Discourse on the Fundamental Principles
of the Single Rapier
By Darren Di Battista
(a.k.a. Signor Dante di Pietro)
Foreword:
This document is meant to serve as a stepping stone for fencers of intermediate skill who are seeking to find a way to break through to the next level in their fencing. I make no promises that upon reading it you will become an undefeatable master of arms, nor do I make any such claim for myself. I do know, however, that this text is based upon the six core concepts that I have uncovered during hundreds of hours of research and hundreds of hours of application of Renaissance rapier theory.
Bear in mind as you read that
these are general statements about principles of fencing; it may well be that
there are times when these principles may be broken or ignored. I can think of
a few myself, although they are rare indeed. As with any art, and this is an
art like any other, it seems wisest to me to master the fundamentals before you
begin breaking rules and creating something new. As I said, this is intended
for an audience for whom most of the material discussed will be completely new,
or nearly so, and the more unusual techniques that appear in some historical
documents are not currently within the scope of this text. That may change upon
future editions, however.
In writing this, I have made a few assumptions of which you should be aware before continuing. First, as I have written this with the intermediate fencer in mind, I have therefore used some terminology without defining it. I expect that anyone reading this also knows that their disengages should be kept small, for example. Conversely, as I do not expect my audience to have learned a second language or gone too far into the lexicon of swordsmen 400 years and an ocean away, I have written the body of this using the plainest language I have available while still maintaining precision in covering the ideas within.
The principles herein were all written with the single sword in mind, as I am a firm believer that one should become proficient with that before moving on to anything else. However, these concepts apply equally well to sword and dagger, sword and buckler, et cetera—those other forms simply have twice as many options and would have required twice as much text to discuss. Since all rules for any secondary weapon can be derived from the rules for the single sword, I leave that exercise for you as a way to invigorate your mind and stimulate your hunger for understanding.
I am also assuming that you are using a weapon that is appropriate to your height and is of a good weight for you. If you would be physically incapable of drawing your sword with ease from a scabbard, you may with to reconsider the tool you have chosen. I recommend that the end of the pommel sit just below your sternum if you are standing upright and the point of the blade sits between your feet. You will also need to be able to wield the weapon you have chosen; strength training and physical fitness are tremendously important to your overall success in fencing and I cannot stress that enough.
Below you will see the six fundamental things that everyone must do in order to fence well. Some are obvious, seemingly simple things that you may well already do and take for granted. Some are enigmatic, apparently arcane items that will seem indecipherable at first. As some concepts are referred to earlier and thoroughly explained later, I recommend at least two reads of this text to aide in understanding. Eventually, with study and practice, all of these concepts will link together for you as instinct. I wish you much luck on your journey, and trust that you will get as far as your dedication warrants.
In Service,
Signor Dante di Pietro
I) Have a
good guard.
This is probably one of the most obvious, simple, yet overlooked components of effective fencing. A good guard sets your defense in place and allows you to prevent your opponent from wounding you; this is especially useful in keeping yourself safe from deceit by feints.
Aspects
of a Good Guard:
1) Minimizes potential target areas on the body.
It should be evident that when an opponent has less of you to realistically hit (e.g., your back leg is unlikely to be hit), you will have to worry about fewer potential targets and you will have to devote less energy to remaining safe. There are numerous ways to accomplish this as discussed below, all of which are necessary. It is always important to keep this guiding principle in mind when deciding upon a guard to use.
2) Maintains the blade in a straight line between the hilt and the
opponent.
If a blade takes an angle, it becomes easier to defeat as a defensive tool as an angled blade cannot disengage as swiftly as a straight one. This makes it easier to push off line during an attack. A blade held parallel to the ground also reaches farther than a blade that is angled in any direction. This means that an opponent must begin interacting with your blade further away from you with a straight guard than with an angled one, which will give you an extra moment to maintain your defense. Conversely, if you attack in a relatively straight line into an angled guard, you will be able to reach your opponent before he reaches you.
3) Aligns the feet and body behind the blade.
One key feature
of good fencing is that the blade and front knee are in alignment. This
accomplishes two very important things: you will present a narrow profile to
your opponent, and you will have the most reach and control during your lunge
possible. In addition to this, a good guard keeps the spine straight.
4) Covers the hand and forearm from attack while maintaining mobility
in the wrist.
