The Knightly Art of Combat of Filippo Vadi (Italian Master at Arms of the Xv Century)
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THE KNIGHTLY ART OF COMBAT OF FILIPPO VADI (ITALIAN MASTER AT ARMS OF THE XV CENTURY) (WORKING TITLE) BY MARCO RUBBOLI, LUCA CESARI DEDICATION This book is dedicated, for their patience in bearing our frantic dedication to bring back to life the ancient Italian martial science, to our wives and daugherts Irene and Sofia Rubboli and Barbara and Sara Cesari. The authors would like to thank: - our Italian publishing house: Il Cerchio, and in particular Luigi Battarra (Marozzo’s man in Rimini) and Adolfo Morganti for all their precious backing and collaboration, also in relation to this new edition in English; - our U.S. publishing house: Paladin Press, a stronghold of the re-born European martial arts; - John Clements of the ARMA, who was the first to suggest us to publish a US edition of Vadi’s treatise, and introduced us to Paladin Press. - our Society “Sala d’Arme Achille Marozzo”, for its continued, disinterested and loyal collaboration that permitted us to clarify many obscure points in the teachings not only of Filippo Vadi, but also of the other Italian authors of the Middle Ages and of the Bolognese School, and in particular the ones that had the patience to test and discuss the techniques contained herein: Domenico Giannuzzi, Luciano Carini, Andrea Cestaro, Riccardo Ciocca, Davide Longhi, Alessandro Battistini, Augusto Borgognoni, Giacomo Miano, Omero Pizzinelli, Filippo Giovannini, Davide Venturi, Maria Giovanna Bassi, Stefano Di Duca, Federico Ercolani, Luca Girolimetto, Federico Panciroli, Corrado Pirri, William Vannini, Cristina Cacciaguerra, Francesca Crociati, Lorenzo Di Masi, Marco Piraccini, Marinella Rocchi, Omar Roffilli. Su concessione del Ministero per i beni culturali e ambientali –Italia On concession of the Ministry for cultural and environmental goods – Italy SHORT NOTE TO THE TRANSLATION “Traduttore = traditore”, i.e. “translator = traitor”. This is an old Italian saying. The reality beyond this is that when you translate a text you are forced to chose an interpretation of it, without any possibility to avoid such choice. In the case of a text like Filippo Vadi’s manual on fencing with the two-hand sword and other weapons, this is still more evident, as many parts of it contain a big amount of ambiguity. For example many phrases can be interpreted in a completely different or even opposite way according to which word we think is the phrase’s subject and which is the direct object. However, in most cases, on the basis of our knowledge of other medieval authors (mainly Fiore dei Liberi) and of our sparring experience with the weapons treated by our Author, we are reasonably confident that our interpretation is the right one. Anyhow, being this the case, we decided that it was of basic importance for the honesty of our work to include also a transcription of the original text in Italian. Translating the original text, we have always conserved the precise technical meaning of Vadi’s phrases (naturally, according to our interpretation of it), but we decided to opt for a readable and enjoiable text, and not a literally translated one, so we did not feel uncomfortable translating “portar guerra” (to bring war) with “to fight”, to transform passive in active phrases and so on. Also, we did not try to keep the rhime and verse of the original, but we tried instead to give an idea of it by means of our clumsy poetic prose, for which we humbly ask your to remember that English is not our mothertongue. Finally, we chose to use modern English instead of XV century or Renaissance English, because this is a book that has been written to be read by as many people as possible, not to please an insignificant minority of scholars. We are convinced of it, because we think that Master Vadi’s opinions and advices are worth reading today like in those times, and maybe today, in these times of confusion, they may be even more useful as a guide for us all, for all the people, in the US, in Italy and elsewhere, that consider themselves the heirs of the great civilisation that gave birth to the Medieval and Renaissance knights. A final note: this book is not a translation of our Italian book “L’arte cavalleresca del combattimento”, published by Il Cerchio, Rimini, 2001. It is based on it for many aspects, but several changes has been made, for example it includes in the Technical Appendix many references to the Getty manuscript of the Flos Duellatorum, which that book did not consider, as well as much more comparisons with Marozzo. The interpretation of some techniques has changed, although most of them has not, and we have included some more books in English in the bibliography. Generally speaking, today we are more aware that Vadi’s treatise is a real junction point between the Medieval treatises, in particular the Flos Duellatorum, and the early Renaissance ones like Marozzo’s Opera Nova and the other manuals of the Bolognese School. 