Antonio Manciolino
Italian fencing master of the Bolognese school, author of the treatise Opera Nova (Venice, 1531) on the sword, buckler and other weapons, with ten basic guards.
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Antonio Manciolino was an Italian fencing master associated with the Bolognese school and with Venice. He is documented from 1518 to 1531; the years of his birth and death have not survived in the sources, and one source places his life as early as the end of the 15th century. He is known for the treatise Opera Nova per Imparare a Combattere, & Schermire d'ogni forte Armi (A New Work on Learning to Fight and Fence with All Kinds of Weapons), published in 1531 in Venice.
On 24 November 1518 he signed a contract in Rome with the printer Stefano Guillery for the publication of 1000 copies of a fencing treatise; some sources call the printer a Roman, others a Frenchman. No copy has survived. Guido Antonio di Luca is named as a possible teacher; we have not been able to verify this.
Opera Nova has a prologue and six books: the first three on the sword and buckler, the fourth on the sword with the large buckler, two swords and the sword alone, the fifth on the sword with cloak, dagger and rotella, the sixth on pole weapons. In it Manciolino systematised ten basic guards, for example alta, di testa and porta di ferro, and described both offensive and defensive combinations for each. It is among the main fencing works of the 16th century, and one source calls it the oldest surviving treatise of the Bolognese school.
The 1531 edition is marked as corrected, which points to an older version from around 1523; it is not certain that Manciolino himself prepared it for print. The work was overshadowed by the more extensive treatise of Achille Marozzo, published thirteen years later.