The first and most obvious target at which an opponent may strike is the hand and arm holding the rapier itself. A good guard keeps the forearm in line with the blade of the rapier, which will protect the hand and forearm as much as possible behind the guard. This will also mean that you are in a position where you are most able to perform smooth, subtle disengages.
5) Allows for the most area of the body to be covered with the least
amount of movement.
A good test for a guard as an initial position is to see how much movement is necessary for a parry to be successful. A good guard will require minimal movement to push a thrust away from your body. If your guard requires you to make large, sweeping, or exaggerated movements to stay safe, it is inefficient and too slow for use.
6) Keeps blade interaction as far from the body as possible without
sacrificing mobility.
As has already been touched upon earlier when discussing a straight line versus an angled line, the further away from your body the hilt of your rapier the more time your opponent will take in reaching you, and the less you will have to move your hilt to successfully parry an incoming attack.
7) Is not unreasonably fatiguing.
An unfortunate but necessary consideration is strength: any good guard will become fatiguing at one point or another if you maintain it long enough. I use the word unreasonably here though, as I firmly believe that physical conditioning is an integral component of the art of defense; most guards that you are intended to remain in can easily be maintained by someone of moderate athleticism. Some guards, however, seem to assume that the fencer using it has devoted several hours a day for several years to physical fitness and has walked tens of thousands of steps every day of his life.
8) Allows for easy, balanced movement, both of the feet and the wrist.
If you are off balance, easily pushed over, and cannot advance and retreat with relative ease, or cannot parry strongly or perform small, subtle disengages, your guard is a weak one and is in need of revision. It is also possible that you are mimicking a good guard poorly; some guards require considerable practice before the body mechanics behind them become apparent.
Some Examples of Good Guards:
Below are some plates from three
different fencing masters, each of which fulfills all of the requirements I
listed above. It is worth noting that each master’s guards have significantly
different appearances at times, though they all adhere to the same principles.
Fabris’s guard in third; plate 10 of Lo Schermo, overo Scienza d’Arme (1606)
Fabris’s guard in fourth; plate 14 of Lo Schermo, overo Scienza d’Arme (1606)
Capoferro’s guard in third; plate 4 of Gran simulacro dell’arte, e dell’ uso della Scherma (1610)
Capoferro’s guard in fourth, plate 2 of Gran simulacro dell’arte, e dell’ uso della Scherma (1610)
Thibault’s guard, Tabula VII of L’Academie d’Espee, (1630)
II) Have
a good lunge.
It is equally important to have an effective lunge. Far too many people run into the problem where they lunge only rarely, or never, or their lunge is slow or awkward. A good lunge allows you to make better use of measure and timing, both of which are discussed below.
Characteristics
of a Good Lunge:
1) Protects the body from a counterattack.
A good lunge has much in common with a good guard; indeed, almost everything that must be true of a good guard must be true of a good lunge as well. These principles are not as definite, however, as some very good lunges will not, for example, align the feet and body behind the blade because the lunge is happening at some angle chosen for specific tactical considerations. A good lunge will, however, always be done in a way that protects the body from counterattack, whether by mimicking the aspects of a good guard or voiding the body and closing the line of attack.
2) Can be recovered from quickly and easily.
Should you miss, it is vital that you be able to recover, either back into your guard or forward to renew your attack; no one but your opponent will benefit if you cannot leave the position into which your lunge takes you. A lunge that overextends your body to the point where you are effectively stuck in place is only useful as an artifact of sport-fencing where there is no reason to remain safe once the initial touch has landed.
3) Maximizes reach without sacrificing balance and stability.
A good lunge should also be one that is deep enough to maximize reach, granting the most range possible given your body’s dimensions and the length of your blade. A lunge that is too shallow suffers from the same problem as an angled guard: your opponent will reach you before you reach him. Also, note that a lunge that brings your body more forward offers fewer targets for an opponent’s counterattack and requires less movement to maintain a closed line for the opponent’s point.
4) Is done as quickly as possible while remaining graceful.
Speed and force are clearly necessary for a thrust to have any hope of bypassing an opponent’s defenses; however, these cannot be gained at the cost of grace and precision. Too much force borne from unsuitable body mechanics, such as rolling the shoulder forward as if throwing a punch, will only undermine the graceful movement that is far more important. Moderate speed and exacting precision will net far more than tremendous speed and little accuracy.
III) Watch
the measure.
Measure is the distance between your opponent and you, specifically whether or not he can reach you and what kind of movement will be necessary to do so, as well as whether or not you can reach him. Clearly, knowing when your opponent is a threat and what actions he must take to act upon that threat is a necessary part of maintaining an effective defense. Conversely, knowing when you are in measure and able to strike your opponent and what you must do to accomplish this is equally important for an effective offense.
Knowing
and Identifying Types of Measure:
1) Out of measure.
When your
opponent cannot reach you with a lunge, he is considered out of measure. There
are a few noteworthy pieces of information about this: he will have to enter
measure at some point to make an attack, which will give you a tempo in which
to attack him; if he is out of measure but you are in measure, you can initiate
an attack safely as long as you maintain a closed line throughout the motion.
2) Wide measure.
Wide measure is when your opponent can strike you with a lunge. This is the range where most attacks should happen, as it is easiest to attack safely when in wide measure. It is at this measure when the blade must be engaged and the line must be closed to proceed without great risk. The easiest way to gauge to where someone’s measure extends is to pay careful attention to their rear foot. If you will recall, the way a good lunge is performed, the back foot will not move and therefore limits the overall reach of a person. Even if he lunges poorly, the back foot will not move more than a few inches under most circumstances.
3) Narrow measure.
Narrow measure
is the distance where your opponent can lean forward without lunging and still
strike you. This is an extremely dangerous distance, as the likelihood of your
opponent managing to injure you even while being injured himself is very high.
Narrow measure is only safely entered by very experienced fencers or by fencers
who completely outclass their opponent. However, if you are able to trick your
opponent into entering your narrow measure without realizing it, you should be
able to defeat him with ease as any tempo he makes will give you a good
opportunity to strike.
It is important to be aware that these measures will vary depending on the target selected. For example, I might be too far from you to strike your body, but I could easily hit your hand if it were exposed. Some historical masters define these with specific names, but I find it simpler to describe measure in terms of what your target is. I also operate under the assumption that unless otherwise specified, the foremost section of torso or head is the target. All previous discussion of measure has been written with that premise in mind.
IV) Close
the line.
In this case, the line refers to
the straight line of attack between your opponent’s point and your body. If the
line is open, your opponent can make a direct attack against you, which you may
not see in time to react to properly. If the line is closed, your opponent will
have to move his blade to a new position before he can attack, giving you an
opportunity to react and a tempo in which to strike. Closing the line is
accomplished by placing your hilt or forte in the direct path of your
opponent’s point.
Recognizing
When the Line is Closed:
1) Imagine the straight line between his point and your body.
Determining if the line is closed or not is deceptively simple. Look at your opponent’s point, your hilt and forte, and consider where they are in relation to your body. Imagine an invisible line between the point and your body; if your hilt or forte is not obstructing its path, you are placing yourself at unnecessary risk for no gain. The debile (or foible) is not used to close the line, as it is too weak from a leverage standpoint to be effective at defense, and is so named for that reason.
2) Make certain that he must move his blade to a new angle or position before attacking.
With any amount of experience, you will have observed that fencing is a game of inches, where even a degree or two in an angle or a fraction of a second can make a substantial difference in the outcome of a bout. If you close the line and keep it closed, your opponent will always have to give you some kind of visual warning before an attack can become a real threat. This will often be enough of a warning to allow you to defend appropriately, or counterattack in the tempo of the opponent’s initial movement.
3) Keep the line closed as you attack.
If you continue
to keep the line closed throughout your attack, your opponent will be unable to
successfully riposte against you. Be aware that this may require you to move
your body or your blade substantially as you lunge, as the line will move with
you.
V) Engage
the blade.
Engaging the opponent’s blade is the application of leverage to fencing. This may sound complicated as I explain it, but if you and a partner take two swords of equal length in your hands and go through what I say here, it will make sense immediately as you feel what is happening.
As you approach into measure, your blades will intersect. If they do not because your opponent is in a guard that does not present the blade forward, keep the line closed and wait for a tempo in which to strike. When they have intersected, whomever’s hilt is closer to the point of intersection will have a leverage advantage.
This advantage can be enhanced. First, make sure that the true edge (the side facing your knuckles) of your sword is facing toward your opponent’s blade. Your wrist is naturally stronger on this side. Also, angle your sword so that it is pointed toward your opponent’s blade slightly. This will cause his blade to slide toward your hilt when he parries, and the angle will make your blade much more difficult to push aside.
