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Fabris' Rapier Posture FABRIS’ RAPIER POSTURE Analysis of key stance components and their advantages ZHIVANA IGOREVNA CRESCENT ARTISAN, A.S. LII This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Kirsten Lanham Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. 2018 alvator Fabris (1544-1618) is one of the best-known masters of Renaissance swordplay. In both the SCA and in the wider historical martial arts community, his techniques are studied and applied by S modern rapier students. Fabris, though born in Bologna, Italy, traveled widely in Europe before entering the service of King Christian IV of Denmark in 1590. Under Christian’s patronage he published his treatise Lo Schermo, overo Scienza d’Arme (“On Defense, or the Science of Arms”) in 1606, consisting of instructive text and 190 illustrative plates. This manual provided extensive instruction in the art of single rapier, rapier and dagger, and rapier and cloak, drawing upon Fabris’ personal experience as well as knowledge gained from his travels in Spain, France, and Germany. His fencing style shares many characteristics with other Italian masters of the time, but also reflects his experiences abroad. Writing in 1885, Egerton Castle remarked that although it is unknown exactly where Fabris traveled and who he met, “…one may feel sure that in Spain he found means of meeting the great Carranza and studying his method,”1 due to similarities found between their styles. Fig. 1: Portrait of Salvator Fabris Though he is considered one of the major Italian fencing masters, Fabris’ treatise differs considerably from those written by his two best-known contemporaries, Ridolfo Capo Ferro and Nicoletto Giganti. Most notable is his unique posture, which differs from Capo Ferro’s and Giganti’s postures in three significant ways: The forward lean of the body, the extended position of the sword, and the closeness of the feet. These three postural components form an integrated and interdependent system of movement that constitutes the basis of his fencing system. This paper will explore the advantage each component gives the fencer, compare Fabris’ posture to those of Giganti and Capo Ferro, and analyze the interaction of these components as a system of Fig. 2: Stance described by Fabris movement that allows the fencer to successfully execute the fundamental techniques described in Fabris’ works. The Forward Lean The most notoriously distinctive aspect of the stance Fabris describes in Scienza is the forward lean of the body. Fabris states that the body should form a “good and comfortable angle” by leaning forward at the waist2 to achieve the most protected posture possible. He further states that “If a person could make 1 Egerton Castle, Schools and Masters of Fence: From the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century (London: Bell & Sons, 1885), 96. 2 Tommaso Leoni, Art of Dueling: Salvator Fabris’ Rapier Fencing Treatise of 1606 (Chivalry Bookshelf, 2005), 28. 1 himself so small as to be able to cover his entire body with the forte (strong) of the sword, it would be ideal.”3 In order to accomplish this without overbalancing forward, the fencer must also allow the hips to extend over the back foot so that the center of mass lowers and the forward position of the head and shoulders is balanced by the backward position of the hips and buttocks. Bending the body forward at the waist offers three chief advantages. First, as shown in figure 34, it restricts the targets available to the opponent. The head and back shoulder are easily defended with small and fast sword motions and therefore not a realistic target, while the lower torso and legs are so far removed that the Fig. 3: Second guard from two angles Fabris’ Plate 4 demonstrates the restriction of targets offered by placing opponent would have to the upper body behind the sword in such a dramatic fashion. considerably endanger themselves to attack there. This leaves the head and shoulder on the sword side the only viable target for a safe attack, leading to the second advantage of the forward-leaning posture: The opponent’s fastest and most obvious attacks are extremely predictable because of the restricted targets. The fencer need only concern themselves with defending the upper quadrant on the sword side because any attack to another target will take long enough to allow the fencer to react before the opponent’s blow can land. The third advantage of the forward lean is that it enables a faster lunge. In Italian rapier, the lunge is executed by first extending the sword to its fullest, then leaning the body forward, and finally shifting the weight forward until the front foot naturally takes a small step forward to allow the body to elongate while remaining stable.5 Fabris’ posture has the body leaned forward even at rest, shortening the amount of time needed to complete the lunge because only the weight shift and the motion of the foot are required. Fig. 4: Comparison of waist angle in postures of Capo Ferro (1), Giganti (2), and Fabris (3) This forward lean contrasts sharply Capo Ferro’s Plate 3 shows his nearly upright posture. with the postures described in Capo Ferro’s Giganti’s Plate 3 shows his slightly less severe angle, and Gran Simulacro dell’arte e dell’uso della Fabris’ Plate 4 illustrates his bent forward posture. Scherma and Giganti’s Scola, overo teatro. As shown in figure 4, both Capo Ferro6 and Giganti7 advocate a more upright stance. Fabris, however, 3 Leoni, 28. 