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'''Antonio Manciolino''' was a [[century::16th century]] [[nationality::Italian]] [[fencing master]]. Little is known about this master's life; he seems to have been Bolognese by birth and he may have been a student of [[Guido Antonio di Luca]],{{cn}} the Bolognese master who taught [[Achille Marozzo]] in the same period. His fencing manual is dedicated to Don Luisi de Cordoba, Duke of Sessa, Orator of the Most Serene Emperor to Adrian VI; this dedication may indicate that Manciolino was attached as fencing master to the ducal court.
 
'''Antonio Manciolino''' was a [[century::16th century]] [[nationality::Italian]] [[fencing master]]. Little is known about this master's life; he seems to have been Bolognese by birth and he may have been a student of [[Guido Antonio di Luca]],{{cn}} the Bolognese master who taught [[Achille Marozzo]] in the same period. His fencing manual is dedicated to Don Luisi de Cordoba, Duke of Sessa, Orator of the Most Serene Emperor to Adrian VI; this dedication may indicate that Manciolino was attached as fencing master to the ducal court.
  
In 1531, Manciolino published a treatise on swordsmanship called ''[[Opera Nova (Antonio Manciolino)|Opera Nova]]'' ("A New Work"),<ref>The full title was ''Di Antonio Manciolino Bolognese opera noua, doue li sono tutti li documenti & uantaggi che si ponno ha uere nel mestier de l’armi d’ogni sorte nouamente corretta & stampata'', which translates to "New Work by Antonio Manciolino, Bolognese, wherein are all the instructions and advantages that are to be had in the practice of arms of every sort; newly corrected and printed".</ref> which is the oldest extant treatise in the [[Filippo di Bartolomeo Dardi|Dardi]] or "Bolognese" school of swordsmanship.<ref>Both Dardi and Luca are thought to have published treatises in the 15th century that have since been lost.</ref>  
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In 1531, Manciolino published a treatise on fencing called ''[[Opera Nova (Antonio Manciolino)|Opera Nova]]'' ("A New Work"),<ref>The full title was ''Di Antonio Manciolino Bolognese opera noua, doue li sono tutti li documenti & uantaggi che si ponno ha uere nel mestier de l’armi d’ogni sorte nouamente corretta & stampata'', which translates to "New Work by Antonio Manciolino, Bolognese, wherein are all the instructions and advantages that are to be had in the practice of arms of every sort; newly corrected and printed".</ref> which is the oldest extant treatise in the [[Filippo di Bartolomeo Dardi|Dardi]] or "Bolognese" school.<ref>Both Dardi and Luca are thought to have published treatises in the 15th century that have since been lost.</ref>  
  
The 1531 edition describes itself as "corrected and revised" and was probably based on an earlier version printed in ca. 1523 (based on the fact that Don Luisi de Cordoba was only orator to Adrian VI between September of 1522 and September of 1523).<ref>Leoni, Tom. ''The Complete Renaissance Swordsman: Antonio Manciolino’s Opera Nova (1531)''. Wheaton, IL: [[Freelance Academy Press]], 2010. pp 11-12.</ref> Manciolino had signed a contract with a French printer in Rome in 1519 to publish his treatise, but it's unclear if this was the same edition or an even earlier one.<ref>Tassinari, 2021.</ref>
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The 1531 edition describes itself as "corrected and revised" and was probably based on an earlier version printed in ca. 1523 (based on the fact that Don Luisi de Cordoba was only orator to Adrian VI between September of 1522 and September of 1523).<ref>Leoni, Tom. ''The Complete Renaissance Swordsman: Antonio Manciolino’s Opera Nova (1531)''. Wheaton, IL: [[Freelance Academy Press]], 2010. pp 11-12.</ref> Manciolino had signed a contract with a French printer in Rome in 1518 to publish his treatise, but it's unclear if this was the same edition or an even earlier one.<ref>Elia Herbst and Niki Corradetti, «Antonio Manciolino e il contratto per Opera Nova del 1518», appendix to Tassinari, 2021.</ref>
  
 
Despite the breadth and detail of his work, Manciolino's efforts were overshadowed by the release of Marozzo's even more extensive work on Bolognese fencing thirteen years later.
 
