Traité ou instruction pour tirer des armes (Girolamo Cavalcabo, 1597)

Traité ou instruction pour tirer des armes is a French printing of a fencing treatise by the Bolognese master Girolamo Cavalcabo from 1597. It is a translation made by Seigneur de Villamont, based on the Italian work Nobilissimo discorso intorno il schermo. The Italian text was composed roughly in the 1580s and survives in the manuscript MS Italien 1527. The treatise deals with the technique and teaching of rapier fencing. Cavalcabo served at the court of Henry IV and taught the dauphin, the later King Louis XIII, and according to English Wikipedia also Gaston of Orléans. According to the same source, his son César was master of fencing to the French court until 1642. The text received a German translation, Neues Kunstliches Fechtbuch, in 1611, and a modern English translation by Rob Runacres in 2015. According to English Wikipedia, Cavalcabo's work also appears in the 17th-century manuscript Livre des Leçons, attributed to Pedro de Heredia.

Martial arts in this work

Origin

The Italian original Nobilissimo discorso intorno il schermo, that is, The Most Noble Discourse on Fencing, was written by Cavalcabo according to Wiktenauer during his stay in London, roughly in the 1580s. It was printed only in 1597, in the French translation made by Seigneur de Villamont. The Italian text survives in the manuscript with the shelfmark MS Italien 1527, but we have not been able to verify which library holds it. The sources disagree about where Cavalcabo worked: Wiktenauer names London and the French court, English Wikipedia Rome and Paris. Both sources give only as a possibility that he was the son of Zachar Cavalcabo, publisher of Angelo Viggiani dal Montone's treatise of 1567, and perhaps also Viggiani's pupil.

Editions and translations

The French edition of 1597 is the first printing of Cavalcabo's text, and we have not been able to verify either the place of publication or the printer. According to Wiktenauer, a German translation followed in 1611 under the title Neues Kunstliches Fechtbuch, and we did not find its translator in the sources. According to English Wikipedia, the content of the treatise also appears in the 17th-century manuscript Livre des Leçons, which is attributed to Pedro de Heredia. The modern English translation Treatise or Instruction for Fencing was published in 2015 by Rob Runacres. Among other sources on the work, Wiktenauer also lists a linguistic study from 2021, whose title we did not find in the sources.

People and martial arts

• Girolamo CavalcaboAuthor
• Seigneur de VillamontTranslator
• Rob RunacresTranslator

Details

Form

Printed book

Editions

• 1597 · FR · Traité ou instruction pour tirer des armes · first edition
• 1611 · DE · Neues Kunstliches Fechtbuch · translation
• 2015 · EN · Treatise or Instruction for Fencing · Lulu.com · translation