For years now when someone new to the Bolognese tradition ask me where to start I’ve recommended Dall’Agocchie. After you get past the concept of his writing being in a dialogue, Dally has an expansive system, well laid out thoughts on tempo and provocation, and clearly tells you how to step, how to hold his guards ect. And I will still maintain that he is a great starting point for beginners. But in terms of trainability I am beginning to lean towards Manciolino’s Opera Nova. His single sword section (Page 128 in The Complete Renaissance Swordsman) is incredibly short, less than a page of printed material. It focuses on one guard, one provocation, and a limited number of parries. But in seven plays he touches on every aspect of the Bolognese Tradition. Here I am going to attempt to give a basic framework for a curriculum with Mani as its base with small supplements from the Anonimo and Dall’Agocchie. Manciolino Vs Dall’Agochhie’s 30 Days to Duel: Everyone who starts with Dally seems drawn immediately to 30 Days to duel. And it isn’t necessarily a bad place to start. Dall’Agocchie says this is what he would teach someone with no experience how to fight a duel in 30 days. Pros:
Cons:
The second intention attacks are really the crux of why you should start with Mani. It will teach students how to think beyond just trying to hit the opponent. This leads easier into the concept of provocation, or even provocations from both sides in a play. To be more precise, Dally’s goal is not to teach you to fence well. It is teaching a complete newbie one good trick for them to commit to feverishly to save their life. And he even says that he doesn’t think it will work unless you have multiple training partners. The con to Mani’s system is the plays are more complicated and will have a steep learning curve if you just jump right into them. SOOOOO…... What should we know before jumping into Manciolino’s Plays? Mani’s canonical Plays are dense and become complicated. Before throwing your newbie students to the Wolf of Manciolino they should be passingly aware of the following actions: Foot Work
Guards:
Attacks:
Defenses:
Three Advantages of the Sword:
Mani Teaches Tempo/Provocation: So a note: Manciolino starts every play practically the same way. In Porta Di Ferro Stretta you take a gathering step into range threatening the point until your opponent retreats or attacks. This is a provocation. And if we look at Dall’Agocchie’s 5 Tempi to attack we find that the this is one of the tempi. Your opponent SHOULD attack you when you lift your front foot to move forward. But we are ready for him. Moving into Range: So when the provocation happens, the agent attempts to seize the tempo and attack with a thrust, strike to the legs, or fendente. For absolute beginners let us leave it at that. Have them figure out their range for each of these attacks and move attack in the proper tempo. FOR THE ADVANCED MOVEMENT INTO MEASURE! There are 3 measures that I will deal with here. Approaching, Larga (wide), and Stretta (Narrow). And this is an injustice to make the talk of measure into a subsection of a larger article. Approaching Measure is when you are unable to attack each other. Larga is when you can attack with a single step. Stretta you can attack with a half step or less. The patient approaches as Manciolino recommends with gathering steps. The Agent provokes by thrusting over the patient’s sword moving into larga range gaining all three advantages of the sword. This is not an earnest attack, but a provocation that threatens the tip while gaining a huge advantage. If the patient does nothing the agent will take a second step and stab him, so the patient must parry with the false edge (This is DA’s Tempo to attack, The opponent changes his guard injudiciously). The agent then steps in with his second intention attack (Mandritto, riverso, cut to the leg) ending in the stretta range. What if they don’t react? A small supplement from the Anonimo: Mani tells us that when we press them with the gathering step that they must either attack, or retreat in great shame. The one thing he doesn’t tell us how to deal with is what happens when they stand there with their thumb up their butt not moving. Now we could attack straight away with a thrust overtop their sword. But we do not have one of the 5 tempos to attack and could be falling into a trap. As Dall’Agochhie tells us, “if you proceed to attack determinedly and without judgment when your enemy is fixed in guard, you’ll proceed with significant disadvantage, since he’ll be able to perform many counters.” Instead we shall borrow from the Anonimo (As Rob Rutherfoord constantly is telling me to do) to fill in this small blind spot. So having pressed your opponent and they do nothing: “... If he should retreat and not attack, in the case that he is also in porta di ferro stretta with the right foot forward, you will, drive the false edge of your sword over that of the enemy pushing it towards his left side and setting it aside, and this tempo you will pass with your left foot in a great towards his right side throwing at him a mandritto to the face or to the sword arm that does not pass cinghiara porta di ferro stretta, your right foot following behind the left; and if here your enemy should respond with some attack you will be able to strike his sword hand with a mezzo roverso with a turn of the sword hand that does not pass coda lunga stretta.” (Stephen Fratus Translation) TLDR: Strike a Falso to move his sword to his left, take a passing step to his right throwing a mandritto to his face ending in Porta Di Ferro with the left foot forward. If he throws a cut turn your true edge into his hand in a counter cut. Bring it together: So because I’m an engineer, and I like pictures, here is a flow chart detailing what the fight of Mani’s single sword would look like. Again, I’m not going into the nitty gritty details of each technique. This is a road map to how it flows. Also do not forget that when setting up drills to sometimes have the Agent win the engagement. This will teach how to set up second intention attacks. So why is this small system so good?
In it, we learn about tempo, range, and are given a defense to almost any type of attack. It also teaches how to deal with secondary attacks, and how to set them up from the point of view of the agent. It does not teach a million techniques, but a small core set of principles, that are central to the Bolognese tradition. The goal of this article was not to give a full fledged lesson, but help others build a skeleton of how to teach Manciolino as a starting place (over say Dall’Agocchies 30 days to Duel.). To make full use of the article I recommend Tom Leoni’s “Complete Renaissance Swordsman” that better details the guards, and actions that I outline.
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Will PhillipsInstructor at Dallas Renaissance Sword Guild, and co-founder of East Texas Historical Fencing. Archives
September 2019
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