Quote:
Originally Posted by drac2k
I'm not so certain that isn't within the realm of possibilities, given the extensive reach of the powerful navies of Genoa & Venice in the Middle Ages; a trade blade so valued that it was copied does not seem improbable.
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Well, I don't think so ... first of all, the beidana was a weapon (like almost all "poor" weapons) derived from a work tool, a billhook, simply by forging the much longer blade, but always of scarce blades quality it was, and then the valleys in which the Waldensian Protestants had taken refuge to avoid the persecutions of the Counter-Reformation were hardly accessible places, certainly not open to trade over long distances.