Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1 - The weapon
Marozzo's "spada da filo" (litterally "edge sword") is a transition weapon that lies between the one-handed sword (XIV-XV C..) with a large blade which was used primarily for cutting and the rapier (XVI-XVII C..) with a long and narrow blade that was used primarily for thrusting. The weapon described in the Opera Nova is composed of the blade, hilt, handle and pommel (lama, elsa, manico, pomolo) and its weight is about 1 Kg, with a balance point on the blade at about four fingers from the hilt. This style of sword is a very manageable weapon that allows one to easily execute all the sequences of actions proposed in the "abbattimenti" (bouts). The blade, straight and double-edged, based on the proportions taken from the pictures, is long (about half the height of the fencer, from the tip to the tallone (the tallone it's the line between the tang (codolo) and the blade). At the ricasso the blade is wide at about 3 cm. There are not any standard dimensions as the weapons were handcrafted and fit to each fencer.
The blade has three parts or "gradi": the forte (strong), from the tallone to the first third, the medio (middle) the central third, and the debole (weak) the last third until the point and the only part of the blade really sharpened. The forte is used to parry, the medio to engage and the debole to hit. The blade has ttwo edges (fili): the dritto (litterally "right", but in english it's used the term "true") and the falso (false): Giovanni Dall'Agocchie explains this difference Everytime you'll handle the sword, or in the right or in the left hand, the edge that will be in corrispondence of the articulations of the fingers will be the filo dritto and the other will be the filo falso. The hilt is a steel bar, approximately 15-20 cm long, with a hole in the center and more than protect the hand. This gives to the sword the form of a cross and makes of it a mystic symbol, as a remembrance of the armed defence of the christian's ideals. The handle is normally wood, sometimes covered in leather or iron wire and is about 10 cm long. The pommel is a weight put at the end of the handle and is used to balance the weapon: it can have several forms, but normally it's spheric and, like the hilt, can be used to strike in close combat.
2 - The handling and the portamento di ferro (way to move the sword)
The sword must be held with the full hand, tight under the hilt and for more control with the index finger over the crossbar: for this matter the hilt will often have one or two rings that join it to the blade at the edges, to protect the finger. The spada da filo requires movement, both in giving the blow and assuming the parry position, that must be as tidy as possible. To keep the movement unseeable by the enemy: the action with the blade will have to follow precise lines of movment (going and coming back), starting from a guard position and arriving in another guard. The correct way to give a cut is to use a movement of the wrist and sometimes of the elbow, but not of the shoulder: Di Grassi explanes this concept saying: The arm has three main articulations: the shoulder, the elbow and the wrist (...). The cut with the shoulder is the most strong, but also the slowest (...). With the three articulations one must be well trained and will be able to hit hard with the elbow and the wrist. Eventually the shoulder will be forgetten and one will only use the elbow and the wrist to hit, using, at last, above all only the wrist. About the point it needs pushing it without withdrawing the hand. Di Grassi says also that for fencing training one must use light swords, because the aim of this art is not to raise heavy weight, but to move quickly. In Marozzo's bouts there is also sword handling in atto di spada in armi (armoured fencing style) that means handling the middle of the blade with the left hand, using the sword like a stick.
The passata's fente or "gran passata" is executed to cover the most distance as possible. This movement can be executed stepping forward and backward, in right guard and in left guard. The lateral movements or "volte" are about the same as the passo and passata, but they are made laterally: they are used just to dodge (schifata) an attack. Fencing actions will always be made on the straight line, no matter if eventually lateral dodges (schifata) or close combat attacks are executed to the left or the right side of the enemy.
weak with weak; in the second, classified also as technics and grappling of half sword, the actions are that made at misura stretta and the close combat: so the gioco stretto it's not only the wrestling or the actions with the pommel or the hilt, but also the blows with the blade from the crossing of the blades at middle with middle (mezza spada). A perfect definition is given by Capoferro (Gran simulacro dell'arte e dell'uso della scherma - 1610) the measure can be large or close: large when I can hit the enemy only with the fente, close when I can hit him without moving the feet.
