Dell'Arte di Scrima Libri Tre (Giovanni dall'Agocchie, 1572)

Dell'Arte di Scrima Libri Tre is a printed fencing treatise by Giovanni dall'Agocchie, published in Venice in 1572 by Giulio Tamborino. Little is preserved about the author. We know that he was a citizen of Bologna, but we have not been able to document the dates of his birth and death. The work is dedicated to Fabio Pepoli, Count of Castiglione, but the sources do not reveal the nature of their relationship. The treatise takes the form of a dialogue between the author and Lepido Ranieri, spread over seven days in three books. The largest is the first book on the art of fencing, which spans five days and whose main weapon is the sidesword (spada da lato), alone and in combination with secondary weapons. The teaching is arranged into six main topics: identifying the blade, types of blows, stances (guardie), footwork, defence and attack, and techniques at half sword. The second book devotes one day to tournament combat, the third one day to the art of battle, i.e. the arrangement of the army. The text is accompanied by woodcut diagrams. W. Jherek Swanger translated the treatise into English. His first draft dates from 2007 and a substantially revised version appeared in 2018.

Martial arts in this work

Contents

The fencing part of the first book works with the Italian terminology of blows. Among the cuts it names mandritto, roverso, fendente, sgualimbro, tondo, ridoppio and tramazzone, and among the thrusts imbroccata, stoccata and punta riversa. It ranks the blows second of the six topics of the first book, after identifying the blade and before the stances (guardie). The conversation with Lepido Ranieri returns to fencing for five days in a row, while the author covers tournament combat in the second book and the art of battle in the third in a single day each. The sidesword (spada da lato) remains the central weapon of the whole fencing part, treated alone and in combination with secondary weapons.

Editions and translations

The treatise was published in Venice in 1572 by Giulio Tamborino. We did not find any other edition from before 1800 in the sources. Researchers attribute the decorative printer's device on the title page to Francesco Portonari, not to Tamborino. The copy held at the Getty Research Institute has a limp vellum binding and bears the ownership signature of Colonel Jacomo Matteucci. Besides woodcut diagrams, it contains decorative headpieces, initials and printed marginal notes. The English translation was prepared by W. Jherek Swanger, first as a draft from 2007 and then as a substantially revised edition from 2018 titled The Art of Defense: on Fencing, the Joust, and Battle Formation.

People and martial arts

• Giovanni dall'AgocchieAuthor
• W. Jherek SwangerTranslator

Details

Form

Printed book

Repository

Getty Research Institute

Library digitisation

archive.org/details/dellartediscrimi00agoc

Editions

• 1572 · IT · Dell'Arte di Scrima Libri Tre · Giulio Tamborino · first edition
• 2018 · EN · The Art of Defense: on Fencing, the Joust, and Battle Formation · Lulu Press · translation