The Sword of the People. Roberto Laura

a combination of the best methods of his time for a single school to follow. However, as Achile Marozzo had done before him, Fabris also provided information on battling with the dagger, which to date has not lost its validity within many knife schools from the south of the peninsula or worldwide:

       “[…]because among men, who’s honor is whole, unexpected and sudden incidents may occur, which do not leave time to reach for long weapons, you should remember and admonish which techniques may serve a man dagger against dagger. Because the dagger is short, there is the danger that the enemy may be able to grasp the handle of our dagger.

       But you may do less than parry. Instead you save yourself quicker with body and feet to one side and to the other, and injure his hands and arms, so that you are safer and keep the enemy away. This way he cannot grab you nor wrestle with you. Furthermore, the one who has understanding of time, measure and footwork will be helped by the items described before. And more will not be said […].”

      Ridolfo Capo Ferro, Gran Simulacro dell’Arte e dell’Uso della Scherma di Ridolfo Capo Ferro, 1610.

       1.5.5 Ridolfo Capo Ferro

      The first edition of the work of the great Italian Fencing Master Ridolfo Capo Ferro, Gran Simulacro dell'Arte e dell'Uso della Scherma di Ridolfo Capo Ferro, was published in the year 1610. It thus represents a fencing book, which also reflects artistically the transition to the Baroque. Even though the fencers are portrayed naked in Capo Ferro’s work, the difference to the engravings in Agrippa’s treatise literally jumps into the eye. The artist Raphael Schiaminossi designed the 43 full-page copperplates. They are shown disproportionally as was the style of Mannerism and therefore have an expressive dynamic that up until that time had not been shown in fencing books. It was therefore primarily a work for the contemporaries of Capo Ferro, who were also interested in art. In his treatise, Capo Ferro argues that first, one must almost simultaneously move the weapon and upper body (so here, he goes one step further than Giganti had before), because one is then even more ahead of the adversary in time and space. He also championed the position that it was advantageous to stand in profile to the opponent, thus offering less hit surface. In many southern Italian knife schools, one can still find this principle. Depending on the region and school, there are different names given to it. In a branch of the tradition of Manfredonia, as I have learned it, one speaks of the so-called chiuse, the closed positions⁴⁵. In the “circling and/or flowery school” from Sicily (Catania region) you also generally stand closed⁴⁶.

      In the end, it was Capo Ferro who first felt that one should raise the left arm for the balance. This makes it almost a kind of counterweight to the sword-arm. This idea can still be found in some schools of folk Italian knife fencing, where it is sometimes called bilancia47, the balancing scale. Ultimately, he was the first to describe in detail the thrust with a long lunge and also split the blade of the sword into only two sections, forte and debole, strong and weak, respectively.

      Capo Ferro, Thrust with lunge.

      Capo Ferro, left arm in the balance/scale.

      Alfieri, Counter thrust in seconda.

       1.5.6 Ferdinando Alfieri

      I would like to mention Ferdinando Alfieri, an Italian Fencing Master of the Early Baroque⁴⁸ from Padua, for literary-scientific reasons. He is responsible for the first fencing caesura in Italy.

      His work from 1640, La Scherma di Francesco Alfieri, showed the fencers, in contrast to his predecessors,⁴⁹ no longer classically nude, but rather, in the style of Marozzo, back in the wardrobe of their time. It was Alfieri who was the first to refer to previous Fencing Masters by means of quotations and commentaries. He greatly appreciated Fabris in terms of fencing, while vehemently opposed Marozzo and Capo Ferro in many respects. In this way, he became the first documented exponent of the critique of tradition, in Italy at least. Before Alfieri, the German Heinrich von Gutenrrodt ventured an open and pungent criticism of the German fencing guilds: he sharply criticized the fencing school of the Marx Brothers, while he expressed the views of Joachim Meyer, to put it cautiously, rather positively.

       1.5.7 A Summary of the Technical Developments in Fencing

      In order to give a better overview of the extent to which the development of the historical Italian fencing style has also influenced the folk knife culture of southern Italy, the following presents the most important stages of development, as far as can actually be documented from the literature:

      Fiore dei Liberi, 1410 (circa)

      • The first literary work concerning the Italian fencing school.

      • The first representations of a fencer’s guards, as they continue to be represented today within various popular fencing schools in southern Italy, whether with knives or stick.

      • The first instructions to fight with a short blade, the dagger.

      Achille Marozzo, 1536

      • The methodical classification of numerous guards (fencing positions) and their associated footwork to reach the desired scale for attack and defense.

      • The first representation of the theory of the circle or of circle walking.

      Camillo Agrippa, 1553

      • Identification of the advantage of the straight-line, carefully targeted thrust in comparison to the arc of the cut.

      • The reduction of all poses or fencing positions to only four basic hand positions.

      • The relationship of the length of the lunge to the position of the weapon arm for the best possible range of attack.

      Nicoletto Giganti, 1606

      • The extension of the weapon arm before the actual strike.

      • The detailed (technical) examination of the basic fencing posture, including the corresponding counter-part (postura and contropostura).

      • The tactical examination of the various combat positions, including their relative counter-positions (guardie and controguardie).

      • The immediate withdrawal to a safe distance after a strike.

      • The introduction of the cross step.

      Salvator Fabris, 1606

      • The methodical compilation of tactics, techniques and guard/postures of different schools,⁵⁰ which led to the development of the first systematically created hybrid system in fencing.

      Ridolfo Capo Ferro, 1610

      • Profiled positioning.

      • Simultaneous movement of the arm and upper body before the strike.

      • Improvement of balance by raising the left arm (for the right-handed).

      Ferdinando Alfieri, 1640

      • Introduction of fencing critique (in Italy) regarding other masters. That is, the introduction of a means for a differentiated, analytical confrontation on the subject matter (system critique).

       1.6 The Possible Transitions from the Sword to the Knife

       1.6.1 The Prohibition to Carry Weapons or rather to Duel, and the Consequent Development of Knife Fencing

      At this point it must be mentioned