Vizcaina

[Jib]

Ever seen a Vizcaina?

[William Brand]

Are we talking about the blade, the dried cod recipe or the last ship of Columbus?

[Jib]

Yes the Spanish weapon. I think it is from Biscayne (spelling?)???

[John Maddox Roberts]

I asked the same question of the Spanish members of Sword Forum International after reading about it in the novel "Captain Alatriste." The narrator speaks of it as being regarded as an especially deadly weapon. The consensus was that the word just means "from Biscay." Any dagger from that region would have been called Vizcaina. The author was probably indulging in a bit of dramatizing, much as many historical authors write of the American Bowie knife as exceedingly deadly, when in fact it had no qualities or design features that hadn't been common in European knives for centuries.

[Guest]

OK... I can't remember what this knife was called, and I can't remember where I found the picture..... all I know is it is a Buccaneer Period (1640-1670 ish) Spanish Knife......

Yeah... I should take better notes when I find pictures and stuff.......

[John Maddox Roberts]

In Peterson's "Daggers and Fighting Knives of the Western World" that design is called a "Mediterranean Dirk." In early America it would have been called a "Spanish dirk." A very similar knife called a punal (tilda over the n) is still carried by Argentine Gauchos. I had one made for an early 19th century impression, only with the addition of an s-curved guard.

[Jib]

John was correct I did encounter the mention of the blade in the novel Captain Alatriste! I also have a DVD of the movie of the same name featuring Viggo Mortensen which shows a very odd looking knife. To describe the knife from the movie I would say it is short, wide and triangular at the tip, and ugly. The good Captain does some very nasty things with that ugly little blade...

[John Maddox Roberts]

Jib,

If you'll recall, in the book Alatriste carries a "slaughtering-knife" in his boot. That's the knife you saw (I haven't seen the movie but I saw a still showing that blade.) Years ago I saw a film of a Spanish bullfight. After the matador had downed the bull, a fat little guy in overalls came out and cut its throat with a knife just like that one, with a swelling, dart-shaped tip. He stabbed it in the jugular and yanked the blade upward and out. I figured back then that he was a slaughterhouse-worker and the knife was a Spanish sticking-knife, like that used in American slaughterhouses but more heavily made.

[Jib]

John you are correct! He seems to use that knife a lot in the movie!

[Elena]

Vizcaina was the name of the left-hand daggers made in Biscaya Gulf (i.e. in Navarra and Basque country). They were as famous as Toledo was for swords and other type of daggers.

But they have also other, more specific names which your Spanish friends might be more likely to know: daga de ganchos or daga de vela (because of their hilt in the shape of a sail). It was a good left-hand dagger which was specially made so that it could grab a sword (if you knew the moves how to catchthe sword there) and let the adversary disarmed.

This is the vizcaina my mercenary wears: