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    Venetian Rapier: The School, or Salle: Nicoletto Giganti's 1606 Rapier Curriculum with New Introduction, Complete Text Translation and Original Illustrations
    Venetian Rapier: The School, or Salle: Nicoletto Giganti's 1606 Rapier Curriculum with New Introduction, Complete Text Translation and Original Illustrations
    Venetian Rapier: The School, or Salle: Nicoletto Giganti's 1606 Rapier Curriculum with New Introduction, Complete Text Translation and Original Illustrations
    Ebook145 pages1 hour

    Venetian Rapier: The School, or Salle: Nicoletto Giganti's 1606 Rapier Curriculum with New Introduction, Complete Text Translation and Original Illustrations

    By Tom Leoni and Nicoletto Giganti

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    About this ebook

    Perhaps no other weapon represents Renaissance Italian fencing like the rapier. But do we know how it was used and how it was taught? This book takes you to the fencing School, or Salle of celebrated renaissance rapier Master Nicoletto Giganti of Venice, one among the period teachers leaving instructions on the use of this weapon. More uniquely, his 1606 text The School, or Salle is a veritable training curriculum, with its stepwise lessons and easy-to-follow explanations on the use of the rapier alone and rapier and dagger. This faithful translation of Giganti’s The School, or Salle by internationally-known rapier teacher Tom Leoni includes the complete text, original illustrations, and an introduction on rapier fencing that will make Giganti’s text easy to follow. If you are a martial artist, a fencer, or have an interest in European martial culture, this book belongs on your shelf.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFreelance Academy Press
    Release dateMay 21, 2015
    ISBN9781783017416
    Venetian Rapier: The School, or Salle: Nicoletto Giganti's 1606 Rapier Curriculum with New Introduction, Complete Text Translation and Original Illustrations

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    • 5/5
      The introduction by the translator is a perfect and consistant manual of basic techniques needed to understand the works of Giganti. The author himself is far more succinct and understandable than Capo Ferro. Though the pictures do not always match the actions depicted the translator does a fine job of providing explanations of errors in the footnotes. It is easy to pick this book up and go through it sequentially with a partner, trying out and learning the various techniques. I would say start with Giganti, then follow up with Capo Ferro before moving on to Fabris. A quick note about the translator. I have his translation of both Giganti and Fabris, and he makes the Italian masters easy to understand. I have read other translators works, and found them precise, but much more difficult to understand.

    Book preview

    Venetian Rapier - Tom Leoni

    Freelance Academy Press, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189

    www.freelanceacademypress.com

    © 2010 Freelance Academy Press, Inc.

    All rights reserved.

    No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of Freelance Academy Press, Inc.

    Printed in the United States of America

    by Publishers’ Graphics

    19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5

    ISBN 978-0-9825911-2-3

    Library of Congress Control Number: 2010920782

    Contents

    Acknowledgements

    Introduction

    What We Know about Giganti

    What We Know about Giganti’s 1606 Book

    Giganti’s Voice and Language, and a Note on the Translation

    Giganti and the Italian Tradition

    What You Need to Know to Tackle Giganti

    The School, or Salle, by Nicoletto Giganti of Venice, 1606

    The Guards and Counter-guards

    Tempo and Measure

    How to Deliver the Thrust

    Why I Begin with Single Sword

    Guards, or Postures

    Explanation of the Strike in Tempo

    The Correct Way to Gain the Opponent’s Sword and Strike Him while He Performs a Cavazione

    The Correct Way to Perform a Cavazione

    The Contracavazione to the Inside

    The Contracavazione to the Outside

    Feints—Explanation. The Feint of Cavazione from the Hand

    How to Strike to the Chest with Single Sword—from the Measure and Parity of Swords

