Mazzatello

The Mazzatello (abbreviated mazza), more properly mazzolatura ('to strike or bludgeon with a mace'), is an Italian term that refers to a method of capital punishment involving the use of a mace, mallet, or club-like weapon to inflict head trauma. It was historically used in Italy, particularly by the Papal States, for executing individuals convicted of particularly odious crimes. The method was named after the implement used in the execution: a large, long-handled mace, mallet, or pollaxe, which is a heavy, blunt weapon or tool used for striking or bludgeoning. The term mazzolatura comes from mazza, which means mace, mallet, club, or sledgehammer in Italian. A stone base was often used on which the executioner forced the criminal to place their head; traces of it can be found in some squares of Italian cities, including Modena. It was abolished in Italy during the Napoleonic era but was later reinstated in some states, notably in the Papal States. Giovanni Battista Bugatti (known as Mastro Titta), the famous executioner of the papal government, recalls in his memoirs that he used the "mazzolato" on numerous condemned persons. The last reported use of this form of punishment was in September 1806; the much more common capital punishments inflicted by the Papal States were hanging or beheading. According to author Geoffrey Abbott, mazzatello constituted "one of the most brutal methods of execution ever devised, requiring minimal skill on the part of the executioner and superhuman acquiescence by the victim". Megivern cites mazzatello as one example of an execution method devised by the Papal States that "competed with and in some instances surpassed those of other regimes for cruelty". The condemned would be led to an execution scaffold site in a public square of Rome, accompanied by a priest (the confessor of the condemned); the platform...