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Giuseppe Colombani is known as l'Alfier lombardo (the Pride of Lombardy. It's unrelated to Francesco Alfieri - the Italian word l'Alfier(e) means "the standard bearer".) He wrote a treatise on martial arts, published in 1711. It is the latest known treatise discussing the spadone, or longsword, before the revivalist movememnts of historical fencing in the 20th century.

Aston Hall is a Jacobean-style mansion in Aston, Birmingham, England, completed in 1635.

The house was severely damaged after an attack by Parliamentary troops in 1643; some of the damage is still evident. The house was built for Sir Thomas Holte and remained in the family until 1817 when it was leased by James Watt Jr, son of the world-famous industrial pioneer James Watt. The house was then purchased by the Birmingham Corporation in 1864.

It was also visited by Washington Irving, who wrote about it as Bracebridge Hall, taking the name from Abraham Bracebridge, husband of the last member of the Holte family to live there.

The house is now a museum, managed by Birmingham City Council, and is open to the public. It boasts a series of period rooms which have furniture, paintings, textiles and metalwork from the collections of the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Every two years the house hosts a Christmas celebration called "Aston Hall by Candlelight", in which actors help bring the period setting alive with mock 17th-century festivities, and the house is lit up by 500 candles.

The grounds are now bisected by the A38(M) motorway, also known as the Aston Expressway.

External links

• Birmingham City Council information