Wow … after umpteen hours of translating and editing (and editing and editing…) Francesco Altoni’s Monomachia is out into the world with a fantastic cover by Nikki Wiest. It is available here:
This is, or was, the most important Italian fencing manual still untranslated. Having spent many hundreds if not a thousand hours turning this into easy-to-read English, there are a few particularly salient features of the book that bear highlighting.
But one question that must be first answered: if it is so important then why did it remain untranslated for so long? A recent online discussion on this topic provided a fantastic answer from Matthew Joseph Huller, who was also translating this work until life got in the way.
“Altoni is an awful awful writer desperately in need of a patient editor. The system presented within the text is very very interesting and potentially historically significant due to the potential connection with the Medici court in Florence.”
It is fair to say that the language is as bad as the fencing is good.
The Monomachia
Altoni uses a unique structure to teach his fencing. Rather than having exemplar weapon to teach his system, the first third of his work is given over to a discussion of the general principles of arms. This is not unheard of—many authors begin their work with a prologue of what they propose to cover—but none with such sweeping scope. He starts by explaining why one should even bother to study arms. “Some people think that all that is necessary is to know how to throw a fendente, a mandritto, a roverso and to give a thrust…and that the study of arms is a fruitless undertaking.” Altoni counters this by saying, “He who understands and practices the art is every time superior to his enemy, unless the enemy has some other advantage.” From this beginning Altoni proceeds through the foundations of how to fight with weapons, and provides a way of bringing an opponent safely out of guard — one of the true hallmarks of skill — that is based on a few universal principles. And these principles apply not just to the unaccompanied sword, but for any long weapon.
In his second book he delves into the “particulars” of various weapon; this discusses how a person can come to a duel, immediately identify the weapon they are using and recognize its strengths and its weaknesses. He takes particular care about the unaccompanied sword and the sword and dagger, including how to use each in armor. He uses the duel as the basis because as he explains, “..in this work I focus primarily on duels and similar combats with equal weapons, it does not stand to reason that I believe this is always how one should fight… I believe they {arms} could only be properly taught without confusion as matched weapons, even though men can fight with or without mismatched weapons according to chance and choice.” Perhaps he does this best when describing how to assault a fortification while using a rotella to defend yourself from people dropping stones on you from above.
Altoni’s third book covers the rest of what you need to know – what to do when your weapon binds with that of your opponent as well as combinations appropriate to the unaccompanied sword and the sword and buckler. My personal favorite part for using with sidesword (or rapier), is his discussion on the various prese or holds you can make, depending on whether you are to your opponent’s inside or outside and how close you are to them. Depending on circumstances you might beat their flat, grab their pommel or do the throw you see below or many other different actions.
Finally everything comes together in the Play of the Unaccompanied Sword. Here is where Altoni describes how to approach your opponent and safely strike them, and he includes lots of fun details unmentioned by other authors and that we would be unlikely to figure out on our own; such as, licking your hand to moisten it or that the trumpet calls three times before the duel begins in earnest. It is these bits that make Altoni interesting both as a historical artifact as well as manual on how to hit people safely.
Finally in his dedication he makes it clear that he is the fencing master for Cosimo, Duke of Florence, so this is a valid and useful art for self-defense. This is important corroboration, since with many of our fencing masters we cannot know just how useful the art they were teaching was (I’m looking at you, mad Franconian Monk who penned I.33.)
Altoni’s Place in Fencing History
Altoni’s treatise is both a reflection of the fencing of his time and of the changes that would be coming. Like the Bolognese he uses an extensive set of eighteen guards and also like them these guards represent not just positions of the arm and hand, but also the orientation of the hips with respect to the opponent. Much like the previous sources his sword positions also utilize the blade alignments characteristic of the Bolognese school, with the true edge usually oriented some way toward the ground, rather than the horizontal left and right orientation of the later rapier masters.
Yet if Altoni is most famous for one thing, it his description of a lunge, the oldest known:
There is no more gallant spectacle, no more of a beautiful or orderly thrust, than the sight of a man who directs his point to the enemy’s face or stomach while also keeping the tip of his right foot directed at the enemy. He should also keep his head centered over the middle of his right foot and lean it towards the enemy while turning his body like a blade. His back foot should extend proportionately and be perpendicular to his right foot and his whole body should be supported so that it goes toward the enemy like death itself to assail and strike. A body arranged in this way will be one that is secure in striking the enemy without itself being struck.