1 - Medieval Fencing in Italy and Europe Not much is known about the discipline of fencing in the first centuries of the Middle Ages. We can presume that the art of fencing in the classical world was a rational and refined science, from the many iconografic evidence and the few chapters dedicated to it in the military manuals of the Roman times, but it seems to have disappeared after the fall of the Roman Empire. Unfortunately no technical manuals have been found, but the medieval illustrations and epic texts of the centuries around the year 1000 shows us mostly combat in armour (haukberg), with powerful cutting blows, in Italy like in the rest of the continent. The change from classical refined fencing to such kind of fight may be partially due to the kind of armour in use, that forces to throw powerful blows with the aim of breaking the haukbergs, and also in part to a return of fighting methods that had already been typical of Northern Europe in the ancient ages. However, the emphasis on the powerful blows typical of this period could be due at least in part to an epic “topos” more than to the reality of combat. In the epic literature of the period it is possibile to find only a few references to real fencing techniques. For example, just to mention a few, in the “Chanson de Guillaume” of the epic cycle of Provence, it appears an action named “tour français”, in which the fencer that executes the technique, after having parried with the shield, turns on himself and hits the opponent to the nape of the neck. Again, in the last battle of the epic poem “Havelok the Dane”, the hero succeeds in severing the usurper’s hand with a “mezzo tempo” (half-time) blow, i.e. a blow that hits the opponent while he’s bringing his attack; often it is the right hand of the opponent, that he brings ahead to hit, which remains hurted. Both those techniques indicate some refinement of discipline and techniques, in contrast with the idea of a training aimed only to the development of strength and endurance. Finally, again in the epic cycle of Provence, we find that some characters are indicated as “fencing masters”. Coming back to the Italian peninsula, in the XIII century novel about the Arthurian hero Tristan known as “Tristano Riccardiano”, we find that fencing training is mentioned many times as a daily activity of young squires and knights. And also in the XIII century we begin to find more documents that inform us more specifically about the status of fencing science and fencing schools. In Italy martial training had never been restricted to the noble class like in the rest of Europe. The same can be told of the joust and other similar military exercises, except for the quintane that was generally permitted to the popular classes also in the rest of the continent. We have proof of the existence of several “societates”, entities in many aspects similar to modern no-profit societies, dedicated to the training of young people in the use of arms, both mounted and on foot, in many city-states of the Italian regions of Lombardy, Tuscany, Emilia. Such “societates”, made up of well-off but not noble citizens, had names like Società dei Forti (Society of the Strong), dei Gagliardi (of the Brave), della Spada (of the Sword), della Lancia (of the Lance), della Tavola Rotonda (of the Round Table), etc. However, the first proof of the existence in Italy of true fencing masters is not related to such groups but to the noble class. We know that a Master Goffredo, fencer, taught to the warlike clergyman Patriarch Gregorio da Montelongo in 1259, in Cividale del Friuli, the same town that was to become the fatherland of the first Italian fencing writer, Master Fiore dei Liberi. In the same town between 1300 e il 1307 there have been some legal acts regarding a Master Arnoldo, “scharmitor” (fencer), and in 1341 another document names a Pertoldus, fencer, probably a German. In the same century and in the same town we find Master Domenico from Trieste, Pietro, another fencer, also a German, and Master Franceschino from Lucca (Tuscany). Always in the North-Eastern region of Friuli we find notice of other three fencing masters active in the XIII century. We have to say that in that century the German school was in a period of great splendor, and it is precisely in that country and in that century that the first fencing treatises of the Middle Ages appeared. The oldest treatise available today is the Manuscript I.33 of the Royal Armouries of London, dated around the year 1300.