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 Altarpiece of the Halberd The Altarpiece of the Halberd is a painting from around 1539 by the Italian High Renaissance painter Lorenzo Lotto. It is housed in the Pinacoteca civica Francesco Podesti of Ancona, central Italy. The work was seen by the art biographer Giorgio Vasari in the church of Sant'Agostino in Ancona, where Lotto had fled in reply to the hostility received in Venice. It was later moved to the church of Santa Maria della Piazza and, after other locations, the current one. The painting dates to a few years after the coup by which Ancona had been restored