From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The sette spade Diagram from the Pisani facsimile of the Flos Duellatorum (fol. 17A). The four animals symbolize prudence (lynx), celerity (tiger), audacity (lion), and fortitude (elephant).

The term Italian school of swordsmanship is used to describe the Italian style of fencing and edged-weapon combat from the time of the first extant Italian swordsmanship treatise (1409) to the days of Classical Fencing (up to 1900). Although the weapons and the reason for their use changed dramatically throughout these five centuries, a few fundamental traits have remained constant in the Italian school. Some of these are the preference for certain guards, the preoccupation with time (or "tempo") in fencing as well as many of the defensive actions.

The earliest known Italian treatise on swordsmanship and other martial arts is the Flos Duellatorum written by Fiore dei Liberi around 1409. Fiore's treatise describes an advance martial arts system of grappling, dagger, short sword, longsword, pollaxe, and spear. Another important treatise, De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi, was written by Filippo Vadi sometime between 1482 and 1487. Although different, Vadi's work appears to be based upon Fiore's earlier work.

The 16th century saw the publication of various works generally focused on the so-called cut & thrust sword, although these works often contained significant instruction on other weapons. A general survey of the 16th century Italian manuals shows instruction for the following weapon or weapon combinations in at least one published manual:

• Sword alone
• Sword and Dagger
• Sword and Small Buckler
• Sword and Broad Buckler
• Sword and Targa
• Sword and Rotella
• Sword and Cape
• Sword and Gauntlet
• Two Swords
• Sword for Two Hands (also referred to as the Spadone by some masters)
• Dagger
• Dagger and Cape
• Halberd
• Spetum
• Ronca
• Partisan
• Partisan and Shield
• Lance
• Pike
• Unarmed against Dagger

The most significant group of authors from this time were those from the Bolognese school and it included such masters as Achille Marozzo, Antonio Manciolino, Angelo Viggiani and Giovanni dall'Agocchie. However, there were other Italian authors not directly associated with the Bolognese school including Camillo Agrippa (who has the distinction of codifying the four guards (prima, seconda, terza and quarta) that survive to this day), Giacomo di Grassi who wrote a manual in 1570 which was translated into English in the 1590s.

With the 17th century came the popularity of the rapier and a new century of masters, including Salvator Fabris, Ridolfo Capo Ferro, and Francesco Antonio Marcelli. Unlike the manuals of the previous century, those written for in the 17th century were generally restricted to covering only the rapier being used alone or with a companion arm (such as the dagger, cloak or rotella). By the end of the 17th century, the manuals begin to take on a more classical character in both the terminology and the presentation of the techniques.

Although there is a considerable gap in extant Italian treatises, between 1696 and 1800, we can see from the earliest 19th Century treatises that the style had changed very little during that period. The only changes were the addition of certain techniques suitable for the somewhat lighter blades of the dueling swords typically used in 1800 as compared to the rapiers typical for the end of the 1600s (compare the techniques presented by Bondi' di Mazo in his 1696 manual with those in the 1803 manual of Giuseppe Rosaroll-Scorza and Pietro Grisetti). Even at the beginning of 19th century techniques for coming to grips were still being taught and the use of the dagger as an accompanying weapon was still discussed (although not as a prominent and popular choice).

By the end of the 19th century, the immediate ancestor of modern fencing had developed with its familiar pedagogy and collection of techniques and theory. At this time, the two predominant schools within the Italian tradition are the Radaellian (after Maestro G. Radaelli) and the Neapolitan. In 1883 the Italian Ministry of War selects the treatise by Neapolitan Masaniello Parise to be the official syllabus of the newly-founded Scuola Magistrale of fencing; now called Classical Italian Fencing, Parise's teachings survive to this day almost unchanged, although many of Radaelli's saber teachings were incorporated.

Today, the Italian school of swordsmanship is carefully preserved both in Italy and abroad. In Italy, official fencing schools such as the National Academy (Accademia Nazionale) certify masters in both historical fencing and modern fencing based on careful adherence to the principles of Italian swordsmanship. Abroad, the Italian style is cultivated by professional institutions such as the San Jose State fencing program (California, USA), where Maestro William Gaugler runs a program largely based on the Classical style of Parise.

The Historical European martial arts and the Western Martial Arts communities in Europe and the United States have a large number of researchers reconstructing the grappling, dagger, rapier, short sword, sword & buckler, longsword, pollaxe, and spear systems of ancient masters, such as that of Fiore dei Liberi, Filippo Vadi, Achille Marozzo, Salvator Fabris, Ridolfo Capo Ferro, etc. The reconstruction efforts of these scholars give the martial arts community a chance to learn fencing with full-size, full-weight weapons such as the longsword, the single-handed sword, the spadone, the rapier and many others.