Despite the breadth and detail of his work, Manciolino's efforts were overshadowed by the release of Marozzo's even more extensive work on Bolognese fencing thirteen years later.
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| class="noline" | <p>[1] Dedication: To the Most Illustrious Don Luisi de Cordola, Duke of Sessa, Orator of the Most Serene Emperor to Adrian VI.</p>
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| <p>[1] Dedication: To the Most Illustrious Don Luisi de Cordola, Duke of Sessa, Orator of the Most Serene Emperor to Adrian VI.</p>
| class="noline" | {{pagetb|Page:Opera Nova (Antonio Manciolino) 1531.pdf|12|lbl=1v}}
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| class="noline" | <p>[47] One must never reveal to the other any of his intentions regarding blows, but understand well those of the adversary. Because quarreling with a plain mind one must make good the other’s plans; but coming to play where honor is at stake, there it is a laudable thing to show the opposite of one’s intent.</p>
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| <p>[47] One must never reveal to the other any of his intentions regarding blows, but understand well those of the adversary. Because quarreling with a plain mind one must make good the other’s plans; but coming to play where honor is at stake, there it is a laudable thing to show the opposite of one’s intent.</p>
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| class="noline" | <p>[51] But if after he has extended the aforesaid thrust he wants to give you a tramazzone,<sup>b</sup> you will block that with your true edge, and thereafter in order to be safe from the tramazzone you will settle yourself into guardia di faccia without moving your foot.</p>
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| <p>[51] But if after he has extended the aforesaid thrust he wants to give you a tramazzone,<sup>b</sup> you will block that with your true edge, and thereafter in order to be safe from the tramazzone you will settle yourself into guardia di faccia without moving your foot.</p>
  
 
<p>And if after the previously named thrust he pretends to throw a mandritto,<sup>c</sup> but throws a riverso instead, for defense from the thrust, in the manner of your enemy you will extend a similar one, so that both swords encounter each other by their true edges, and for the warding of the mandritto, without any movement you will assume the guardia di faccia.</p>
 
<p>And if after the previously named thrust he pretends to throw a mandritto,<sup>c</sup> but throws a riverso instead, for defense from the thrust, in the manner of your enemy you will extend a similar one, so that both swords encounter each other by their true edges, and for the warding of the mandritto, without any movement you will assume the guardia di faccia.</p>
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<p>And if, after the thrust, he wants to strike you in the head with a fendente,<sup>d</sup> in order to ward yourself from the thrust you will hit his sword hand with a mezzo mandritto, and for defense from the fendente you will immediately go into guardia di testa, and thus protected, in response you will give him a mandritto to the face or legs as you wish.
 
