Primary Sources

Although not a primary source, Egerton Castle's Schools and Masters of Defense (London, 1892) has a useful bibliography and overview of the works of fencing masters from the 15th to 18th centuries, although it also betrays the authors prejudices as a late Victorian gentleman. It is long out of print, but can be ordered in photocopy form from Patri J. Pugliese. All the quotes below are taken from it. The following does not describe all the extant or interesting works on fencing -- it focusses on those which are on-line. However, a few seminal works that are not yet electronically available need to be mentioned in order to provide context for these on-line works. 

The first major work on fencing is Achille Marozzo's Opera Nuova, which was first published in 1536 and was reprinted until 1615. He taught in Bologna, the great university town, which also became renowned as a center for fencing schools. Marozzo was "the greatest teacher of the old school, the rough and undisciplined swordsmanship of which depended as much on dash and violence and sudden inspiration as on carefully cultivated skill." 

The next significant work in the history of fencing is Camillo Agrippa's Treatise on the Science of Arms with a philosophical dialogue, published in Rome in 1553. The plates were supposedly designed by his friend, Michelangelo. Agrippa was an architect, engineer, and general Renaissance-type guy, and for scientific reasons he advocated the use of the thrust as superior to the cut. Although attacks are by passes (i.e. crossovers), he advocates keeping the weapon foot forward. "His book is original and much in advance of the popular notions of his day." 

Giacomo di Grassi's , Ragioni di sicuramente l'arme was published in 1570. An English edition,His True Arte of Defense,was published in London in 1594. This work was the basis of St. Didier in France and Meyer and Sutor in Germany. He is the first to mention "lines": inside, outside, high, and low, and is also the first to distinguish the sections of the sword suitable for offense and defense. Her also advocates the thrust over the cut. Castle considers him "less advanced than Agrippa" but a better theorist than any other so far. Grassi applied the "old theories to the freer employment of the point, and in it may be recognized the system most commonly followed in Europe in the latter part of the sixteenth century." 

Giovanni Antonio Lovino'sOpera intorno alla Practica e Theorica del ben adoperare tutte le sorti di arme; overo, la Scienza dell'Arme, was publishedinteh 1580s; later edition of it is dedicated to Henri III of France (reigned 1574-1589), who was reputed to be a fine blade. 

Hieronimo de Caranza,'sLibro... dela Philosophia delas Armas was circulated privately in 1569, and published 1582 in Seville. " He is the father of the Spanish science of swordsmanship, which became an almost mystical art form, involving much geometry in the arcs, tangents, and chords of the circle in which the combatants moved. There is as much "ethical and theological in this celebrated work as swordsmanship proper". He and his pupil, Don Luis Pacheco de Narvaez, account for most of the Spanish literature on the subject. Spanish soldiers were the best trained and most formidable in Europe. They were also feared swordsmen, although their style was superseded in popularity by the Italian, and later the French. 

Vincent Saviolo, his Practise is the only English 16th century work on rapier besides di Grassi. It was published in London in 1595. Saviolo was the epitome of the fashionable Italian fencing master, and he incurred the undying enmity of George Silver and the London Masters of Defence. "Although in no way original, Saviolo so understood his art as to justify his great reputation." 

George Silver, a Master of the traditional English school, published his Paradoxes of Defense in London in1599. This is largely a diatribe against the rapier, and specifically Saviolo. Silver's Brief Instructions Upon My Paradoxes of Defense gives the instructional material on how to actually fight that got left out of his Paradoxes.

Henri Sainct Didier's Traicte... sur l'Espee Seule, published in Paris in 1573, is the first major work on fencing in French. He is considered the "father of their national science of arms" by the French, but his work is largely derivative of di Grassi and the Italians. The French school would not achieve its dominance of the art until the 17th century. A recent translation of this work into English has been published by Laura Angotti.

We cannot close without mentioning Ridolfo Capo Ferro, whose Gran Simulacro dell'Arte Edell'uso della Scherma, published in Siena in 1610, clearly marks the delineation between the "old" and the "new" schools of fencing. The lunge appears here clearly (although Nicoletto Giganti has the honor of mentioning it first, in 1606), as well as the idea of parries being distinct from counterattacks, with the "dui tempi" of parry-riposte. 

Obtaining Copies

An English version of St. Didier can be obtained from the translator, Laura Angotti. 

Accademia della Scherma