Getty 16r
The Sixth Master and three of his scholars. He is the first Remedy of the section who has a dagger of his own — though, oddly, only the verse witnesses say so. His three scholars each open by insisting they have not abandoned his cover: this family is defined less by a technique than by a position held through everything.
I, who am the Sixth Master, say that this cover is fine in armor and without armor. And with such a cover I can cover on every side and enter into all the locks, and make holds and strikes according as my scholars who follow will come to strike and finish. And let every scholar of mine make this cover, and then do the plays that come after, which can be done.
- Make the cover — and, per both verse witnesses, make it dagger against dagger.
- The claims, in order: good in armor and without; covers on every side; enters all the locks; makes holds and strikes.
- The Master's whole instruction to his scholars is a sequence of two: make this cover, then do the plays that come after. He teaches a starting position and delegates the rest.
- The verse adds a setting the prose never mentions: fighting in the lists (sbara) is his delight, and he conquers "through such close play."
The five Remedies before him meet a dagger with empty hands. From here the section is armed on both sides — and the change is announced in the couplet, not in the prose.
I have made the cover of the Sixth Master who stands before me, and at once I made this hold so as to strike you — which I can do. And taking the dagger from you does not fail me, my left hand holding it in such fashion. Also I can put you into the middle lock (ligadura mezana), which is the third play of the First Master, that is, the Remedy [Master] of the dagger. And I could do still other plays to you, without letting go of my dagger.
- Make the Sixth Master's cover ([Dagger 81]).
- At once — the tempo word does the work — make this hold.
- From the hold, three exits: strike him; take his dagger, your left hand holding it "in such fashion"; or
- put him into the middle lock (ligadura mezana), whose address is given as ever — "the third play of the First Master": [Dagger 19].
- And all of it "without letting go of my dagger."
That last clause is the first plain admission in the Getty prose that this scholar is armed at all. The Master's own text ([Dagger 81]) never says it.
I have made a half turn (meza volta) while keeping the cover of my Sixth Master, and I have been very quick to strike you. And if you were armored, I would take little care over you, for I would set this dagger squarely (a misura) in your face. Though I have set it in your chest, because you are not armored, nor do you know the close play.
- Keep the Sixth Master's cover — the family's refrain.
- Make a half turn (meza volta) with the body.
- Strike; the play's virtue is that it is "very quick".
- Armor branch: were he armored, the dagger would go squarely (a misura) into the face. He is not, so it went into the chest.
- The reason given for his defeat is not his kit but his ignorance: "nor do you know the close play."
I did not abandon the cover of my Sixth Master: I turned my left arm over your right, and matching my right foot with my left arm, turning myself to the backhand side, you are half locked, and of your dagger you can say, "I have quickly lost it." And this play I do so suddenly that I fear no counter, nor have I any doubt.
- Do not abandon the Sixth Master's cover.
- Turn your left arm over his right.
- Match your right foot with your left arm — foot and opposite arm travelling as one unit.
- Turn yourself to the backhand side.
- He is half locked, and of the dagger "you can say, 'I have quickly lost it.'"
- Claim: done so suddenly that "I fear no counter, nor have I any doubt."
Glossological analysis
- meza volta ([83]) — the half turn, and the third member of the section's turn family: plain volta around the arm ([Dagger 18]), meza volta (here, [Dagger 104]), volta tonda ([Dagger 62]). What turns differs — here the body, at [Dagger 62] the dagger — but the graded vocabulary is constant.
- a misura ([83]) — squarely, to measure: placed exactly rather than driven. The phrase carries the armor branch by itself — against a man in plate the openings are small, so the dagger must be measured into the face rather than swung at the body.
- sbara ([81], verse) — the lists: the barriered ground of a judicial duel, not "bar". The Sixth Master's verse locates his art at a specific occasion — the one place where both men are reliably armored and both reliably armed.
- zogho stretto ([81], [83]) — close play. Note how it is used on this folio: the Master conquers "through such close play", and [83] blames the loser for not knowing it. Here it is a body of knowledge a man can lack, not merely a distance he can be at.
- "not abandoning the cover" ([82], [83], [84]) — the refrain, three plates running. The Sixth Master does not teach a technique; he teaches a position, and every scholar's play is a variation that never releases it.
- "matching my right foot with my left arm" ([84]) — foot and opposite arm moving as a single unit. The clearest statement of the whole-body turn in the dagger; compare [Grappling 6], "give the turn to his person".
- ligadura mezana ([82]) — the middle lock, cited by its address ([Dagger 19]) for the third time in this stretch ([Dagger 75], [Dagger 77], here). The locks are a fixed set of destinations that many different covers feed.
Manuscript comparison
- The verses say what the Master is; the prose does not. The defining fact — that this cover is made dagger against dagger — is stated by the Pisani Dossi ("Dagger against dagger, I know of no man alive…") and by the Paris ("if turning we both lead dagger against dagger"). The Getty's [81] never says it. The prose lets it slip only two plates later, at [82] ("without letting go of my dagger") and [83] ("I would set this dagger … in your face"). On the single most important fact about the Sixth Master, the verse family is the better witness — which reverses the section's usual arrangement.
- The lists belong to the verse alone. Only the Pisani Dossi names the sbara. The Paris keeps the armored/unarmored pairing and drops the setting; the Getty has neither. The verse family imagines a specific occasion for the dagger; the prose imagines a technique.
- [82] is Getty-only — and it is the plate carrying the middle-lock cross-reference. The routing lives in the prose and nowhere else, as at [Dagger 75] and [Dagger 77].
- [83]'s armor branch is the Getty's alone. The Pisani Dossi gives only the outcome: "with a half turn I have struck you in the chest." The Getty explains why the chest rather than the face — the man is unarmored — and adds the sneer that he does not know close play. There is no Paris for [83].
- Illustrations — three manuscripts on one folio. [81] shows the Paris figure (36v-a) beside the Pisani Dossi's, one of very few Paris illustrations anywhere in the section; [82] and [83] show the Getty's own (16r-b, 16r-c); [84] is the Pisani Dossi's.
- Coverage. All three witnesses carry [81]; [82] is Getty-only; [83] and [84] have Getty and Pisani Dossi but no Paris. Morgan, none.