4 Salvator Fabris, Sienza E Pratica d’Arme (Copenhagen: Henrico Waltkirch, 1606), 31. 5 How To - Italian Renaissance Lunge, YouTube, 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcWN1FE-CXA&t=2s. 6 Ridolfo Capo Ferro, Gran Simulacro dell’arte e dell’uso della Scherma, 1610. 7 Nicoletto Giganti, Scola, overo teatro, nelquale sono rappresentate diverse maniere, e modi di parare, e di ferire di spada sola, e di spada, e pugnala (Frankfurt: Jacques de Zeter, 1619). 2 considers this foolish and says that “standing straight is more dangerous and less apt to the offense. This is because just as defending a straight body requires larger motions, you cannot perform a deep lunge without bending the body forward.”8 For all three masters, the ending position of the lunge is approximately the same; the salient difference in their lunges is that Fabris’ does not require bending at the waist to initiate the attack while Capo Ferro’s and Giganti’s do. Plate 279 (fig. 5) of Scienza provides an excellent demonstration of how the advantages of the forward lean manifest in motion. In this example, as well as all future examples, “the fencer” will refer to the person who is ultimately successful in the demonstration, while “the opponent” will refer to the person who is defeated. Guards and attacks are generally described as being toward the inside or the outside. If one imagines shaking hands, the “inside” refers to the palm side and the “outside” refers to the backhand side. In Plate 27, both the fencer and the opponent begin in third guard to the inside (the sword is situated in a natural position with the palm facing the inside), and the fencer goes to find the opponent’s sword. “Finding the sword,” in the context used by Fabris, means to gain advantage over it.10 This is generally accomplished by placing the sword over top of the Fig. 5: Lean of the upper body in motion Plate 27 of Fabris’ treatise demonstrates the advantages of leaning the body opponent’s sword forward in a lunge in second. The silhouette shows the initial position of the fencer without touching it standing in third, as shown in Plate 10. and at such an angle that the opponent cannot execute a straight-line attack without encountering the fencer’s sword. The opponent uses the time of the fencer’s attempt to find the sword to begin a fendente riverso cut, which is a downward blow coming from the outside, intended to strike the fencer on the outside shoulder or head. During the time of this cut, the fencer turns their sword to second (the palm faces down) and lunges across the opponent’s line of attack, wounding them in the sword-side shoulder. All the advantages given by the forward lean are present in this example. The fencer’s back shoulder is well defended by the sword and the torso and legs are too far removed to be reached in a single attack, making the sword-side shoulder and head the only reasonable target for the opponent. The fencer, knowing this, sets out to find the opponent’s sword aware that they only need to worry about a high attack to the outside and well prepared to counter such an action with a small movement of the sword. The opponent complies, throwing the obvious cut to the high outside quadrant, and the fencer is able to make a 8 Leoni, 28. 9 Fabris, Sienza. 10 William E. Wilson, Arte of Defence: An Introduction to the Use of the Rapier (Union City, CA: Chivalry Bookshelf, 2002), 102. 3 very fast lunge to counter this attack because the first parts of the lunge are already completed; the sword is extended and the body is bent forward, so all that remains is to shift the weight and move the front foot. The fencer’s success in this example is directly attributable to their forward-leaning posture, which allows them to easily anticipate their opponent’s actions and react swiftly and offensively. The Extended Sword The second defining feature of Fabris’ posture is the extension of the sword. In Scienza he writes that the fencer should “keep the arm extended as much as possible, and hold the sword straight so as to form a direct line between the shoulder and the point.”11 He acknowledges that this can be
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