Society for Creative Anachronism activities century) fencing manuals. Archery activities in the SCA include both target archery and combat archery, using equipment modified for safety in conjunction with armoured combat during melee scenarios. Armoured Combat (sometimes referred to as "Heavy Combat", "Heavy List", or "Heavy Fighting") using weapons fashioned to generally approximate the sword-and-shield, greatsword, spear, glaive and halberd of the High Middle Ages. Fencing or Rapier Combat, generally approximating the lightly armored "swashbuckling" of the 15th century and the 16th century, emphasizing the rapier over cutting swords. Many members of the Society study and practice period manuals from the salons of Western Europe whose
Altarpiece of the Halberd to the Papal States. The resistance had been brutally suppressed, many of the rebels having been beheaded by order of the papal legate. The upside-down halberd has been thus interpreted as a symbol of peace. The monumental composition is taken directly from the tradition of Holy Conversations in the Venetian School, inaugurated by Antonello da Messina's San Cassiano Altarpiece. It shows the Madonna and Child on a high throne, with two angels holding the crown (a 15th-century Flemish painting element also in use in Italy). In the lower part are four saints: Stephen, John the Evangelist, Simon the Zealot and