The Sword of the People. Roberto Laura
very heavy and therefore not suitable for every feint. Marozzo’s position changes were the precursors of the feint, because they allowed one to pretend to be where they really were not.
In addition, one has to bear in mind that motion and time were interrelated in that era. Inspired by the teachings of Aristotle, it was concluded that time was the yardstick for measuring the movement between two moments of standstill. From the perspective of a Fencing Master of the Renaissance, or the early Baroque, advantageous actions could only be taken during the time required for the opponent to transition from one position to another. And precisely this Game of Offset, or misalignment, is still an essential feature of many Italian knife schools. Allow me to take a brief excursion into the work of Fencing Master Angelo Viaggiani, Lo Schermo, 1575, in which the “tempo”, on page 63, is described as follows:
“[…] Aluigi Conzaga (alias Rodomonte): I realize that the Count35 does not understand this well, but perhaps I'll politely explain that to him, saying: ‘Listen, Count, these philosophers have proven that a body is at a halt before it moves and (that it is) again at a halt after completing the movement; such that any movement, assuming it is a single one, lies between two standstills.’
Ludovico Boccadiferro Bolonese: ‘In the seventh and eighth (book) of his ‘Physics’, Aristotle has proven this36: You speak the truth, Rodomonte”’
But let us return to Marozzo:
In the end, Marozzo was also the first to discuss the theory of the circle. He describes (and he also depicts this in his work) an imaginary circle, with lines drawn through the circle in a star pattern as a geometric tool. At this point, allow me to quote the Master first personally37:
“[…] this is the sign on which you will make your disciples walk (from) step to step, (like so) forward and backward, with the weapons in their hands, around (and) around, placing their feet on those lines that cross the circle.”
Thus, Marozzo literally describes circular walking as “attorno, attorno”, which means “around (and) around”. Nowadays, in the North Apulian Knife School38, one still uses a similar expression “girando, girando” which means roughly “circling (and again) circling”. This document is very important! It shows that the circular walk, as it is still found today in almost all Italian knife schools, may be attributed to the Italian Fencing Masters of the Renaissance.
So, in fact, there might be a chain of thought that has been passed on since the thirties of the 16th century until the middle of the 19th century, the peak of folk knife schools in southern Italy.
Opera Nova by Marozzo, chapter 144, Walking the circle.
1.5.2 Camillo Agrippa
The first edition of the work of Fencing Master Camillo Agrippa, Trattato di Scientia d`Arma con un Dialogo di Filosofia di Camillo Agrippa Milanese, appeared in 1553 in Rome. Then two more editions appeared, both in Venice in the years 1568 and 1604. Agrippa was not only a Fencing Master, but he was also a philosopher, architect, and mathematician. Thus he taught fencing through the use of mathematical principles or by the geometric representation of points, lines, and sequences of movements. Agrippa was of the opinion that fencing could best be explained by the addition of imaginary points and point connections. This manner of looking based from a (focal) point was founded, as already described, in the art of the Renaissance (recall the Central Perspective). And you can still find it today in some folk knife schools in Sicily39, where the idea of pinpoint thrusting remains the focus of the training.
Agrippa – Study of reach in case of a thrust with a lunge.
Agrippa was thus the first to realize that the thrust, compared to the slash, had advantages geometrically. He saw that the point-to-point connection is more direct, and thus faster, than the arc that results when you execute a cut. Therefore points, lines, speed, and scale were more important to him than many techniques. He also focused on the advantage of being ahead of the opponent in time.
Thus, he wrote in the first part of his treatise, one should avoid the withdrawal of the arm before the thrust. This would otherwise lead to two disadvantages: first, a loss of time (perdita del tempo) and secondly, it would be easier for the opponent to carry out a counterattack40. Agrippa made fencing quicker, which affected the sword itself, becoming more and more a rapier.
By classifying all guards into a mere four hand positions, he impressed Italian fencing with its label of simplicity. Hand positions are the way the hand holds the weapon to provide an optimum of potential threat, protection and transfer of power, depending on necessity. Up to the introduction of the electronic scoring system this was also the basic methodology of Olympic fencing. In the southern Italian knife schools, this foundation still exists today.
Agrippa – four fist/hand positions including the corresponding guards.
By depicting naked fencers41, which incidentally, was also a piece of artistic novelty for a fencing book, Agrippa was able to present the length of the lunge in better relation to the range achieved by it. Consequently this led to the increasing importance of the lunge.
1.5.3 Nicoletto Giganti
The work of Fencing Master Nicoletto Giganti first appeared in 1606. A second edition appeared in 1608, and a third in 1628. Six years earlier, in 1622, a German translation of the first edition appeared in Frankfurt. The fencers depicted were also naked in the tradition of Agrippa, whereby the artistic rendering in Giganti was already informed by Mannerism. Later, in Capo Ferro’s work, one could admire, in my view, the most expressive copperplate engravings of Mannerism.
Like Agrippa, Giganti was primarily concerned with the scientific approach to fencing. Points, lines, and numbers were also the main focus of his attention. He was also of the opinion that you should straighten out the arm for a lunge in tempo before lunging42. Giganti was the first in fencing to deal in detail with basic postures, posture, and their counterparts, the controposture. Even here, parallels to the Italian knife and stick schools are evident, which, in addition to the figures for the circular walk, also have so-called fencing positions and counter-positions43.
Another similarity between Giganti’s fencing school and certain branches of Italian folk knife fencing are Giganti’s so-called volte, rotations. These are body-movements, which, depending on the knife school, can be called quartiature or just as equally volture44.
Giganti – the volta
Furthermore, he emphasized recovery from the target zone back into wide measure immediately following the completed thrust. This tactic is followed by almost all Southern Italian knife schools up to the present day. He also taught the cross step (especially when using a second weapon, such as a left-hand dagger), a technique that is also still present in the knife and stick traditions of the south, where it is sometimes called forbice (scissors) or sforbiciata (shearing).
Giganti’s school was also rich in feinting and evasive thrusts, which he, together with the thrust in the opponent’s tempo, always preferred to parries. It was Giganti who almost completely replaced the cut with the thrust.
1.5.4 Salvator Fabris
The Fencing Master from Padua, Salvator Fabris was among the students of the aforementioned Masters Marozzo and Giganti. As a Fencing Master at the court of King Christian IV, his masterpiece on rapier fencing, Lo Schermo overo Scienza d'Arme was published in Copenhagen in the year 1606. In the end, he did not contribute any great innovations to fencing, but he was the one who, through his