When you have successfully engaged your opponent’s blade, you can attack in a straight line safely. If you have engaged properly, his line against you will also be closed.
It is equally important that you keep your own sword free. If your blade has been engaged by your opponent, you will need to either adjust the angle of your sword so the point of intersection is once again closer to your hilt, or perform a disengage to re-close the line and regain the mechanical advantage of the engagement.
When your opponent has successfully engaged your blade, you will need to disengage before, or during, your attack. If your sword has been engaged, your line is not closed and you are in danger.
Some masters advocate that you do not touch your opponent’s blade at any time so as not to give any clues that his blade has been engaged. Others claim that it is much better to always maintain contact so you get those same tactile clues yourself about what he is doing. Still others either make no mention of this at all or say that it does not matter much overall. I would say that it depends on what you think will have the most benefit for whatever circumstances you find yourself in.
You will notice that closing the
line and engaging the blade often happen concurrently.
Maintaining
a strong mechanical advantage:
1) Make sure that the point of intersection between the two blades is
closer to your hilt than it is to his.
This is the first and most important step for engaging the opponent’s blade. The closer to your hilt and the farther from his hilt the point of intersection is, the easier it will be to push his blade aside. If there is a significant strength difference between you and your opponent, the difference in point of intersection will need to be more substantial. It is also worth noting that an opponent with a shorter blade will have the advantage if the blades intersect near their points, so be sure to judge engagement by the relative position of the hilts, not the points.
2) Make sure that your point is angled toward the opponent’s blade.
There are,
admittedly, tactical reasons why this will not always be necessary or
desirable. Your defense will be slightly weaker on the side the blade is
pointing to, so you will need to take this into account—the opponent’s blade
will slide toward your hilt, so it is very important to keep the line closed as
well. I will often make this strong angle as I attack so that my attack is more
likely to be successful or while on defense if my opponent is the sort who
likes to try and push my sword away before attacking.
3) Make sure that the point of intersection is not so close to your
hilt or so close to his tip that he may easily deceive you.
As a warning to go along with the first step of blade engagement, if the point of intersection is too close to his point and too close to your forte he will be able to disengage far more quickly than you will be able to counter-disengage. You will be hit easily if you make this mistake.
4) Maintain engagement as you attack.
In addition to
keeping the line closed as you attack, you will also want to maintain
engagement. There are several simple ways to accomplish this. When you attack,
seek to place your hilt at the point where your blades had previously
intersected; if you accomplish this, it will be next to impossible for your
opponent to parry your attack. To aide in your targeting, your thrust will
often place your point at the same height as the opponent’s; this will
regularly be the best place to aim if you are able to place the hilt at the
point of intersection. You may also, if the opponent’s parry looks as though it
will be successful, yield around their pressure and push forward at a new
angle. It is important to note that if you are yielding and have not closed the
line (you may do so with your off hand), you are taking a substantial risk.
VI) Attack
in tempo.
The concept of tempo is probably the most complex and convoluted one in all of fencing, mainly because its definition is a simple one from which a great many things can be extrapolated: a tempo is the amount of time between two instances of stillness, where it is favorable to strike or attempt to gain some kind of positional advantage. While that statement seems easy enough to understand, it is also vague to the point where it may not convey any actual information. I will attempt to explain it well enough here, though this topic will take more practice and consideration to understand than any other.
So that you can better understand this idea, let me make clear the premises under which the discussions on tempo will take place: you cannot be moving in more than one direction at a given time, once a movement has begun it must be completed or substantial energy must go into halting it, and it takes energy and time to initiate any movement.
This means that tempi exist whenever someone is moving or standing still. I promise that will be more helpful later on. The important thing to consider right now is the fact that any motion your opponent makes commits him to that motion. Any step he takes he must complete, any shifting of his weight, any change in his guard, any disengage: each of these movements, once begun, must be completed—more importantly, he is incapable of taking any other action before the first has been finished. Take a step forward. Now, try to take another step forward, but midway through stop and reverse direction. Good luck. Next, swing your blade in an arc as if delivering a cut. Then, do so again but halt the swing midway through. You probably could, but it took a considerable amount of energy and did not stop immediately. If we were fencing, and I had attacked you either midway through your step or swing, you would have been unable to move your body or realign your blade in time to prevent my strike.