Like the later rapier masters Altoni evidences a strong preference for the thrust. Not only does he claim it to be the best blow—as do many other early authors—but he often prefers to follow up a thrust with yet another thrust. If you had to pick one signature move from Altoni it would probably be to thrust from a left foot forward position and when the enemy starts to parry, to then draw into a high point in line position (prima or unicorn) and then thrust again, only to follow that up with yet anothet thrust. He has many combinations like this in his Play of the Unaccompanied Sword. He does have cuts, though he makes it clear these are suboptimal and even vulgar blows.
Did I Mention Polearms?
HEMA and historical fencing is largely the practice of playing with swords, but let us not forget the true business weapon of the Renaissance, the polearm. The weapon for when you absolutely, positively have to kill someone. Altoni dishes pretty extensively on polearms, and he does so in a unique way. In the Renaissance you might show up to a dueling field and be handed some random kind of polearm and then your life would depend upon your ability to fight with that weapon.
Of course polearms come in a variety of shapes and sizes and they all require different tactics to use them. Here is where Altoni’s approach really shines. One need only look at their weapon and ask a few basic questions to determine how to fight with it. Does it have a cutting edge? Does it have hooks for trapping an opponent’s weapon? Does it have a point?
· If your weapon is simply a cutting weapon then you treat it like a poleaxe (or Spadone) and you try to get your open into a position with crossed hands while yours remain uncrossed.
· If your weapon is simply a stabbing weapon then it is a pike and you look to move your weapon to a position so that you can stab your opponent and they cannot stab you.
·If your weapon cuts and thrusts, it is a partisan and you look to throw cuts to your opponent’s hands, since they cannot use a partisan if their hand is broken or gone.
·If your weapon can trap other weapons, then it is a spiedo and you first seek to trap an opponent’s weapon and then stab them.
There is also great wisdom in here about polearms and history, like the fact that the spiedo is the best defensive weapon and the fact that Italians don’t really like pikes and prefer to fight on the battlefield with guns, owing to their “better flexibility during skirmishes and assaults.”
Altoni gives us a variety of different weapons (also interesting for history nerds) and tells us which of his categories they apply to. The billhook and the halberd are types of spiedo. The poleaxe is a type of spadone since it “The poleaxe offers few defenses, and is more chaotic, calling more upon strength than skill.” The pike comes in a variety of flavors; half-pike, gianettone and zagaglia, basically all just different types of spear.
The partisan also has a variant of itself known as the “coltella imperiale.” This has only a single edge, a hook and a a hilt; best guess is that it is basically a knife on a stick, since a coltella is a knife.
Art of Arms Publishing
This is the first title from Art of Arms Publishing, but it will not be our last. So what is next? Here is a sample from one of our next translations of Italian fencing manuals. This is a practice fight between two men, one named Mutio and the other Gioan Girolamo. They are demonstrating the practice of arms for a group of lords while an Abbot fumes because they are keeping him from dinner.
The weapon they are using is called the coltella:
“…the combatants' area was cleared and they were made ready under arms. In an instant, they faced each other with the edges of their coltella raised, each appearing to strike now with the hilt and then with the blade, then also frequently exchanging their coltelle from their right hand to the left. Recognizing each other through these actions, they sometimes widened their stance and sometimes made moves to approach.
But seeing his opportunity, Mutio came with a mandritto to the head of Gioan Girolamo, stepping forward with his right foot. Gioan Girolamo was quick to parry this blow with the edge of his weapon, while simultaneously stepping forward with his right foot.
Mutio, without losing time, immediately advanced with his left foot, striking with the part of his haft near the hilt against the edge of the opposing coltella, almost causing Gioan Girolamo to lose it. But Gioan Girolamo quickly turned the edge of his iron to his left side, switching hands and making that reverse cut forward, striking a blow to Mutio’s head.
If Mutio had not been quick to defend himself with the hilt of his knife, stepping back with his right foot at that moment, he would have been struck. But he immediately stepped forward, pushing the point of his haft towards the enemy’s visor, so that Gioan Girolamo had to parry this away with the edge of his knife.
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