and a quote from "European Weapons And Armour" by Ewart Oakeshott:
"There is in the Odescalci Collection in Rome a most interesting mace of aberrant form, like a rather graceful club forged in steel with a little finial at its head shaped as a truncated cone reversed, and a small spherical button at the end of the narrow, shaped grip, illustrated in figure 13. This is a rare example of such a mace, though several are to be seen in Italian paintings of the fourteenth century-notably a fresco by Giotto in the Cappella della Scrovegni, Padua (c. 1303-1305), and a predella by Giovanni di Bartolomeo Christiani (c. 1367-1393) in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. It seems to have been a type of weapon confined to Italy, used probably only during the fourteenth century, since no representations of it exist later than Christiani's predella."
and a catalog entry from the Odescalchi Collection in Rome:
Which translates to:
39./40
Arms Mace, c. 1300-1350
Rome, OD 669
Rod handle, with a spheroid pommell and body long and tight, formed by four flanges crossed, lightly recurved and flared to the point, where it is closed by a trunccated square pyramid, peened over.
(750 x 55; 1430)
The mace is very similar to that illustrated in fig. 38 and to the mace gripped by "The Fortitude" painted by Giotto in the Scrovegni's Chapel of Padova ca. 1303-1305, where this virtue defend herself behind a high pavaise. A similar mace, but more complicated, is that in the third plank of the "The Death of Saint Sebastian", painted in the 1367 by Nicoletto Semitcolo in Pavia's cathedral (a)."
and finally, here's the above-mentioned Fortitude and her piece of fence post:
So there you have it. A bit strange, but quite correct (except for the small end piece of the first original pictured above), and a jolly good whacking stick of Fortitude. I've had folks ask me if medieval maces could easily crush helmets and destroy cinder blocks and pulverize Volkswagons (I get some strange letters sometimes) - this ridiculously strong and solid mace will.
(TherionArms does not advocate crushing helmets and destroying cinder blocks and pulverising Volkswagons, only the potential to do so. Except maybe the mid-2000's re-issue lime green Volkswagons. Those should definitely be pulverized with maces.)
