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Federico Ghisliero
Died 1619
Turino
Occupation Soldier
Citizenship Bologna
Influences
Genres Fencing manual
Language Italian
Notable work(s) Regole di molti cavagliereschi essercitii (1587)
Manuscript(s) M.A.M. Ghisliero MS (1585)

Federico Ghisliero (Ghislieri; d. 1619) was a Bolognese soldier and fencer. Little is know about his early life, but he came from a Bolognese family and studied fencing under Silvio Piccolomini. He lead a long military career that included serving under the famous commander Alessandro, Duke of Parma, in Flanders in 1582. He was also a friend of Galileo Galilei and a prolific writer, though unfortunately most of his writings were destroyed in a fire at the University of Turin in 1904.

In 1587, he published a fencing treatise called Regole di molti cavagliereschi essercitii ("Rules for Many Knightly Exercises"); two versions of the book exist, and it's unclear which was created first. One is dedicated to Antonio Pio Bonello, a well-known soldier and distant relative of Ghisliero, and the other to Ranuccio Farnese, who was 18 years old at the time and Alessandro's heir.

Ghisliero's treatise is notable for his use of geometry in relation to fencing, using concentric circles centered on where the fencer has placed most of their weight (often, but not always, the back foot), and sometimes including multiple versions of each figure in an illustration to show the progression of the movements he describes. He also seems to be the first author to reference the Vitruvian Man in a fencing treatise. However, his treatise is unique in that it was printed without any illustrations at all, and they had to be drawn in by hand. It's unclear whether this indicates that he intended to have printing plates made but was unable to do so, or that his plan from the start was to have the books vary based on how much art each buyer was willing to pay for.

Ghisliero died in Turino in 1619.

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