Camillo Agrippa
Italian Renaissance fencer and engineer from Milano, author of the treatise Trattato di scientia d'arme (Roma 1553), which concentrates on the thrust with the point.
Quick Facts
ItalyBiography
Camillo Agrippa was an Italian Renaissance fencer, engineer and mathematician, author of the treatise Trattato di scientia d'arme of 1553. He was born in Milano. We have not been able to document the year of his birth: English Wikipedia gives 1520, Wiktenauer the tens of the 16th century. He died in Roma, according to the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani probably shortly after 1595, according to English Wikipedia on 1 January 1600.
He came to Roma in October 1535. According to Wiktenauer he was apparently not a professional fencing master, and we have not found his teacher in the sources.
The treatise was published in 1553 in Roma by the printer Antonio Blado and is dedicated to Cosimo de' Medici. According to the Dizionario Biografico, unlike Marozzo it concentrates on the point rather than the edge and allows quick lunges, and the lunge and the fondo first appear in Agrippa. English Wikipedia also credits him with simplifying Marozzo's guards to four, which we have not verified in a better source.
He was also an engineer. In 1583 he published a work on moving the Vatican obelisk to Saint Peter's Square, from 1574 to 1578 he built a water installation on the Pincio hill, and he wrote on winds, military formations and navigation. The treatise's engravings were formerly attributed to Michelangelo, but the Morgan Library catalogue considers this probably a mistake.
Early life
Camillo Agrippa was born in Milano, which is confirmed by the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, and on the title of the treatise of 1553 he calls himself Milanese. We do not know the year of his birth exactly. The Dizionario Biografico gives no date, Wiktenauer writes about the tens of the 16th century with a question mark, and English Wikipedia gives the year 1520. He came to Roma in October 1535, which Wiktenauer specifies as 26 October.
Training and teachers
Wiktenauer states that Agrippa was apparently not a professional fencing master, and it names no fencing teacher of his. We too have not found his teacher in the sources. According to Wiktenauer he knew Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and Michelangelo in Roma, but it gives no source for this claim. The Dizionario Biografico merely notes that Antonio da Sangallo and Michelangelo were working on moving the obelisk at the time of his arrival in Roma.
Contribution and innovations
Trattato di scientia d'arme con un dialogo di filosofia was published in 1553 in Roma by Antonio Blado, the apostolic printer, and according to the Dizionario Biografico it is dedicated to Cosimo de' Medici. According to the same dictionary, in contrast to Marozzo the treatise concentrates on the point of the sword instead of the edge and allows quick lunges along inner lines. It names the stance in quarto and the lunge and the fondo, which appears for the first time in Agrippa. In chapter XV he writes that he will not dwell on the two-handed sword, because the principles of its blows delivered through the air are uncertain. English Wikipedia credits him with simplifying Marozzo's eleven guards to four, which we have not verified in the Dizionario Biografico or in the treatise.
Legends and documented facts
The date of death 1 January 1600 is given by English Wikipedia and by Mathew Lyons in History Today. The Dizionario Biografico, on the other hand, writes of death probably shortly after 1595, Wiktenauer gives the year 1595 and the Morgan Library catalogue 1595 with a question mark. The engravings in the treatise were formerly attributed to Michelangelo, which the Morgan Library catalogue, referring to Brunet and Mortimer, considers probably incorrect. According to English Wikipedia, modern art historians look for the engraver in the circle of Marcantonio Raimondi.
Legacy
In 1583 he published in Roma the Trattato di trasportar la guglia in su la piazza di S. Pietro, in which he proposed moving the Vatican obelisk upright, without laying it down and raising it again. From 1574 to 1578, according to a study by L. Lombardi, he built a water installation on the Pincio hill. The Dizionario Biografico also lists the writings Modo di comporre il moto della sfera (1575), Dialogo sopra la generazione de' venti (1584), Dialogo del modo di mettere in battaglia (1585), Nuove inventioni sopra il modo di navigare (1595) and La virtù (1598). As later masters who may have built on him Wiktenauer names Girolamo Lucino, Camillo Palladini, Henry de Sainct Didier and Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza, but a direct influence is uncertain.
Works and sources
Quotes
I had intended to describe also how the two-handed sword is used, but on better consideration I concluded that whatever could be said about it would be in vain.
Havevo disignato dire ancora come si adoperasse il Spadone: ma considerato meglio che quanto si potesse dire sarebbe uano