Bolognese school of fencing
Modern term for a group of 16th-century Bolognese fencing texts, from Manciolino (1531) and Marozzo (1536) to dall'Agocchie. Whether they form one tradition is disputed.
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About Bolognese school of fencing
The Bolognese school is a name for a group of 16th-century fencing treatises by authors from Bologna. Rob Runacres (Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 2021) states that the idea of a Bolognese tradition as a distinct form peaking in the 16th century was created mainly by today's historical fencing community, based on shared features of the texts and the authors' shared place of origin. The core consists of five texts: Opera Nova by Antonio Manciolino (printed 1531), Opera Nova by Achille Marozzo (first 1536), Dell'arte di scrimia by Giovanni dall'Agocchie (1572) and the anonymous manuscripts 345 and 346 from the Biblioteca Classense in Ravenna, usually also Lo Schermo by Viggiani.
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According to Runacres, the writings are read as texts with the same pedagogy, for example assalti, rehearsed sequences for one or two fencers, and mnemonic names of guards such as coda lunga e stretta or porta di ferro. Marozzo's book covers techniques from the sword and buckler to the two-handed sword and polearms. According to Swanger, however, the terminology and the form of the guards are not always interchangeable among the authors. Filippo Dardi is often named as the founder of the school, who according to Battistini and Corradetti (2016) ran a fencing hall in Bologna from 1413. These authors, however, call the link between Dardi and Guido Antonio di Luca, Marozzo's teacher, purely hypothetical, and Runacres states that Emilio Orioli first proposed it in 1901. Neither Marozzo nor the other Bolognese authors mention Dardi. We have therefore not been able to establish the year the school was founded.
History
Filippo, or Lippo, di Bartolomeo Dardi was, according to Battistini and Corradetti (Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 2016), a Bolognese astrologer and mathematician who ran a fencing hall from 1413 until his death in 1464. The main archival source on him is a volume of letters with the Bolognese government from 1443. The city paid him 200 lire a year for astrological services and at the same time set maximum lesson prices for him, lower than half of what he asked. At the university he was, according to the archive, a lecturer in arithmetic and geometry from 1443 to 1463. Green (2001) names Rosolino, Francesco and Nerio among the earlier Bolognese masters.
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Rob Runacres (2021) writes that Dardi's genealogy was first proposed by Emilio Orioli in the Bolognese newspaper il Resto del Carlino in 1901, and that Jacopo Gelli in 1906 declared Guido Antonio di Luca to be Dardi's pupil and heir of the school. According to Battistini and Corradetti, the link between di Luca and Marozzo is documented by Marozzo's own words, while the link between Dardi and di Luca is purely hypothetical. According to them, the Bolognese school was spread by a number of masters without a single founder. According to the Folger Library catalog, Achille Marozzo's Opera Nova was published in Modena by Antonio Bergola on 23 May 1536. Gotti and Jaquet (2016) report at least two editions and six reprints up to 1615. Antonio Manciolino's Opera Nova was published in Venice by Zoppino in 1531 as newly corrected, and Tom Leoni, according to Runacres, considers it a later edition of the work from 1523. Dall'Agocchie's Dell'arte di scrimia was published in Venice by Giulio Tamborino in 1572. The anonymous manuscripts 345 and 346 from Ravenna, which Jaquet dates to around 1510 to 1515 and Runacres to roughly 1500 to 1550, were published, according to Jaquet, by Marco Rubboli and Luca Cesari in 2005.
How it differs
According to Rob Runacres (2021), the mnemonic guard names were not exclusively Bolognese. Viggiani calls them names of the common school, and the Florentine Francesco Altoni, at the court of Cosimo I, described porta di ferro, imbrochate and guarda cinghiara as common terms. Pacheco de Narváez in Libro de las grandezas de la espada (1600) mentions puerta de hierro as a common stance. Battistini and Corradetti (2016) contrast the Bolognese school, spread by a number of masters, with the German tradition built around a single founder, Liechtenauer. Runacres states that the Bolognese authors do not cite one another.
