[Coblaith Muimnech]

Ld. Albin Oil de Larrun wrote:
> . . .does anyone know when the medieval sword changed into the  
> rapier? And what the early rapiers may have looked like?

Don Tivar's website says, "The rapier developed in the mid-fifteenth  
century, as an ornamental civilian sidearm that was commonly worn by  
the upper and middle classes," and offers cites <http:// 
moondragon.info/wiki/ 
Rapier_Combat_and_the_Society_for_Creative_Anachronism>.

You can see illustrations from Marozzo's 1517 _Il Duello_ at <http:// 
jan.ucc.nau.edu/~wew/fencing/marozzo/marozzo_illus.html> and from   
_DiGrassi, His True Arte of Defence_ (an English translation,  
published in 1594, of Giacomo di Grassi's 1570 _Ragione di adoprar  
sicuramente l'Arme, si da offesa come da difesa_) at <http:// 
www.cs.unc.edu/~hudson/digrassi/>.


Coblaith Muimnech
<mailto:Coblaith at sbcglobal.net>
<http://coblaith.net>