Some masters also advocate that moments of stillness are also tempi in which to strike, such as the moment a movement has been completed but before the next one has begun (consider a pendulum swinging; at either apex there is a moment where it is completely still), or when someone is settled into a guard and is not moving. To be able to take regular advantage of moments of stillness requires more skill and training than likely anyone alive has; it is essentially what you move on to after you have mastered everything else. However, I have included mention of it here so that you will know to look for moments of stillness that are commonplace and readily exploited, such as your opponent relaxing his muscles for a moment, letting his point drop slightly from fatigue, or any of the dozens of visual clues that your opponent’s mind has left the fight, however temporarily.
When you take your opponent’s tempo (i.e. attack or gain a positional advantage), it is important to realize that you have also made a tempo by moving in some way. The secret here is to make sure that the tempo you take (the amount of time it takes your opponent to complete his movement) is greater than the tempo you make (the amount of time it takes you to complete your movement). Essentially, you want to be done with your movement before your opponent is done with his.
I will also add the admonition to only attack while taking a tempo and to never attack into the static guard of someone who has not shown one of those moments of stillness described earlier, unless you have first engaged their blade well enough that they will be unable to parry or counterattack effectively. There are numerous good opportunities to attack that your opponent will create or that you may create yourself; attacking at any other time is simply foolish.
Of course, anything your opponent does to provide opportunities to attack him, you are also able to do to provide those same opportunities to be attacked by him. Have a care and make sure that you do not offer lengthy tempi and make sure that the line stays closed and the blade engaged.
Recognizing
Good Moments to Attack:
1) When the opponent is shifting guards.
As your opponent transitions from one guard to another, you will have an opportunity to strike. A small, subtle shifting of the hand is still a tempo, though it may be a very difficult one to take, requiring great skill. Large, often showy, transitions between elaborate guards will be the easiest and best tempi to take in the shifting of a guard.
2) When the opponent is taking a step.
A tempo of the hand is faster than a tempo of the feet, as there is less inertia involved in beginning or ending a movement of the hand than of the foot. The hand may be stopped and redirected mid-motion because it can move largely independently of the main body, as demonstrated earlier during the practice cut, but the foot may not be once it has begun because the body must follow it. When your opponent steps forward and passes a certain threshold, he is coming forward no matter what. This is an excellent time to attack, though a step may turn into a lunge midway through if there is cause. An even better moment to attack is when the back foot is finishing the step; the best option your opponent has for movement when his back foot is in the air is to either continue forward or return to his initial location. If your opponent was in measure when he began his step, you will be able to strike him with ease as he will either come forward onto your blade or fall back to an off balance position, trapped mid-step.
3) In response to him engaging your blade.
When the opponent moves to engage your blade, you can use his inertia to perform a disengage and attack (always closing the line). The more momentum his blade has, the easier this will be to accomplish.
4) In response to his disengage.
If you have engaged his blade and he performs a disengage, you can attack through the disengage if you can complete the attack before your opponent can complete his disengage.
5) As a follow up to a feint.
Feints are very risky things because if you feint when you are not in measure, your opponent will ignore it, and if you feint while in measure, your opponent will take the tempo of your feint to deliver a real attack. That being said, in practical application feints can be very effective as a setup to an attack because most people will not be able to tell the difference between a feint and a real attack. I believe that the best way to feint is to make a real attack and have a second intention prepared if the opponent moves to counter the first. If the opponent does not move to counter, your feint will then simply become a strike.
Another kind of feint is the invitation, in which you will leave some area exposed, with a planned response, to bait your opponent into attacking there. Invitations can be a useful way to provoke your opponent into making a tempo, but be careful that any invitation you make is a subtle one. A large opening may be too large to protect, even if planned, if your opponent is skilled.
6) In single-time and counter-time.
Single-time actions happen in one continuous motion, without the need for a change in direction. These kinds of movements can include lunging, disengaging, stepping, and shifting guards. Conversely, the normal parry-riposte is a double-time action, as it has two distinct motions that comprise the whole movement. Performing a cut is another example of a double-time action, as you must raise and lower the sword to complete the movement. Single-time actions are inherently faster than double-time actions; if your opponent is taking a double-time action, he is effectively using two tempi to the one you will need to strike him.
Counter-time is using the opponent’s attack’s tempo to make an attack of your own in single-time. For example, rather than parrying and riposting, you would attack while using your forte and hilt to push the opponent’s incoming blade off line, effectively closing the line, engaging the blade, and attacking in one smooth motion—while your opponent is committed to his forward movement and cannot hope to take any defensive action.
