Early Modern Rapier
LongEdge Fencing training materials for rapier and smallsword are constantly under development.
Sources
Each “author” page has a table listing the techniques in the text in a standard format. Soon, I'll be pulling all of these into a concordance and doing some analysis on which techniques are the most common, obviously, core, etc.
The sources which fall within the area of interest of LongEdge Fencing can be found on the List of Source Texts page, which includes summaries and some analysis/interpretation of them.
The main texts for the current project, handling the rapier alone, are listed here for convenience. These pages contain summaries of the basic actions and tactical advice in each text.
- Pedro de Heredia (who copies large sections of both and extends on them)
Other sources of particular interest include:
- Camillo Palladini – largely a repetition and commentary on Agrippa
- Charles Besnard – a text describing the use of transitional rapier/smallsword.
Andre Des Bordes provides a cute aside to the whole project as he largely plagiarised Palladini almost word for word. In addition, he's the only known fencing master to be executed for witchcraft. We play a dangerous game.
In addition, there is a lot of useful info in later texts. In particular, Jean de Brye's 1721 Art of Fencing Reduced to a Methodical Summary provides good information about how to think about coaching this material.
Research Foci
We're still in the analysing and synthesising stage of researching these texts. The process is three-fold:
- Understand each text in itself
- Understand the similarities between the texts
- Understand the differences between the texts
Small essays on small topics:
- The meaning of //quarter// – just a strike in quarte, a volte, or something else?
Current topics causing continual puzzlement:
- The “long lunge” versus the “short lunge”. Who prefers which type of lunge and why?
- De Heredia's “long play” versus “short play”. Is this the same as the long vs short lunge? Or, is it the Italian-style “wide play” vs “close play”?
- Does the “mathematical play” refer to LVD or to salle fencing (as opposed to fencing in earnest)?
The high-level strategy seems to be do something/anything to make the opponent move their feet.
- Sword and Dagger: Thrust between the weapons to determine what the opponent will do then take advantage of their mistake.
- Sword Alone: Subject the opponent's blade to force them to act (advance, retreat, change guard, etc) then take advantage of their mistake.