Dagger - centovente or fusseto

Due to its misuse, the Venetian Republic put a ban on the use of the dagger in the first half of the 17th century. Thereafter daggers were frequently “masked” as army weapons, with calibrators thus making them into an auxiliary measuring tool of the artillery.

This special type of dagger (stiletto) for measuring a cannon’s caliber was known as centovente or fusseto, because numbers from 1 to 120 were engraved on the edge of their blades. These daggers were carried by town cannoneers, members of artillery troops and brotherhoods (Scuola di Bombardieri, Compagnia di Bombardieri), consisting mainly of volunteers.