Riverso
Riverso
Also known as: botta riversa
Riverso is a descending diagonal cut from the left (for a right-hander), along the line from ear to knee, the counterpart to mandritto in Bolognese fencing.
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Riverso is a cut from the side opposite the dominant one, so from the left for a right-hander. A glossary of Italian fencing terms describes it as a descending diagonal cut along the line from ear to knee. The term is documented in the Bolognese fencing treatises of the 16th century. Riverso belongs to the basic strikes of the Bolognese school and today also to HEMA reconstructions. As the basic offensive diagonal cut it complements mandritto: both follow the same path from ear to knee, differing only in the side it starts from, mandritto from the right, riverso from the left. We have not been able to document the literal meaning of the name.