Afterword:
As I have said earlier, I do not pretend
to have included all there is to say on any of these subjects. What I have
done, hopefully, is provide you with a framework of ideas that you will be able
to take and use to improve your fencing and your understanding of how to fence
well. I also hope that you will take these fundamental ideas that I have
discussed, however incompletely, and continue to explore those ideas and build
upon them so that you may continue on your journey with the fruits of your
labors. I will also take a moment here to entreat all of my readers and
students to delve into the study of historical masters, men who lived and died
by their swords, who can speak to these topics far better than I ever could. So
many great translations and interpretations have been published in recent years
that there is no good reason for anyone serious about improving their fencing
not to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge available.
Citations:
Fabris images retrieved from
http://www.umass.edu/renaissance/lord/pdfs/Fabris_1606.pdf
Capoferro images retrieved
from http://mac9.ucc.nau.edu/manuscripts/pcapo/
Thibault image retrieved from http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~mfram/Media/0116a-Thibault1628-fencing.jpg
Capoferro lunge translation by
William Jherek Swanger and William Wilson, retrieved from http://mac9.ucc.nau.edu/manuscripts/pcapo/EngCF.pdf
Works Cited:
1) Leoni, Tommaso. "Understanding Tempo".
http://salvatorfabris.com/UnderstandingTempo.shtml Retrieved
This article contains a
synopsis of tempo as described by Salvator Fabris, tactical considerations, and
includes discussion of how the concept of a fencing tempo can be traced to
Aristotle's IV Physics.
2) Reich, Steven. "Understanding Measure".
http://salvatorfabris.com/UnderstandingMeasure.shtml Retrieved
This article discusses the
concept of measure, or range, as described by Salvator Fabris and other Italian
masters with whom his lexicon was synchronized, as well as the system of
measure described by Ridolfo Capoferro, who was unusual for his time period in
how he defined measure.
3) Leoni, Tommaso. "Understanding Gaining the
Sword". http://salvatorfabris.com/UnderstandingGainingTheSword.shtml
Retrieved
This article takes many
different masters' synonymous lexicons for engagement and condenses them into a
single term, with a discussion of tactics and mechanics for engagement.
4) Leoni, Tommaso. The Art of Dueling: 17th Century Rapier as Taught by Salvatore Fabris Chivalry Bookshelf 2005
This
translation of Salvator Fabris's Lo Schermo, overo Scienza d’Arme (1606) is perhaps the most important work available
for any student of historical fencing. Fabris's 200+ page work covers, in clear
and exacting detail, every necessary component of fencing with the single
sword, sword and dagger, and sword and cloak. Fabris's prose itself is highly
readable to the modern eye, as he even mentions in his introduction that he
chose to write in vulgar Italian.
5) Kirby, Jared. Italian Rapier Combat: Ridolfo Capo
Ferro Greenhill Books 2004
This translation of Ridolfo
Capoferro's Gran simulacro dell’arte,
e dell’ uso della Scherma (1610) is as faithful to the original text as
possible, leaving many key terms untranslated. This presents a significant
problem, as the glossary is frustratingly organized, with definitions like
"past participle of cavare" littered throughout. Capoferro provides
instruction on single sword, sword and dagger, and lightly touches upon sword
and rotella, and sword and cloak.
6) Greer, John Michael. Academy of the Sword: The Mystery of the
This translation of Girard
Thibault's L'Academie d'Espee (1630) is unique among fencing manuals of
which I am aware in that it is designed to allow a complicated system to be
learned without the support of an instructor. As such, it is rivaled only by
Fabris's manual for details and completeness, though sometimes it can be bogged
down by too much prose spent explaining a concept that a fencing instructor
could show in moments. It provides tactics for using a single sword to defeat
single sword, sword and dagger, sword and rotella, and greatsword.
7) Windsor, Guy. The Duellist's Companion: A Training
Manual for 17th Century Italian Rapier.
Chivalry Bookshelf 2006
This recent interpretation of
Capoferro's fencing system provides mostly good explanations of key concepts,
and has an invaluable training program for the historical fencer. There are a
few unclear passages and some terms that are used too liberally as the result
of poor translation (e.g. stringere has two distinct meanings in Italian, to
engage a sword and to move closer to an object, and Windsor uses them
synonymously, even when it hinders understanding), but otherwise an invaluable
book for both training and reference purposes.