5 - The guards
The guards are positions to prepare for an attack or a defence. Thay can be high (more useful for attack) or low (better for defence). Although Marozzo shows through illustrations ( but not very clearly) 15 guards, from ch. 138 to 143 he mentions others during several descriptions of bouts, without explaning them. Thanks to the comparison with the treatises of Manciolino and Dall'Agocchie we can explain each one well, remembering that this analysis is for a right-hander fencer and for the the left-hander the positions will be reversed.
Trattato di scherma -
5/H - Guardia di sopra il braccio (Overarm guard) and di sotto il braccio (Underarm guard)
Manciolino explains: the Guardia di sopra il braccio is so called because the armed hand is placed, as a cross, in the middle of the left hand, keeping the sword's point backward and the buckler's arm straight toward the enemy. (...). The Guardia di sopra il bracciois so called because the armed hand must stay under the buckler's arm, under the left armpit, keeping the sword's point backward. A good description of these two guards, often cited by Marozzo in the sword & buckler bouts (ex. you'll hit with a mandritto tondo that will go in Overarm guard ch. 10-4th part; you'll hit with a mandritto tondo to the legs that will go in Underarm guard ch.10-3rd part) which are good to execute just in this particular fencing style.
Conclusion on Guards
In conclusion remember that the concept of the guard must not be confused with that of the parry: the first is a position, the second an action. So, there can be guards that are just guards, guards that are also parries and parries that are only parries.
6 - The blows
The blows made with the sword are the cuts and the thrusts. The cuts are executed above all with the true edge, but also with the false and they are of two great cathegories, the mandritti (singular "mandritto"), so called because thay start from the right (dritto) side of the fencer to hit the left side of the enemy and the manroversi or simply roversi (singular "roverso") executed in the opposite way (from the left). Able to be executed with the true edge, there are the fendente (plur. "fendenti") which cut in vertical line from up to down, the sgualembro (pl. "sgualembri") which cuts diagonally from a shoulder to the opposite flank, the tondo or traverso (pl. "tondi" or "traversi") which cuts in a horizontal line, and the ridoppio (pl. ridoppi) that cut diagonally from a flank to the opposite shoulder. With the false edge it will be possible to execute the tondi; the ridoppi will became falso dritto (left flank > right shoulder) and falso manco (right flank > left shoulder), and the cut in vertical line from the bottom upwards is the montante (pl. "montanti"). There is also the mezzo (half) mandritto, described by Dall'Agocchie: the mandritto sgualembro starts from the left shoulder and arrives until the right knee and for that it was named a finished cut. The half mandritto is of the same kind, but is not a finished cut and it needs less
time to be executed and so it's called "half"; a cut very similar to that used for the "arresto di sciabolata al braccio" a particular cut used in sabre fencing in time on the enemy's attack; Marozzo in the ch. 57 talks also about the half roverso. The cut executed with wrist articulation in a molinello (a full circle executed by the blade to give more strenght to the cut) (Dall'Agocchie), is called the tramazzone.. The thrusts are of four kind: the punta dritta (pl. "punte dritte") or just punta, executed with the hand in the Entering Guard's position; the punta roversa (pl. "punte roverse"), with the hand in the Face Guard's position; the imbroccata,(pl. "imbroccate") or overhand thrust, normally executed in Becca Cesa or Possa's position; and the stoccata (pl. "stoccate") or underhand thrust, normally executed with the hand in High Iron Door's position.
7 - The parries
Until the XVIII century there is no classification of the parries and for this reason they are often confused with the guards: remember always that the parry is an action and the guard a position. About the parries, the only information are about the sword's edges and about this question Dall'Agocchie says:in only two ways can you parry with the sword, or with the true edge or with the false: and the false is of two kind, falso dritto and falso manco. So the falso dritto and the falso manco are not only two cuts, but also the main parries, that are able to protect almost all the body. The parries in Face, Head and Entering guard are useful to parry with the true edge the fendenti and the sgualembri. Virtually other steady parries, which mean executed with a position, not with a blow against the blow (like falso dritto and manco), are Long and Narrow and Long and High tail (high right target), the Large Iron door and the Wild boar Narrow Iron door (high left target); Long and Large tail is good to protect the low right target and the Flank guard the left, although Marozzo prefers the dodge than the parry against the cuts to the legs. Becca cesa and Becca possa are good to protect head and shoulders, above all against the sgualembri.