Source Texts

These are the texts which we study. In my opinion they represent something like a coherent body of study which shows the core and breadth of rapier technique in France between approximately 1590-1640.

• Camillo Agrippa — Summary and Interpretation

The sources below contain some gaps and there is plenty of room for interpretation. In these cases, since they all (mostly?) credit Camillo Agrippa as a theoretical and methodological ancestor, it is fitting that his 1553 text is used as an outsider reference point where necessary and where possible.

• Gerolamo (Heironyme) Cavalcabo
• Patenostrier of Rome
• Pedro de Heredia
• Andre des Bordes (Camillo Palladini?)

• Gerolamo (Heironyme) Cavalcabo
• Paternostrier
• Pedro de Heredia
• “Capitaine” Péloquin
• François Dancie
• Andre des Bordes (Camillo Palladini?)

I have a theory that both these sources are different expressions of the same underlying system of swordsmanship which ranged across the Mediterranean coast of the Occitan-speaking lands of southern France and eastern Spain. This is a hill I will die on.

• Henry de Sainct Didier
• Luis Domingo Godinho

As a secondary focus and a counterpoint to the sources above:

• Joachim Meyer