Technique
According to Rob Runacres (Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 2021), the five main Bolognese texts are read as texts with a shared pedagogy. An example is assalti, rehearsed sequences for one fencer or a pair. The key is the mnemonic names of guards such as coda lunga e stretta and porta di ferro e larga, which according to Runacres build on the 15th century, because Vadi and Fiore used names such as posta di donna, tutta porta di ferro and posta di dente di cinghiale. According to Pietersma (2023), Marozzo's Opera Nova contains instructions for a range of disciplines, from the sword and buckler to the two-handed sword and polearms. According to Jaquet, the anonymous Ravenna manuscripts contain principles, guards and steps, the sword alone and the sword against a polearm, the sword in two hands, the sword with a small or large buckler, the targe, the rotella and gloves, the axe in full armor, and the sword against a left-hander. According to Jaquet, fighting in armor disappears from the later Bolognese authors. Green (2001) writes that Marozzo was one of the first to prefer the thrust over the cut.
Training
According to Gassmann and colleagues' study (Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 2017), Manciolino proposes weighted scoring for practice bouts. A head hit scores three points, arms, torso and legs one point, feet two points, and hands nothing. In serious fighting, by contrast, he recommends aiming primarily at the opponent's hands. According to Battistini and Corradetti (2016), Dardi wrote that a pupil learns two-handed sword theory in two and a half months and practice in the same time, buckler theory in a month and a half, and each further discipline in a month of theory and a month of practice. His hall held at most 20 pupils at a time, he recommended two hours of lessons daily, and he was not obliged to teach one pupil longer than a year. The price list the city set for his lessons names the two-handed sword, sword and buckler, dagger, staff, wrestling, and sword with rotella or targone.
Ranks and progression
On the title page of Opera Nova from 1536, Marozzo calls himself mastro generale de larte de larmi, general master of arms. According to Rob Runacres (Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 2021), Marozzo and later Dall'Agocchie complained that masters were no longer examined as they once were. Runacres also states that research has found no municipal fencing guild in Bologna comparable to the Marxbrüder of Frankfurt.
Today
According to Rob Runacres (2021), current research on 16th-century Bolognese fencing consists mainly of translations, among others by Jherek Swanger, Tom Leoni and Stephen Fratus. Modern authors use the designation Dardi tradition (Swanger) or Dardi school (Greg Mele), while Tom Leoni, Battistini and Corradetti are reserved. Fratus writes that in today's HEMA study one can speak clearly of a Bolognese school because of shared terminology, methods and theory, although he admits that it is unclear whether a historical Bolognese tradition existed. Sala d'Arme Achille Marozzo states about itself that it studies and practices Italian historical martial arts according to medieval and Renaissance treatises.
Did you know
The Bolognese poet Giovanni Filoteo Achillini, according to Rob Runacres (2021), completed the poem Viridario in 1504, printed in 1513, in which he devotes over forty stanzas to teaching the sword and buckler. It is twenty years older than the earliest proposed date of a Bolognese printed fencing book, yet no later fencing author refers to it. Two late 17th-century printings from the original 1536 blocks of Marozzo bear, according to Gotti and Jaquet (2016), an added monogram HsP and the date 1529, the monogram of the German engraver Hans Sebald Beham. The authors see in this a possible hint of a lost edition before 1536. Dardi signs his petition to the city as Io Lippo de Bartolamio de Dardo de Dardi vostro minimo servidore.
Frequently asked questions
Did Filippo Dardi found the Bolognese school?
That is not documented. According to Battistini and Corradetti, Dardi ran a fencing hall in Bologna from 1413, but they describe his link to Marozzo's teacher di Luca as purely hypothetical. According to Rob Runacres, Emilio Orioli first proposed Dardi's genealogy in 1901, and Jacopo Gelli declared in 1906 that di Luca was Dardi's pupil.
Which books belong to the Bolognese school?
Rob Runacres names five texts: Opera Nova by Manciolino (1531) and by Marozzo (1536), Dell'arte di scrimia by dall'Agocchie (1572), and anonymous manuscripts 345 and 346 from Ravenna. Lo Schermo by Viggiani is usually added as well.
Did the Bolognese school really exist?
That is disputed. Rob Runacres (2021) states that today's historical fencing community mainly created the notion of a Bolognese tradition, and that dividing Italian masters into regional schools is to some extent a modern interpretation.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.