Discorso sopra l'arte della scherma (MS 14/10)

Discorso sopra l'arte della scherma is an Italian fencing treatise by Camillo Palladini, written around 1600. In the full title the author calls himself a Bolognese. We have not been able to establish where he wrote the work. The treatise was not printed in the author's lifetime and carries no dedication. It survives as a manuscript with the shelfmark MS 14/10 from the de Walden Library. In it Palladini covers fighting with the sword alone, sword and dagger, sword and cloak, two swords, the two-handed spadone, the spear and the halberd. According to the summary on Wiktenauer, he combines elements of the Bolognese tradition, such as cuts with the false edge and older names for stances, with the emerging rapier techniques, and rejects excessive geometrical explanations. Among older masters he mentions, among others, Tapu di Milano and Camillo Agrippa, to whom he refers so that he can disagree with him. Torquato d'Alessandri lists Palladini in his book Il cavaliere compito, published in 1609 in Viterbo, as a master active in Rome. The French treatise by André des Bordes, Discours de la théorie de la pratique et de l'excellence des armes, published in 1610 in Nancy, is according to Wiktenauer apparently in large part an abridged translation of Palladini's discourse. The work was translated into English by Piermarco Terminiello and Joshua Pendragon, and their translation was published in 2019 by Royal Armouries under the title The Art of Fencing: The Forgotten Discourse of Camillo Palladini.

Martial arts in this work

Origin

We have not been able to establish the exact date of the treatise. Wiktenauer places it roughly at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century. The work has no dedication, so it reveals neither a commissioner nor a patron, and in the author's lifetime it remained in manuscript. The title, in which he calls himself a Bolognese, reveals the most about Palladini. The second report comes from Torquato d'Alessandri, who in 1609, in the book Il cavaliere compito (Viterbo, p. 109), names him as a fencing master active in Rome. Whether Palladini wrote the discourse in Bologna, Rome or elsewhere, we did not find in the sources.

Editions and translations

A French print apparently follows Palladini's discourse. In 1610 in Nancy, printed by André Blaise, André des Bordes published the treatise Discours de la théorie de la pratique et de l'excellence des armes, which according to Wiktenauer is apparently in large part an abridged French translation of Palladini's text. Olivier Dupuis and John Tse made a transcription of des Bordes's treatise, and in 2014 Rob Runacres prepared a working English translation of it. The Italian manuscript itself was translated into English by Piermarco Terminiello and Joshua Pendragon. Their book The Art of Fencing: The Forgotten Discourse of Camillo Palladini was published in 2019 by Royal Armouries.

People and martial arts

• Camillo PalladiniAuthor
• Piermarco TerminielloTranslator
• Joshua PendragonTranslator

Details

Form

Manuscript

Repository

Howard de Walden Library

Shelfmark

MS 14/10

Editions

• 2019 · EN · The Art of Fencing: The Forgotten Discourse of Camillo Palladini · Royal Armouries · first edition