Getty 9v
A single illustration with six texts set around it: the dagger's own boast [7], the five answers to it [8], and then the four lines the dagger can travel [9]–[12] — the dagger's blow-diagram, the counterpart of the longsword's ([S2H 8]–[S2H 11]). Like 9r, the page exists in the Getty alone, which completes a run of twelve consecutive plates resting on one manuscript.
I am the noble weapon called the dagger, which is very fond of the close play (zogho stretto). And whoever knows my malices and my art will have a good share of every subtle skill at arms. And for finishing my cruel battle quickly, there is no man who can stand against me. And whoever sees me in deeds of arms [will see me] make covers and thrusts together with grappling (abrazare), and take the dagger away with breaks (roture) and locks (ligadure). And against me neither arms nor armor will avail.
- Not a play: the weapon itself speaks, as the guards do on 9r and as the blows do in the longsword.
- Its claim to a domain: it is "very fond of the close play" (zogho stretto) — the dagger is the close game.
- Its claim to teach: whoever knows its malices "will have a good share of every subtle skill at arms" — the dagger is a key to the whole art, not one weapon among several.
- Its claim to speed: it finishes its cruel battle quickly, and no man can stand against it.
- What it actually does, four things named: covers, thrusts, grappling (abrazare), and taking the dagger away with breaks and locks.
- Its last claim: neither arms nor armor will avail against it.
The dagger makes the same argument the Iron Gate makes for grappling at [Grappling 4] — that its art underlies the rest. The two boasts are the book's twin claims for its two unarmored foundations.
Against the dangerous knife, of which every man should be wary, the arms, the hands, and the two elbows go against it at once. In doing this, five things will always be [at hand]: that is, to take the dagger, to strike, to break the arms, to lock them, and to put him on the ground. And of these five plays, one does not abandon the other. Let him who knows how to defend guard his person.
- Not a play either: the answer to [Dagger 7], stated as a standing rule.
- The premise: the knife is dangerous and every man should be wary of it.
- What goes to meet it: the arms, the hands, and the two elbows, all at once. The defense is the whole upper body, not a hand.
- Once there, five things are always available: take the dagger; strike; break the arms; lock them; put him on the ground.
- The governing clause: "one does not abandon the other." The five are not a menu to choose from — failure at any one flows into the next.
- And the charge: let him who knows how to defend guard his person.
These five are the section's table of contents. [Dagger 21] and [Dagger 37] take the dagger, [Dagger 35] breaks the arm, [Dagger 19] and [Dagger 54] lock it, [Dagger 39] and [Dagger 48] put him on the ground — and [Dagger 43] offers four of the five from one grip. Everything after this plate is this list, unfolded.
The Getty passage is compressed and partly corrupt ("che zaschun de de luii dubito"); the rendering of the opening clause is best-effort.
With the descending blow (fendente) I can strike the head and the body, from the elbow up to the top of the head. And from the elbow downward I do not have secure freedom without great danger, and of striking there I am wary.
- The descending blow (fendente) with the dagger — the sword's name and the sword's path, unchanged ([S2H 8]).
- Its zone: head and body, from the elbow up to the top of the head.
- Its limit: from the elbow downward it has no secure freedom, and the text says outright that it is wary of striking there.
- The plate describes no action. It is a map — where the blow may go, not how it is thrown.
The elbow is the boundary, and it is the section's obsession: the blows stop at it here, the disarms lever against it ([Dagger 37]), and the counters push it ([Dagger 42], [Dagger 88], [Dagger 91]).
From the backhand side (parte reversa) one can strike from the elbow up to the temples of the head. And these are called middle blows (colpi mezani). And those backhand blows cannot be made while standing prepared to make a cover against one's enemy.
- From the backhand side (parte reversa) the dagger strikes from the elbow up to the temples.
- These are named middle blows (colpi mezani) — again the sword's term, imported wholesale ([S2H 10]).
- The restriction: they cannot be made while standing prepared to cover. The backhand and the cover want the same arm at the same moment.
- So the plate is a warning as much as a description: the backhand costs you your defense.
The backhand is where the Third Master's family lives ([Dagger 47]–[Dagger 55]); the Getty calls him "the third King who plays with the right hand at the backhand" ([Dagger 98]).
The forehand side (dritta parte) can strike, and can cover if there is need; and it can strike from the elbows up to the temples of the head, and more safely from the forehand side than from the backhand.
