Folio 9 / 13
Getty 44r
First to fourth plays of the Long Tail
The four plays promised by the verse at [Mounted 12], delivered in order and all from one beat: thrust, cut, seizure, and taking of the sword. Each plate says "from that beat" — the folio is a single action with four endings, escalating from the point to the hands.
[15] First play of the Long Tail: the thrust
Getty · 44r-a
Illustration: Getty 44r-a · Text: Getty 44r-a · Morgan 6r-a · Pisani Dossi 32a-a · Paris 3v-a
Getty · translation
This is the first play that comes out of the guard of the Long Tail (coda longa) here before: the Master beats aside his enemy's sword and puts the thrust in his chest, or else in his face, as depicted here.
Flow of actions
- From the Long Tail ([Mounted 12]), beat his sword aside — across, per the rule.
- In the same tempo, put the thrust into his chest —
- or else into his face. The verse and the Paris both say throat; the choice of high opening is the scholar's.
- That is the whole play: one beat, one thrust. It is the first of the four because it is the least — nothing is seized, nothing is risked.
[16] Second play: blow to the head
Getty · 44r-b
Illustration: Getty 44r-b · Text: Getty 44r-b · Morgan 6r-c · Pisani Dossi 32a-c · Paris 3v-c
Getty · translation
This is the second play, which comes likewise from that beat: I strike this man on top of the head, for I see well that his head is not armored.
Flow of actions
- The same beat as [Mounted 15] — Fiore is explicit that no new cover is being taught ("which comes likewise from that beat").
- Instead of the thrust, strike him on top of the head with the cut.
- The condition, and the reason this is a separate play: "for I see well that his head is not armored". The target is chosen by what is exposed, not by preference — the same armored/unarmored branching that governs the book (Tactical grouping §10) and that will disqualify [Mounted 20] and [Mounted 21] two folios on.
Note
the Paris couplet repeats vulnere twice and lacks a main verb; translated best-effort.
[17] Third play: seizing the sword
Getty · 44r-c
Illustration: Getty 44r-c · Text: Getty 44r-c · Morgan 6r-d · Pisani Dossi 32a-d
Getty · translation
This is another play, the third: the enemy's sword having been beaten aside, he seizes it with his left hand and strikes him on the head — and he could just as well strike him with the thrust.
Flow of actions
- Beat his sword aside as before.
- Seize his sword with your left hand — the beat has put the blade where your off hand can reach it. This is the first plate in the section where the hand leaves its own weapon.
- Strike him on the head with your own sword —
- or, equally, strike with the thrust. The verse gives the reason the choice is free: "for the armor you do not have, it matters nothing to me [which]" — against an unarmored man, cut and point are interchangeable.
Seizing the blade is what makes the fourth play possible: [Mounted 18] does not add a grip, it adds a purpose to this one.
[18] Fourth play: taking of the sword
Getty · 44r-d
Illustration: Getty 44r-d · Text: Getty 44r-d · Morgan 6v-a · Pisani Dossi 32b-a · Paris 4r-b
Getty · translation
This is the fourth play: the scholar means to strike him on the head and take his sword from him, in this way that you see depicted here.
Flow of actions
- From the same seizure as [Mounted 17], the scholar now has two intentions at once:
- strike him on the head, and
- take his sword from him.
- The Getty gives no mechanics — it defers to the picture ("in this way that you see depicted here"). The how arrives at the next plate, [Mounted 19], which is the taking done with the handle.
- The verse states the two outcomes as alternatives: you lose your sword, or you go to the ground. The mounted taking and the mounted throw are the same play's two exits — which is why [Mounted 19] and [Mounted 20] sit side by side and get confused between the copies.
This completes the four plays of [Mounted 12]: thrust [15], cut [16], and now the taking [18] — with the throw arriving at [20]. The seizure at [17] is the bridge.
Glossological analysis
- rebatter ([15]–[18]) — the beat; on this folio it is the single premise of all four plays. Fiore never re-teaches it: each plate says "from that beat" and proceeds. The section's economy runs on one cover generating a family, as Tactical grouping §1 describes the Remedy → scholar chain.
- tor la spada ([18]) — the taking of the sword, Fiore's disarm-family (Glossary). The longsword systematizes three takings — high, middle, low ([S2H 75], [S2H 77], [S2H 78]); mounted, there is one, done with the handle at [Mounted 19] (Technical grouping §4).
- pigliar cum la mane stancha ([17]) — seizing with the left hand: gripping the opponent's blade with the off hand. The same close-play grammar as the armored sections ([SwordArmor]), here done at the gallop.
- spadaçada (PD, [17]) — a sword-blow, and a coarse word for one: the noun is formed like a slap ("una rea spadaçada", a wicked sword-blow). The verse's register, not the prose's.
- scolaro ([18]) — the scholar, the gartered figure performing his Master's play (Glossary). Note this folio's first three plates speak as "I"/"the Master"; only [18] names the scholar — the role-labels are looser here than in the dagger.
- lo terço magistro / lo primo magistro (PD, [15], [16]) — the third and first Master. The verse attributes each play to a Master by ordinal; the Getty's prose attributes them to a guard instead ("the guard of the Long Tail here before"). Two different citation habits for the same lineage.
- golla (PD, [15]) — the throat, where the verse puts the thrust; the Getty offers chest or face. See the comparison.
Manuscript comparison
- The target of the first thrust differs by family. Getty and Morgan: the thrust goes in the chest, or else in the face. Pisani Dossi: "planted in your throat"; Paris: "I pierce your open throat" (guttur apertum). The verse witnesses agree with each other and against the prose — the same pattern as at [Grappling 6]. The throat is arguably between the prose's two options rather than a third one, but as written the families do not name the same target.
- The Paris wanders further at [16]. Getty and Morgan strike on top of the head (and the Getty adds the reason: the head is unarmored). The Pisani Dossi keeps the head. The Paris strikes the neck (cervicem) — and its couplet is defective: it repeats vulnere twice and has no main verb, so our translation marks it best-effort. (Flagged in Mounted Fencing translation.) The Latin is the least reliable witness on this folio.
- The Morgan halves the fourth play. Getty [18]: the scholar "means to strike him on the head and take his sword from him". Morgan: "means to take his sword from him" — the strike is gone. The Pisani Dossi and Paris agree with the Getty that both are in play ("you will lose your sword… or you will go to the ground", "you will either leave your sword behind, or lie stretched on the ground"). The Morgan reads the plate as a pure disarm; the other three read it as a disarm or a throw.
- Which Master taught it — a verse-only apparatus. The Pisani Dossi and Paris each credit a numbered Master ([15] the third, [16] the first), citations the prose copies do not carry at all. The verse family tracks its pedagogy by Master; the prose family by guard.
- Illustrations. All four plates are the Getty's own (44r-a…d) — the first full folio of Getty figures in the section, and the only one where every plate comes from our base manuscript.
- Coverage. All four witnesses carry [15], [16], and [18]; [17] is in Getty, Morgan, and Pisani Dossi but not the Paris.