stiletto
| stiletto | |
|---|---|
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| Information | |
| Weapon type: | knife |
| Designations: | Stiletto, Misericordia, Giver of Grace, Bringer of Grace, God of Grace |
| Use: | military and civil weapon |
| Creation time: | circa 16th century |
| Working time: | until now |
| Region of origin / author: |
Italy |
| Distribution: | Europe |
| Handle: | Wood, metal, ivory |
| Particularities: | The blades are triangular or square |
| Lists on the subject | |
A stiletto (from the Latin stilus : metallic stylus, pen; also a stiletto from English, borrowed from Italian) is a stabbing weapon from the dagger family with a slim, very thin and pointed blade , usually with a triangular cross-section. In its country of origin, Italy , this weapon was also called "Misericordia" ( Latin for "Mercy"), in the German-speaking area "Gnadengeber", "Gnadenbringer" or "Gnadgott".
history
This popular stabbing weapon can be detected since the early 16th century . The purpose of the relatively narrow, but long and stable blade is to minimize any externally visible damage such as B. cause considerable blood flow, but probably considerable, possibly deadly internal damage. The stiletto makes it possible to kill more inconspicuously, which favors the perpetrator's escape.
The stiletto is a stabbing weapon of northern Italian origin that is related to the parrying daggers . The stiletto is slimmer and smaller than the conventional dagger , and its quillons are always straight and quite short. Its most striking feature, however, is its narrow, very stiff blade, which has a three or four-sided cross-section and is needle-sharp. The stiletto appeared in northern Italy at the beginning of the 16th century, its heyday around 1600, but went out of fashion again 50 years later. Considered insidious, the stiletto was banned by many city authorities. Its small dimensions, however, made it easy to hide the stiletto in clothing, so that the official prohibition usually came to nothing.
Its very stable and pointed, but by no means sharp, blade was ideally suited to penetrate chain mail and small gaps or gaps in a metal armor .
literature
- Heribert Seitz: Edged weapons. Volume II. Braunschweig 1968, pp. 187f
- Wendelin Boeheim: Handbook of the armory. Reprint of the Leipzig 1890 edition. Fourier Verlag, Wiesbaden 1985, ISBN 978-3-201-00257-8 . Online facsimile of the 1890 edition