<p>And if, after the thrust, he wants to strike you in the head with a fendente,<sup>d</sup> in order to ward yourself from the thrust you will hit his sword hand with a mezzo mandritto, and for defense from the fendente you will immediately go into guardia di testa, and thus protected, in response you will give him a mandritto to the face or legs as you wish.
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| class="noline" | <p>[7] Then crossing forward with your left you will do a molinetto outside your arm that falls into coda lunga stretta, and then you will replace your right foot at ease, so that its heel touches the point of the left foot, lifting your sword in this tempo into guardia alta with your buckler well extended toward the enemy.</p>
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| <p>[7] Then crossing forward with your left you will do a molinetto outside your arm that falls into coda lunga stretta, and then you will replace your right foot at ease, so that its heel touches the point of the left foot, lifting your sword in this tempo into guardia alta with your buckler well extended toward the enemy.</p>
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| class="noline" | …as it does not occur that "mandritti", "riversi", "falsi", "punti", and similar such words (which need to be understood in the art) can be changed into other names, as the signification of "to pass" does, which occurs to me continuously while writing with the pen, whence many times one comes to say that players “pass” with the left or the right foot, since one can say "pass", "cross", "glide", "guide", or "direct" the feet, and so where "right"<ref>''Destro.''</ref> is said, we will sometimes say "straight", or "strong", or "able", because man naturally has more strength in his right side than in his left, and equally sometimes "sinister", sometimes "left", or "weak", in order to avoid tedious regret, there being nothing more odious than the frequent repetition of the same word…
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| …as it does not occur that "mandritti", "riversi", "falsi", "punti", and similar such words (which need to be understood in the art) can be changed into other names, as the signification of "to pass" does, which occurs to me continuously while writing with the pen, whence many times one comes to say that players “pass” with the left or the right foot, since one can say "pass", "cross", "glide", "guide", or "direct" the feet, and so where "right"<ref>''Destro.''</ref> is said, we will sometimes say "straight", or "strong", or "able", because man naturally has more strength in his right side than in his left, and equally sometimes "sinister", sometimes "left", or "weak", in order to avoid tedious regret, there being nothing more odious than the frequent repetition of the same word…
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| class="noline" | <p>[70] The counter is that as he approaches to give you the riverso, you will immediately make a half-turn of your fist, protecting yourself from that, and as he grasps his sword in the middle in order to give you a box in the face, you will hit the approaching arm with the edge of your buckler, giving him beyond that a mandritto to the face.</p>
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| <p>[70] The counter is that as he approaches to give you the riverso, you will immediately make a half-turn of your fist, protecting yourself from that, and as he grasps his sword in the middle in order to give you a box in the face, you will hit the approaching arm with the edge of your buckler, giving him beyond that a mandritto to the face.</p>
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| class="noline" | <p>[39] And when he pushes a thrust to give you a riverso to the head or the leg, but supposing the head, defeat it with the false edge of the sword without moving the feet and against the coming riverso, pass with with the left foot forwards making a half turn of the hand and ward the blow. Then immediately traverse with the right [foot] towards his left side, give him a mandritto to the head or the leg, as you wish, that done, the left leg must follow the right.
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| <p>[39] And when he pushes a thrust to give you a riverso to the head or the leg, but supposing the head, defeat it with the false edge of the sword without moving the feet and against the coming riverso, pass with with the left foot forwards making a half turn of the hand and ward the blow. Then immediately traverse with the right [foot] towards his left side, give him a mandritto to the head or the leg, as you wish, that done, the left leg must follow the right.
 
</p>
 
</p>
  
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<p>After parrying with the false edge you can alternatively throw a mandritto to his face, that glides below the arm and into the chest advancing the right foot somewhat forward as much as this blow requires. This [parry] is one of the singular defenses that this style makes possible.</p>
 
<p>After parrying with the false edge you can alternatively throw a mandritto to his face, that glides below the arm and into the chest advancing the right foot somewhat forward as much as this blow requires. This [parry] is one of the singular defenses that this style makes possible.</p>
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{{section|Page:Opera Nova (Antonio Manciolino) 1531.pdf/106|4|lbl=-|p=1}} {{section|Page:Opera Nova (Antonio Manciolino) 1531.pdf/107|1|lbl=49r|p=1}}
  
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| class="noline" | <p>[11] </p>
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Latest revision as of 21:24, 15 June 2025

Antonio Manciolino

Illustration from the title page of Manciolino's treatise
Born late 1400s?
Died after 1531
Occupation Fencing master
Citizenship Bolognese
Patron Don Luisi de Cordoba
Genres Fencing manual
Language Italian
Notable work(s) Opera Nova (1531)
First printed
english edition
Leoni 2010
Concordance by Michael Chidester

Antonio Manciolino was a 16th century Italian fencing master. Little is known about this master's life; he seems to have been Bolognese by birth and he may have been a student of Guido Antonio di Luca,[citation needed] the Bolognese master who taught Achille Marozzo in the same period. His fencing manual is dedicated to Don Luisi de Cordoba, Duke of Sessa, Orator of the Most Serene Emperor to Adrian VI; this dedication may indicate that Manciolino was attached as fencing master to the ducal court.

In 1531, Manciolino published a treatise on fencing called Opera Nova ("A New Work"),[1] which is the oldest extant treatise in the Dardi or "Bolognese" school.[2]

The 1531 edition describes itself as "corrected and revised" and was probably based on an earlier version printed in ca. 1523 (based on the fact that Don Luisi de Cordoba was only orator to Adrian VI between September of 1522 and September of 1523).[3] Manciolino had signed a contract with a French printer in Rome in 1518 to publish his treatise, but it's unclear if this was the same edition or an even earlier one.[4]

Despite the breadth and detail of his work, Manciolino's efforts were overshadowed by the release of Marozzo's even more extensive work on Bolognese fencing thirteen years later.