- From the forehand side (dritta parte) the dagger can strike and cover both — precisely the thing the backhand cannot do ([Dagger 10]).
- Same zone as the backhand: from the elbows up to the temples.
- The verdict: it is safer than the backhand — and the reason is the one just given, that the forehand keeps its cover.
- [Dagger 10] and [Dagger 11] are a straight comparison: same reach, different cost.
The dagger that goes up the middle toward your head can strike as high as below the chest, and no higher. And with the left hand it can always go covered.
- The thrust up the middle, driven toward the head.
- Its ceiling: it reaches as high as below the chest, and no higher — the shortest-reaching of the four lines.
- Its compensation: with the left hand it can always go covered. The free hand escorts it.
- So the four lines are graded rather than equal: forehand and backhand reach the temples; the middle thrust stops under the chest but travels protected.
Against the sword's five thrusts ([S2H 11]) the dagger keeps one — up the middle — and gains a hand to cover it with. This closes the blow-map; the Masters begin on 10r.
Glossological analysis
- zogho stretto ([7]) — the close play: fighting once the men are within arm's reach, resolved with binds, holds, and disarms. The dagger claims it as native ground; the longsword borrows the term for its own near game ([S2H 48]–[S2H 68]), and Fiore eventually names a single counter to the close play as such — the elbow-push ([Dagger 88], [Dagger 91]).
- malicie ([7]) — malices: the weapon's tricks and nastinesses. Not moral evil — Fiore uses the word approvingly, as a name for technical subtlety, exactly as the grappling Iron Gate is "full of malice" ([Grappling 4]).
- armizare ([7]) — skill at arms, the practice of armed combat as an art ("every subtle armizare"). Distinct from in arme = in armor (9r); the Getty's ç-spelling of this word is one of the fingerprints separating it from the Morgan (Manuscript comparison §4B).
- fendente ([9]) — the descending blow. Identical name and identical path to the sword's ([S2H 8]).
- colpi mezani ([10]) — middle blows. Borrowed from the sword, where they are the horizontal cuts ([S2H 10]); in the dagger they are the backhand strikes between elbow and temple.
- parte reversa / dritta parte ([10], [11]) — the backhand side and the forehand side. Dritta is right/straight, hence forehand; riversa is reversed, hence backhand. The pair organizes everything to [Dagger 55].
- cubito ([9]–[11]) — the elbow, and this folio's unit of measurement: every blow's reach is stated from it.
- roture / ligadure ([7]) — breaks / locks, named as the means of taking the dagger away. Grappling's words ([Grappling 3]), and both get fixed reference plays in this section ([Dagger 19], [Dagger 54]).
Manuscript comparison
- The whole introduction is Getty-only. [Dagger 1]–[Dagger 12] — the five guards and this entire blow-diagram — have no Pisani Dossi and no Paris text; both verse witnesses open the dagger at [Dagger 13]. With Morgan absent from the section altogether, twelve consecutive plates rest on a single manuscript, and the coverage figures reflect it: of ~108 plates in the section, the Getty carries 93, the Pisani Dossi 83, the Paris 56 (Manuscript comparison §2).
- And the Getty's text here is itself in verse. [7] runs in rhyming couplets set out as prose — daga… vaga, arte… parte, bataglia… vaglia, armizare… abrazare, ligadure… armadure — and [8] chains dubito / chubito / subito, [12] closes erto / coverto. This is the shared verse substrate the corpus is built on (Manuscript comparison §3), and here it is visible where no verse witness survives to hold it against: the prose is verse whether or not a verse copy carries it.
- The corruption at [8]. The Getty reads "che zaschun de de luii dubito" — a doubled word inside an already compressed line — and the opening clause has to be reconstructed (Note at [8], Dagger translation). It is the same fault as 9r's senza senza and forte forteça: this stretch of the manuscript doubles words, and there is no second copy to arbitrate.
- One illustration, six texts. The Getty gives a single figure on this page (09v-a) with six text blocks around it (9v-a…f) — the dagger's blow-diagram, matching the longsword's. Our numbering follows Wiktenauer's, which begins with the dagger's speech at 9v-f, physically the last block on the page; [Dagger 9]'s image is the page's only picture and stands for all four blows.
- Coverage. Getty six; Pisani Dossi, Paris, Morgan none.