Kiss the Sword
A Double Date During the Great Siege of Florence
Over a ten-month period in 1529 and 1530, the city of Florence was engaged in a great siege. The people of Florence were divided between those inside the city who supported a Republic, and those in the besieging army trying to return the Medici to Florence as Lords of the city. The siege also offered a chance for Florentines to settle some scores.
Ludovico Martelli was one such man. He was inside the city and had a score to settle with Giovanni Bandini, a man in the besieging force. The cause was naturally jealousy: both men had desired the favors of a single woman, and this woman had preferred Giovanni to Ludovico. Giovanni tried to talk his way out of the duel, but Ludovico presented it in such a way that Giovanni could not refuse without losing his status as a man of honor.
They each agreed to bring a partner, for this was to be a double duel.
Ludovico chose as his companion a man named Dante known for his great courage.
Giovanni chose a young man with his first beard, named Bertino.
On the evening on the 11th day of March, Ludovico and Dante came out of Florence to fight. They brought with them a large retinue, for the affair was to be conducted with great style and pageantry, Ludovico and Dante even bringing birds upon which to feast that night.
The actual duel was set for the following day. Here is the description provided in The History of Florence by Benedetto Varchi:1
On that day, twelfth day of March, all four fighters repaired to the dueling area. This was divided into two enclosed spaces, one in front of the other, separated only by a rope. The guard of the camp surrounded them, Germans, Spaniards, and Italians, all equal in proportion.
The duelists fought in shirts, without doublets. The shirt sleeve of their right arm was cut up to the elbow. And upon their right arm each man wore a short chainmail glove and each bore a sword. Indeed, this was a truly honorable and gentlemanly form of combat, especially since modern soldiers falsely believe that using defensive weapons in duels shows a lack of courage and is consequently blameworthy.
In Florence, Giovanni had a reputation for being more cautious than bold, and he was known more for cunning than courage; he had chosen these weapons to dispel that reputation.
Ludovico’s partner Dante was due to fight against Bertino. At their first pass Dante struck Bertino’s right cheek and hit him too with a thrust to the face, in the mouth. But this thrust was a light one. Yet Bertino continued to assail him with such fury, giving him three wounds to the arm, one serious and two minor. Dante was in such a bad state that he would have been forced to surrender to Bertino had Bertino kept his cool. For Dante no longer had the strength to hold the sword in one hand and was forced to use both hands to wield it.
With a remarkable perspicacity, Dante kept a ready eye upon his opponent’s actions, and seeing Bertino come towards him with the customary fury and thoughtlessness of youth, the apt Dante shoved a thrust into Bertino’s mouth, between the tongue and roof of his mouth. This immediately swelled Bertino’s right eye.
Bertino had long boastfully promised to die a thousand times rather than to ever surrender a single time, yet now he gave up. He may have been overcome by the force of that wound to his mouth, or perhaps from other wounds Dante had given him to the chest, or perhaps he was simply out of his mind. This surrender greatly displeased the Prince of Orange and the Count of San Secondo who was in the enclosure with a halberd.
Bertino would die the following evening at 1800.
Dante now sought to encourage his friend Ludovico and loudly shouted, “Victory,” to give him heart. The rules prevented him from doing more to help his friend.
Now that his turn had come, Ludovico boldly went forward to confront Giovanni. But controlling his sword with great effect, Giovanni kept his cool and gave Ludovico a wound over the eyebrow. Soon the blood from this wound began to seep into Ludovico’ eyes and impaired his vision.
With his vision impaired, Ludovico was in a desperate state. With his back against the wall, but courage still beating in his breast, Ludovico grabbed thrice at Giovanni’s sword with his left hand. But each time Giovanni twisted and pulled it strongly toward himself, in the process inflicting wounds in three places on Ludovicos left hand.
And now the more Ludovico used his left hand to clear the blood from his eyes so that he might see, the more he smeared it. Nevertheless, he delivered a terrible thrust at Giovanni that almost ended the fight. This thrust ended up protruding out of Louis back by almost a foot. Yet the mighty thrust had not pierced Giovanni but simply gone under his armpit and did nothing more than make a scratch under his left breast.
Now Giovanni delivered a downward strike to Ludovico’s head. With his sword caught under Giovanni’s arm, he was unable to ward off the blow in any other way but to try blocking it with his injured left hand. As he did he tried to grab the sword another time, but failed. In the process he became seriously wounded. Unable now to bear the sword, he put both hands to the cross of the sword and rested the pommel of his sword against his chest, and then charged at Giovanni this way.
Giovanni who was as agile as he was valiant, dodged the blow and at the same time struck a cut to Ludovico’s head. At the same time he declared, “If you don’t want to die, surrender to me.”
Ludovico could no longer see and was wounded in many places. He said, “I surrender to the Prince.”
Giovanni said, “Today, in this place, I am the Prince.”
And in this way Ludovico was compelled to surrender himself to Giovanni to save his life.
After the fight, Giovanni was greatly praised, having received no greater wounds than a scratch under the left breast, and another small scratch upon the wrist.
Dante and Giovanni now made deals to barter their prisoners back, and Dante returned to Florence that evening along with Ludovico, going through the same gate from which they had left the city, and doing so at the same time they had left the day before.
The demands of history require that I must give the true reason for this duel. As mentioned, both Giovanni and Ludovico had taken a fancy to the same woman, and she had shown more favor to Giovanni than to Lodovico. This is what drove Louis to demand the fight with Giovanni, to prove to his woman that he was superior to Giovanni in the Art of Arms.
I will not reveal the woman's name owing to the nobility of her ancestors, and also out of consideration for her husband who is still alive and is completely blameless in these affairs.
I must also note that there was some controversy regarding the weapons of Louis and Giovanni. The latter had been responsible for bringing the swords to the fight. Having been brought two swords, of which Louis took one, Giovanni took the other, and pretending to brandish it, he broke it almost in the middle, some say with his hands, and others say that he struck it against his right knee. In any case, Lodovico's second did not want Lodovico to fight under any condition if Giovanni did not fight with that same broken sword, asserting that he was obliged to do so, and all the more so because Giovanni had had those swords made.”
Using a Hand to Grab or Beat a Sword:
Francesco Altoni writes of this duel in his chapter on breaking an opponent’s guard. He wishes for his readers to know that it is better to use your sword to manipulate the enemy’s weapon than it is to use your left hand.
“The hand is sensitive and is easily injured, and this brings great trouble to one trying to grab the enemy’s sword with their unarmored hand. Those who do such things often do no harm to the enemy but bring harm to themselves.”
Still the times do arise when there is no recourse but to grab the opponent’s sword. Altoni uses the example of Guglielmo Roman who did just such a thing during his duel, an event we highlighted in “Up Shit Creek without a Sword.”
He gives this advice on using your hand to deflect the enemy’s sword:
“It may sometimes be necessary to use your hand against the enemy’s sword, if your sword is too far extended to push on the enemy’s sword. If you desire to use your hand because of the tactical situation or through choice, then send it against the inside flat.”
“If your opponent tries to do this to you then the counter is to not allow your sword to be found; if the opponent comes with their fingers pointing up, then you will lower your sword, and if the opponent has the fingers pointing down, then you will raise it. In each case these take away the ability of the swords to enter the body.”
Altoni’s Chapter on Breaking Guards is available HERE for paid subscribers.
—Please note that the thumbnail pic is taken from Terminiello & Pendragon’s translation of Palladini’s “Art of Fencing” available here on Amazon.
This translation takes some departures from the original for ease of reading.