Treatise

As Craig Pitt-Pladdy has refused our request to host his translations on Wiktenauer, we instead have links to their locations on other sites in the appropriate sections until such time as another translation appears.

Note: This article includes a very early (2003) draft of Jherek Swanger's translation. An extensively-revised version of the translation was released in print in 2021 as How to Fight and Defend with Arms of Every Kind, by Antonio Manciolino. It can be purchased at the following links in hardcover and softcover.

It also includes an Italian transcription by Steven Reich which was also released in print as Antonio Manciolino; it can be purchased in softcover.

Additional Resources

The following is a list of publications containing scans, transcriptions, and translations relevant to this article, as well as published peer-reviewed research.

References

  1. The full title was Di Antonio Manciolino Bolognese opera noua, doue li sono tutti li documenti & uantaggi che si ponno ha uere nel mestier de l’armi d’ogni sorte nouamente corretta & stampata, which translates to "New Work by Antonio Manciolino, Bolognese, wherein are all the instructions and advantages that are to be had in the practice of arms of every sort; newly corrected and printed".
  2. Both Dardi and Luca are thought to have published treatises in the 15th century that have since been lost.
  3. Leoni, Tom. The Complete Renaissance Swordsman: Antonio Manciolino’s Opera Nova (1531). Wheaton, IL: Freelance Academy Press, 2010. pp 11-12.
  4. Elia Herbst and Niki Corradetti, «Antonio Manciolino e il contratto per Opera Nova del 1518», appendix to Tassinari, 2021.
  5. I.e., as it was in front of the right knee in porta di ferro stretta.
  6. I.e. his mandritto.
  7. Note that these “two tramazzoni” were, in both cases, singular in Ch. 9
  8. I.e. yours.
  9. This counter has no antecedent in Ch. 15.
  10. I.e. a mandritto that goes over your own left arm.
  11. Unicorn.
  12. Not specified.
  13. N.B. original says “…piede manco appresso il sinestro”, i.e. “left foot near your left”—this should be “left foot near your right”.
  14. Note that this guard is not described in the text—see Marozzo, Cap. 143, for description and illustration.
  15. This action may describe a gathering step forward with the left, as the left foot is presumably already to the rear.
  16. N.B. I have glossed over sections of the short introduction of this particular book, skipping straight to the swordplay
  17. Destro.
  18. I.e. the sword.
  19. His hand.
  20. Your hand.
  21. his left side
  22. probably a feint
  23. coda lunga alta
  24. feint
  25. coda lunga alta
  26. cross step
  27. left
  28. right
  29. coda lunga alta
  30. finta
  31. coda lunga alta
  32. coda lunga alta
  33. coda lunga alta
  34. coda lunga alta
  35. cross step
  36. coda lunga alta
  37. coda lunga stretta
  38. left foot
  39. coda lunga stretta
  40. coda lunga stretta
  41. coda lunga stretta
  42. coda lunga stretta
  43. coda lunga stretta
  44. belly
  45. coda lunga stretta
  46. coda lunga alta, with dagger in porta di ferro stretta
  47. like a short lunge
  48. coda lunga alta, with dagger in porta di ferro stretta
  49. feint
  50. coda lunga alta, with dagger in porta di ferro stretta
  51. feint
  52. ascending cut with the false edge
  53. Of the enemy, I think.
  54. Clash.
  55. Nodi.
  56. Traverses.
  57. Parry.
  58. Slice.
  59. Or bow.
  60. Punta at the face.
  61. Turned above.
  62. To the ground.
  63. Body.
  64. Turned towards your left part.
  65. The Guardia.
  66. Spontone, according to Florio, was called a Forest Bill; as far as I can tell is a Spontoon. A Quadrello has a four-edged blade with a rondel its base, much like a rondel dagger on a staff.
  67. Rip/laceration.
  68. Upward.
  69. Rest position.
  70. Offend.
  71. Or do the same.
  72. Or still.
  73. Better pass forward.
  74. Sideways.
  75. Traversing.
  76. Facing.