Some treatises by Italian masters:

Medieval/Early Renaissance

• Fiore dei Liberi, Flos Duellatorum in armis, sine armis, equester et pedester - 1409
• Filippo Vadi, De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi - 1482-1487
• Pietro Monte, Exercitiorum Atque Artis Militaris Collectanea in Tris Libros Distincta - 1509

Dardi school

• Antonio Manciolino, Opera Nova per Imparare a Combattere, & Schermire d'ogni sorte Armi - 1531
• Achille Marozzo, Opera Nova Chiamata Duello, O Vero Fiore dell'Armi de Singulari Abattimenti Offensivi, & Diffensivi - 1536
• Anonimo Bolognese, L'Arte della Spada (M-345/M-346 Manuscripts) - (early or mid 1500s^[1])
• Giovanni dall'Agocchie, Dell'Arte di Scrimia - 1572
• Angelo Viggiani dal Montone, Trattato dello Schermo - 1575

Renaissance/Baroque

• Camillo Agrippa, Trattato di Scientia d'Arme con un Dialogo di Filosofia - 1553
• Giacomo di Grassi, Ragion di Adoprar Sicuramente l'Arme si da Offesa, come da Difesa - 1570
• Marco Docciolini, Trattato in Materia di Scherma - 1601
• Salvator Fabris, De lo Schermo ovvero Scienza d'Armi - 1606
• Nicoletto Giganti, Scola overo Teatro - 1606
• Ridolfo Capo Ferro, Gran Simulacro dell'Arte e dell'Uso della Scherma - 1610
• Francesco Alfieri, La Scherma di Francesco Alfieri - 1640
• Giuseppe Morsicato Pallavicini, La Scherma Illustrata - 1670
• Francesco Antonio Marcelli, Regole della Scherma - 1686
• Bondi' di Mazo, La Spada Maestra - 1696

Classical

• Giuseppe Rosaroll-Scorza and Pietro Grisetti, La Scienza della Scherma - 1803 - 1871 3rd ed.
• Giuseppe Radaelli, La Scherma di Sciabola e di Spada - 1876
• Masaniello Parise, Trattato della Scherma di Spada e Sciabola - 1883 1st ed. - 1904 5th ed.
• Masiello, Ferdinando, Trato teorico-pratico della scherma di spada e sciabola - 1884
• ------------------------- and Ciullini The Broadsword - 1889
• ------------------------- La Scherma di Fioretto. 2nd ed. - 1902
• ------------------------- La Scherma di Sciabola. 3rd ed. - 1902
• Pecoraro, Salvatoree Pessina, Carlo. La Sciabola - 1910

1. ^ Rubboli and Cesari (2005) date this work to 1500-1525. Leoni and Reich of the Order of the Seven Hearts date it to "about 1550" (2006 class handout)[1]

• Luca Porzio and Gregory Mele, Arte Gladitoria: 15th Century Swordsmanship of Master Filippo Vadi, ISBN 1-891448-16-1 (2002)
• Tommaso Leoni, The Art of Dueling: Salvator Fabris' Fencing Treatise of 1606, ISBN 978-1-981448-23-2 (2005)
• Guy Windsor, The Swordsman's Companion: A Modern Training Manual for Medieval Longsword, ISBN 1-891448-41-2 (2004)
• M. Rubboli, L. Cesari (eds.), Anonimo Bolognese - L'Arte della Spada, Trattato di scherma dell'inizio del XVI secolo, Il Cerchio (2005).

• German school of swordsmanship
• Historical fencing

• Bolognese Swordsmanship
• Bolognese Swordsmanship: The Dardi School
• Fiore Dei Liberi: 14th century Master of Defence

• Academie Duello
• The Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts (AEMMA)
• The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts (ARMA)
• The Chicago Swordplay Guild
• The Exiles Fiore dei Liberi translations and training
• Federazione Italiana Scherma Antica e Storica - Italian Historical Fencing Federation
• Fencing Masters' Certificate Program, Sonoma State University
• Nova Scrimia - Italian Martial Arts
• The Order of the Seven Hearts - A resource-rich page for Italian sword arts
• Sala d'Arme Achille Marozzo - Ancient Fencing Art Italian Institute
• Schola Gladiatoria
• Schola Saint George
• The School of European Swordsmanship - Guy Windsor's Website and Academy of Swordsmanship in Helsinki, Finland
• Scrima Torino
• St. Martin's Academy of Medieval Arms