Updates to the fencing research - exploring Manciolino's First Assault

I've taken to commuting to work these days on the train, instead of driving. It's about 90 minutes each way, which is only 10-15 minutes longer than if I drive, but I don't have to deal with the car park known as Homebush Bay Drive / North Ryde Road. Since I'd have the time on the train, I bought myself a Acer Aspire One Netbook from OfficeWorks, the D250 model to be precise, and as per usual dropped a decent OS on it instead of the Winblows it shipped with. In this case it's running Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR), unlike my usual preference for Kubuntu. I highly recommend UNR if you have a netbook. They've thought about how you want to use the system, and it's really user-friendly. After a month on the trains with this little joy, I don't regret it for a minute as my writing productivity has gone through the roof. It also runs ereader through Wine, so I may have partially solved the loss of the E2.

Anyway, I've been working through the 1st Assault in Manciolino's Opera Nova of 1531. My primary translation is the one done by Jherek Swanger. I've noticed a new sequence that I haven't seen before, and played with it a little in bouting on the weekend. It's sweet, nasty and really really useful as a counterattack or parry.

So here's a new piece of Bolognese nastiness...

From either Porta di Ferro Stretta, or Coda Lunga Stretta, you can slip the right foot back to your left and cut up with a montante, ending in Guardi Alta.

This vertical false edge cut will pass through any riposte from your opponent, keeping you safe, or rip through either of the opponent's hands if they leave the hands out there. The slip gets the body out of danger, but there is also one instance of bringing the left foot up to the right. It's another beautiful example of the dual-purpose actions we see in the Dardi (Bologenese) system.

I also ran into another problem with the translation in the middle of the assault, which is surprising as Jherek's work is pretty good. In Jherek's translation the sequence is:

(From Guardia Alta, in passo stretto) And then, passing with your right foot, you will throw a fendente that ends in guardia di faccia, and you will thereafter pass with your left foot toward your right side, in which tempo you will throw a tramazzone falling into cingiara porta di ferro.

The current translation gives the impression that the left foot passed across your right foot, but looking at the original Italian, it's actually talking about the following left step from the initial right pass. The other part of the sequence I had trouble reconciling was the ending in Guardia Faccia in the middle. I was questioning why you'd end with the hand in 4th (true edge left) from a cut made with the hand in 3rd (true edge down), to then follow with a cut that starts by the hand turning into 2nd (true edge right). It would just encourage a half-assed cut for the fendente, with no real cutting intent. That was when the penny dropped, and I realised Manciolino doesn't differentiate between Guardia Faccia and Guardia Entrare, unlike Marozzo and the later Dardi authors. Rereading Manciolino's description for Guardia Faccia, I believe his defining characteristic is that the point of the sword is at the opponent's face. Both of the guardias as I understand them meet this condition

So what I believe you end up with now is as follows:

From Guardia Alta in passo stretto, pass right with the right foot throwing a fendente to the head, ending with the point at the face of the opponent in Guardia Entrare. As the left foot comes behind the right, throw a tramazzone, and then pass back the right foot behind the left, extending the length of the slicing action, ending in Cingiara Porta di Ferro Stretta.

Interestingly, this accords with Marozzo's instruction in Capitolo 11, part 3, where instead of ending in Guardia Entrare, he ends in Guardia Porta di Ferro, to then throw the tramazzone. His tramazzone ends with the follow-up thrust to the face.

An alternative interpretation is that the step with the left foot in the pass comes forward to a left foot forward stance as you throw tramazzone, ending in Cingiara Porta di Ferro Stretta . I'm not as certain of that one as it would mean you most probably end in Gioco Stretta (close distance), and the 1st assault is all actions done from Gioco Larga (wide distance). For this to work you would have to assume the opponent steps back to counter the initial fendente. That's only one of the responses according to Manciolino in Capitolo 4, so I'm not convined it is necessarily correct. Maybe both option are correct?

So for the preferred option, that's one pass with 2 steps (one for each foot), and a cut for each step, followed by a retreat back into a safe guard. That makes a lot more sense, is a lot more natural to do, and matches a lot of the other instructions we see in Marozzo and Manciolino's manuals.

Now I just get to see in I can make some poor sucker fall for it! :-)

Richard

PS: The word for today is "Tiromantia" - a divination by cheese!