Getty 17v
Two Getty-only plates that do the same job by different means — both are entries into the lower lock and strong key of [Dagger 54], and both say so outright ([97], [98]). Then the last Remedy of the section, the Ninth Master ([100]) and his first scholar ([101]). No play [99] exists in any witness; the numbering steps from [98] to [100].
This is a guard, and it is a strong play in armor and out of armor. And it is good because it is quick for putting someone into the lower lock (ligadura de sotto) and strong key (chiave forte), which is depicted as the sixth play of the Third Master [Dagger 54], the one who plays at the reverse hand (a man riversa), who holds the player locked, [holding] the player's right [arm] with his left arm.
- This is a guard, not a cover — the only thing so named this late in the section.
- Strong in armor and out of armor.
- What it is good for, and this is its whole recommendation: it is quick into the lower lock (ligadura de sotto) and strong key (chiave forte).
- The destination is given a full address: "the sixth play of the Third Master" — [Dagger 54] — "the one who plays at the reverse hand (a man riversa), who holds the player locked, [holding] the player's right [arm] with his left arm."
The play's entire content is a destination. Fiore never says how the guard is formed — only where it goes, and how fast it gets there.
This cover that I make in this way, with the arms crossed, is good in armor and out of armor. My play is to put this player into the lower lock (ligadura di sotto), that is, the one that is called the strong key (chiave forte) — into the one of which the scholar before me speaks, that is, into the sixth play of the third King [Dagger 54], who plays with the right hand at the reverse hand (a man riversa). And this play is done in the same way that this first one before me is done, although it is done by another method. And our counter is to push the elbow.
## 9th Master
- Cover with the arms crossed.
- Good in armor and out of armor.
- The destination — the same one as the plate before: the lower lock (ligadura di sotto), "that is, the one that is called the strong key (chiave forte)", and again the full address, the sixth play of the Third King ([Dagger 54]).
- The relation between the two plates is stated outright rather than left to the reader: "this play is done in the same way that this first one before me is done, although it is done by another method."
- Counter: "and our counter is to push the elbow."
Note the possessive. "Our counter" — one answer covering both [Dagger 97] and this plate, and it is the section's universal one again ([Dagger 88], [Dagger 91], [Dagger 94], [Dagger 110]).
I am the ninth King (Re), and there are no more [masters] of the dagger. And such a grip (presa) as I make from below — the Fourth King [Dagger 56] makes that grip against the overhand (sopramane), where I make it from below. But my plays are not done like his at all. This grip is good in armor and without, in that I can do many strong plays, and above all those that follow me. In armor and without, there is no doubt of them.
- The section closes in this Master's first line: "I am the ninth King, and there are no more [masters] of the dagger."
- The grip (presa) is made from below.
- He defines himself by contrast, and precisely: the Fourth King ([Dagger 56]) makes that same grip against the overhand (sopramane); he makes it from below. Same hands, opposite line.
- Then he immediately blocks the inference: "But my plays are not done like his at all."
- Good in armor and without, and the strong plays are "above all those that follow me".
- The verse gives the menu — take the dagger, break, strike, and lock — and a priority the prose does not: the quickest is to take the dagger, "so as not to receive any deception from the companion."
There is no play [99] in the sources; the numbering passes from [98] to [100].
My Ninth Master — the grip that he has made, I have followed it. Releasing my right hand from the grip, I seized your dagger, as I do; close by your elbow I will give it a turn upward; the point I will surely put in your face. And according to what the scholar who is behind me does, in that way I will deal with you, as I believe.
- Follow the Master's grip ([Dagger 100]) — it is already made.
- Release your right hand from that grip. The Ninth Master's scholars all begin by giving something up.
- With the freed hand, seize his dagger.
- Close by his elbow, give it a turn upward.
- Put the point in his face.
- Forward reference: "according to what the scholar who is behind me does, in that way I will deal with you" — [Dagger 102], which calls itself the completion of this play.
Glossological analysis
- chiave forte = ligadura de sotto ([97], [98]) — the identity restated twice on one folio, each time with the full address to [Dagger 54]. Counting from [Dagger 54] through [Dagger 75], [Dagger 76], here, [Dagger 103] and [Dagger 104], Fiore glosses the one term with the other six times and never once varies it. Whatever else is uncertain in the dagger, the strong key is the lower lock is not.
- a man riversa ([97], [98]) — at the reverse hand, i.e. backhand. The Third Master's identity ([Dagger 45], [Dagger 47]), and half of the axis paired with man dritta (forehand) at [Dagger 6] and [Dagger 11].
- presa from below vs sopramane ([100]) — the grip from below against the overhand. The Ninth Master is the Fourth Master's mirror image — same grip, opposite line — and he is the one who points it out, only to deny that anything else follows from it.
- Re — "King" ([100]) — Fiore's alternative title for a Remedy Master, used interchangeably with Magistro across the section ([Dagger 65], [Dagger 66], [Dagger 88], [Dagger 98]). It is what the crown in the illustrations is pointing at; nothing distinguishes a King from a Master but the word.
- compagno ([100], verse) — the companion, Fiore's neutral word for the man opposite. Not a friend, and not quite an enemy: the man you are working with, as a wrestler works with a partner. The verse family's habitual term (cf. [Dagger 30], [Dagger 105]).
- "there are no more" ([100]) — the section's closing formula, and note where it falls: the Ninth Master announces the end of the Remedies in his opening line, before teaching anything at all.
Manuscript comparison
- [97] and [98] are both Getty-only, and between them they are the section's fullest account of what the strong key is and how to get into it. No verse witness carries either. The Pisani Dossi and Paris know the lower key well enough to name it ([Dagger 76], [Dagger 96], [Dagger 103], [Dagger 104]) — but neither carries a single plate whose purpose is entry into it. The verse family knows the destination and not the roads.
- A counter shared by two plates. "Our counter is to push the elbow" — one possessive covering both [97] and [98]. The Getty is not merely giving a counter here; it is asserting that the two plays are one family, which is also what [98]'s "the same way … by another method" says.
- No play [99] exists. The numbering steps from [98] to [100], and there is no plate, no text, and no illustration for [99] in any witness. It is a different kind of gap from [93], which has a picture and no words: [99] has neither. Neither is a measurable loss — the numbering is Wiktenauer's, not Fiore's, and nothing says a play was ever there.
- [100]: the prose defines by contrast, the verse by menu. The Getty's Ninth Master spends his text distinguishing himself from the Fourth — same grip, from below rather than against the overhand, "but my plays are not done like his at all." The Pisani Dossi never mentions the Fourth Master; it lists what the grip yields (take, break, strike, lock) and names a priority the prose omits entirely: take the dagger first, and quickly, "so as not to receive any deception from the companion."
- [101]: agreement, with the Getty supplying the target and the link. Both witnesses give the turn at the elbow and the dagger changing hands. Only the Getty says where the point ends up — the face — and only the Getty points forward to the scholar behind ([Dagger 102]) who finishes the play.
- Illustrations and coverage. [97] and [98] are the Getty's own (17v-a, 17v-b), necessarily so; [98] additionally carries a Cod. 1324 figure (29r-a), a further illustrated witness outside our five collated manuscripts. [100] and [101] are the Pisani Dossi's (12a-d, 12a-e). Coverage: [97] and [98] Getty only; [100] and [101] Getty and Pisani Dossi, with no Paris. Morgan, none.