Giacomo di Grassi

Quick Facts

Country of OriginItaly

Biography

Giacomo di Grassi was an Italian fencing master and author of the treatise Ragione di adoprar sicuramente l'Arme, si da offesa come da difesa, published in 1570 in Venezia by Giordano Ziletti. We have not found the dates of his birth and death. According to Wiktenauer, the signature Giacomo di Grassi da Modena in the dedication suggests Modena as his origin.

Wiktenauer says he travelled through Italy watching the teaching of other schools and masters, but names no teacher. In the dedication he writes that he was received with honour in Treviso and given an honorary stipend, though by his own words he taught little there.

His teaching rests on five principles, for example that the straight line is the shortest of all and that a turning circle has the greatest force at its circumference. The treatise covers the rapier alone, with dagger, cloak and shields, two rapiers, the two-handed sword, polearms and the pike, and has sections on false art and bodily exercise.

In 1594 the English translation Di Grassi his true Arte of Defence appeared in London. According to Wiktenauer it was translated by a gentleman signing as I. G., and the edition was organised by Thomas Churchyard, author of the dedication. English Wikipedia ranks it among the three main fencing texts of Elizabethan England. We have not been able to document further details of his life.

Early life

Very little is known about the life of Giacomo di Grassi. Wiktenauer states that he was probably born in Modena and relies on the signature in the dedication of 1570 in the form Giacomo di Grassi da Modena. We have not found the date of his birth or death in the sources.

Training and teachers

According to Wiktenauer he travelled through Italy and observed the teaching of other schools and masters, but no teacher of his is named. In his dedication of 1570 he writes that he was received with honour in Treviso and was given an honorary stipend, although by his own words he taught little there. Wiktenauer judges that he apparently developed his own method. In the first chapter of the treatise he stresses that the aim of the art is not to talk about it but to perform it, and that besides judgement, bodily strength and dexterity are therefore necessary.

Contribution and innovations

The treatise Ragione di adoprar sicuramente l'Arme was published in Venezia by Giordano Ziletti and partners, and the dedication is dated 8 March 1570. The catalogue of the Royal Academy library describes the edition as a quarto of 151 numbered pages with a plate of engravings of fencers. In the first chapter he enumerates five principles, the first saying that the straight line is the shortest of all and the third that a turning circle has the greatest force at its circumference. He devotes separate sections to the rapier alone, the rapier with the dagger, with the cloak, with the buckler, with the targa and with the rotella, two rapiers, the two-handed sword, polearms and the pike. Sections on false art and on bodily exercise follow.

Legends and documented facts

Sources differ on who made the English translation. Wiktenauer writes that it was made by a gentleman signing as I. G. and that the edition was organised by Thomas Churchyard, who hired the translator and the printer and wrote the dedication signed T. C. English Wikipedia, referring to a University of North Carolina website, names Churchyard as the translator. The Wiktenauer infobox states that he died after 1594 in London, but the text of the article does not support this and we have not found this information elsewhere.

Legacy

The English edition Di Grassi his true Arte of Defence was published in 1594 in London and was sold at Temple Bar at the sign of the Hand and Star. According to Wiktenauer the English translation does not follow the Italian original exactly. English Wikipedia ranks it among the three main fencing texts known from Elizabethan England. A transcription of the Italian edition is now available on Wiktenauer.

Works and sources

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