Ridolfo Capo Ferro
Italian fencing master from Cagli, active in Siena, author of the 1610 rapier treatise Gran Simulacro dell'Arte e dell'Uso della Scherma.
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Ridolfo Capo Ferro da Cagli came from the town of Cagli in the Duchy of Urbino (today the province of Pesaro e Urbino). We have not been able to verify the dates of his birth and death. His name appears in several forms in the sources (Capo Ferro, Capoferro, Capo-Ferro); modern scholarship unifies them as Capoferro.
He worked as a fencing master in Siena, where he held a position described as "master of the great German nation," which suggests he taught or led German students. He was influenced by Camillo Agrippa.
In 1610 he published in Siena, with the printers Salvestro Marchetti and Camillo Turi, the treatise Gran Simulacro dell'Arte e dell'Uso della Scherma. It was illustrated by Rafael Schiamirossi and is divided into a part on the art (theory) and one on practice. It covers combat with the rapier alone, sword fighting, rapier and dagger, rapier and cloak, and rapier and rotella (round shield); around 30% of the techniques employ cuts. It is dedicated to Federico Ubaldo della Rovere, son of Duke Francesco Maria II della Rovere.
The treatise was reissued in 1629 and 1632 in Siena and in 1652 in Bologna. Capo Ferro influenced the later master Sebastian Heussler. Modern scholarly literature rates the treatise as commendable but "neither exhaustive nor especially innovative," and judges that it had little influence in its own time.