Mazzatello

[2][3] 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.

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.

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".

[3] Then, the mallet would be raised, swung through the air to gain momentum, and then brought down on the head of the prisoner, similar to a contemporary method of slaughtering cattle in stockyards.

A variation of this method appears in chapter 35 of Alexandre Dumas' novel The Count of Monte Cristo as la mazzolata and mazzolato, when a prisoner sentenced to execution is bludgeoned on the side of his head with a mace.

Giacomo Cenci was executed in Rome in 1599 for his involvement in the patricide of his father, Count Francesco Cenci. He was struck on the head with a mace ( mazzolatura ). Etching , ca. 1850.