Fendente
Fendente
Literally: cleaving blow
Fendente, literally a splitting strike, is a vertical descending cut of Bolognese fencing led from the teeth to the knee.
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Fendente, literally a splitting strike, is a vertical descending cut of Bolognese fencing. Manciolino describes it as a cut led with the true edge; a glossary of Italian fencing terms gives it as a descending attack dividing the body "from the teeth to the knee." Fendente belongs to the basic strikes of the Bolognese school in both Manciolino and Marozzo, and today is also part of HEMA reconstructions. It differs from mandritto and riverso, led diagonally from the right or left along the line from ear to knee, by its purely vertical path. We have not been able to document who introduced fendente into Bolognese terminology.