    The Pass with Feint from out of Measure

    The Pass with Feint above the Opponent’s Point

    The Feint to the Face from out of Measure

    The Correct Way to Deliver a Thrust while the Opponent Attacks You with a Cut

    The Correct Way to Deliver a Sure Strike Using Both Hands

    The Correct Way to Defend against a Mandritto or a Riverso to the Leg

    The Inquartata or Void

    An Artful Way to Strike the Opponent in the Chest after Pressing against Each Other’s Blades

    How to Play Single Sword against Single Sword, with Full-intent Thrusts

    How to Parry Thrusts to the Chest with Single Sword

    The Thrust to the Face, Turning the Hand

    Counterattack with a Cavazione from out of Measure

    How to Use Single Sword against Sword and Dagger

    How to Parry a Thrust to the Face in Sword and Dagger

    How to Correctly Parry a Thrust to the LeftFlank

    How to Correctly Parry a Thrust to the Right Flank in Sword and Dagger

    How to Parry a Thrust to the Face in Sword and Dagger

    How to Parry a Cut to the Head in Sword and Dagger

    How to Parry a Riverso with the Dagger

    Thrust to the Chest in Sword and Dagger

    Delivering a Thrust while the Opponent Moves

    Thrust above the Dagger

    A Deceitful Guard that Leaves the Left Side of the Body Open

    A Deceitful Guard that Leaves the Right Side of the Body Open

    A Deceitful Guard that Leaves the Chest Open

    The Feint of Sword and Dagger, to Strike above the Dagger

    Feint of Sword and Dagger, to Strike in the Chest

    Feint of Sword and Dagger, to Strike to the Face with a Cavazione over the Dagger-point

    How to Use the Sword to Parry a Lunging Thrust while Bringing Your Body Back

    How to Parry with the Dagger with Your Body Back

    Dagger-parry with the Body Back, with Simultaneous Sword-strike

    Sword-parry and Strike to the Face

    The Pass in Sword and Dagger, to Grapple the Opponent and Strike Him in the Face with the Dagger

    The Thrust to the Right Shoulder in Sword and Dagger

    The Pass in Sword and Dagger

    Glossary

    Acknowledgments

    I’d like to thank my editing team for helping me improve this book: Adam Velez, Chris Vail, Kari Carlson, Terry Tindill, Tim Lyon, and Tracy Kopecky. It’s a rare piece of good luck to have such a talented team on your side, made of knowledgeable individuals who are as good with the pen as they are with the sword.

    Also a big thanks to Steve Reich for his invaluable help with the illustrations.

    Introduction

    Become proficient in the actions in Giganti’s lessons and you can call yourself a rapierist.

    As a rapier teacher, I am often asked to present a curriculum that is at one time concise, complete, consistent and authentic. Concise meaning pared down to the fundamental defensive and offensive actions; complete meaning thorough in mechanical, technical and tactical terms—as well as presenting a useful variety in repertoire; consistent meaning internally contradiction-free and in line with the tradition; and authentic meaning coming straight from a period Master.

    Nicoletto Giganti is one of two prominent 17th-century rapier Masters offering this type of curriculum with his 1606 text The School, or Salle. The other is Bondi’ di Mazo, who published a book on rapier with a similar pedagogical template ninety years later. Both Masters are Venetian, and there is a temptation to hypothesize that the pedagogy presented by these Masters would have been peculiar to the Serenissima Repubblica.

    One thing that is far from the realm of speculation is that Giganti’s text is most definitely a curriculum, as opposed to the formal and systematic treatises of Masters like Fabris and Marcelli.¹ Besides Giganti’s telltale pedagogical terseness, there are two other reasons for me to make this statement. First, the subtitle to the book states explicitly that the work is to be used by swordsmanship students to practice and become proficient in the discipline of arms. Then, he overtly calls the illustrated text units making up his book lessons to be practiced with assiduity.

    I don’t need to wax poetic pointing out the value of a swordsmanship text such as Giganti’s. As far as benefits go, having a rapier curriculum that modern enthusiasts can follow in the same order as martial artists four

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