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Difference between revisions of "Antonio Manciolino"

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| <p>New work by '''Antonio Manciolino''' of Bologna, wherein are all the instructions and advantages that are to be had in the practice of arms of every sort; newly corrected and printed.</p>
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| <p>New work BY ANTONIO MANCIOLINO of Bologna, wherein are all the instructions and advantages that are to be had in the practice of arms of every sort; newly corrected and printed.</p>
  
 
<p>1531.</p>
 
<p>1531.</p>
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| <p>'''New work for learning''' to combat and fence with every sort of weapon, composed by Antonio Manciolino of Bologna.</p>
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| <p>NEW WORK FOR LEARNING to combat and fence with every sort of weapon, composed by Antonio Manciolino of Bologna.</p>
  
 
<p>It is the wont of the majority of the commonest maestri of the art of the rational blows of fencing to affix in the highest and most solemn corner of their school a long array of paper, wherein they claim their chapters are written. And in truth, whosoever reads them does find them to be chapters, but rather those that wine vendors place on barrels, a thing more monstrous than human. And how can he be human, if the greed and rapacity of the maestro is openly displayed? But how human of a thing is it to help others, and to bear witness by oneself that some are not born thus rapacious and hardhearted of instinct? And in my opinion things are placed into the school only for their profit, and not that of others. Hundreds are their chapters, for in them is contained nothing other than the putting of a price on the masterful play of this art, as the virtue of arms has fallen to such baseness that it is wished by them to find her holy members sold at a price through the schools, boasting, without consideration that the dull and the subtle wits can not equally bear this yoke upon their shoulders, and that the art is not a harlot to suffer itself to be sold. And I wish to hold to a more useful path, noting that the school should be devoted to offering some instruction of the art. It is of more worth to me to be useful to my scholars with this work than, through the putting of a price to the play, to provide myself alone with great benefit. Accordingly, it will suffice me to have from scholars three things: namely reverence, faith, and reward; reverence as maestro, and likewise faith, because it behooves the student to believe according to the saying of the philosopher, that scholars are held to be the proper reward of their maestro; because without that (it is the sentiment of Cicero) the arts would perish. If, therefore, I call myself satisfied by the three aforesaid things, what loss of time in some other profit of mine could be of aid with this, my work?</p>
 
<p>It is the wont of the majority of the commonest maestri of the art of the rational blows of fencing to affix in the highest and most solemn corner of their school a long array of paper, wherein they claim their chapters are written. And in truth, whosoever reads them does find them to be chapters, but rather those that wine vendors place on barrels, a thing more monstrous than human. And how can he be human, if the greed and rapacity of the maestro is openly displayed? But how human of a thing is it to help others, and to bear witness by oneself that some are not born thus rapacious and hardhearted of instinct? And in my opinion things are placed into the school only for their profit, and not that of others. Hundreds are their chapters, for in them is contained nothing other than the putting of a price on the masterful play of this art, as the virtue of arms has fallen to such baseness that it is wished by them to find her holy members sold at a price through the schools, boasting, without consideration that the dull and the subtle wits can not equally bear this yoke upon their shoulders, and that the art is not a harlot to suffer itself to be sold. And I wish to hold to a more useful path, noting that the school should be devoted to offering some instruction of the art. It is of more worth to me to be useful to my scholars with this work than, through the putting of a price to the play, to provide myself alone with great benefit. Accordingly, it will suffice me to have from scholars three things: namely reverence, faith, and reward; reverence as maestro, and likewise faith, because it behooves the student to believe according to the saying of the philosopher, that scholars are held to be the proper reward of their maestro; because without that (it is the sentiment of Cicero) the arts would perish. If, therefore, I call myself satisfied by the three aforesaid things, what loss of time in some other profit of mine could be of aid with this, my work?</p>

Revision as of 02:41, 16 September 2020

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
Movement Dardi School
Influences
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 is thought to have been a student of Guido Antonio di Luca,[citation needed] the master who also taught Achille Marozzo. 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 ("A New Work"),[1] which is the oldest extant treatise in the Dardi or "Bolognese" school of swordsmanship.[2] The 1531 edition describes itself as "corrected and revised" and was probably based on an earlier version printed in ca. 1523; this date is based on the fact that Don Luisi de Cordoba was only orator to Adrian VI between September of 1522 and September of 1523.[3] 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.

temp

Additional Resources

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, Tommasso. The Complete Renaissance Swordsman: Antonio Manciolino’s Opera Nova (1531). Wheaton, IL: Freelance Academy Press, 2010. pp 11-12.