Getty 46r
The section's second half, reached by a jump of fifteen folios: the Getty places this Master at 46r, inside its mounted section (41r–46v), and the Pisani Dossi likewise files him at 34a inside its own (30a–34b). The reason is in [18], which says outright that he awaits "those on horseback" — a man on foot against riders. Four plates: the three attackers and their agreement ([16]), the Master's guard and his rule ([17]), and his two plays, one with each end of the weapon ([18], [19]).
Here are three companions who want to kill this Master. The first wants to strike him underhand and carries his spear at half-spear (a meza lanza); the second carries his spear couched (restada) at full spear (a tutta lanza); the third wants to throw his spear at him. And it is agreed that none may deal more than one blow per man, and they must also go one at a time.
- This plate is a set-up, not a technique: it states who the three attackers are and on what terms they come.
- The first will strike underhand, carrying his spear at half-spear (a meza lanza) — gripped near the middle, the short carriage.
- The second carries his spear couched at full spear (restada, a tutta lanza) — the lance in the rest, gripped at the butt. This is the mounted section's own phrase for the couched lance ([Mounted 8]–[Mounted 9] use lanza in resta), and it is the strongest internal sign that these companions are riders.
- The third will throw his spear.
- The terms of the fight, stated as an agreement (e si'e de patto): one blow per man, and one man at a time.
- Three carriages of one weapon — short, couched, thrown — set against one Master, with the conditions that make the answer possible written into the premise.
The agreement is not a courtesy but a mechanical precondition: the Master's whole defense is a step and a beat, which answers one committed attack. Fiore states the terms because his solution requires them.
Let him come one at a time who wants to come, for I am not about to depart for any man here; indeed in the Boar's Tooth (dente di zenghiaro) I stand ready to wait. When the spear comes against me, carried or thrown from the hand, I at once shun its road (schivo la strada): that is, I advance the right foot out of the way, and with the left I step crosswise, beating aside the spear that comes to strike me — so that of a thousand, not one could fail. What I do with the ghiavarina (a type of spear) I would do with a staff and with a sword; and the defense that I make against spears, my plays that follow would make against sword and against staff.
- Stand in the Boar's Tooth (dente di zenghiaro) with the ghiavarina — the same low guard the spear's backhand trio opens with ([Spear 7]) and the swordsman takes against three companions ([Sword-Spear 2]).
- Do not move for anyone: "I am not about to depart for any man here." Let them come one at a time, on the terms of [Spear-Other 16].
- The attack comes — carried or thrown from the hand; the answer does not distinguish between them.
- Shun its road (schivo la strada): advance the right foot out of the way, and step crosswise with the left.
- Beat aside the spear as it comes in. Fiore's odds: "of a thousand, not one could fail."
- The generalization, stated twice over: - the weapon is interchangeable — "what I do with the ghiavarina I would do with a staff and with a sword"; - the threat is interchangeable — the same defense serves "against sword and against staff" as against spears.
- What follows ([Spear-Other 18], [Spear-Other 19]) are the plays this guard opens into.
One guard, one step, one beat, against three carriages of the spear and two other weapons besides. This is the section's clearest statement of Fiore's one-art claim (Tactical grouping §9, §11) — and the verse raises the stakes by naming Roland and Pulicane as the men he would face on those terms.
Roland and Pulicane are champions of the chivalric romances (the paladin of the Charlemagne cycle and the half-dog hero of Buovo d'Antona), named as ideal opponents; compare [Sword vs Spear 3].
This is the play of the Master before, who awaits with the ghiavarina, in the Boar's Tooth, those on horseback. In the stepping out of the way and the beating aside that he makes, he enters into this play; and so that he may be understood, I do it in his place: with cut and thrust I can strike him in the head, so ready do I carry my ghiavarina.
- This is the Master of [Spear-Other 17] finishing his play; the scholar does it in his place (in suo logo) so it can be seen.
- Arrive here through the step out of the way and the beat — the entry is [Spear-Other 17]'s, unchanged. Nothing new happens before this plate.
- Strike him in the head — "with cut and thrust" (cum taglio e punta), the ghiavarina offering both.
- Why it is available: "so ready do I carry my ghiavarina" — the guard, not the strike, is what made this possible.
This plate names the opponents outright: the Master "awaits with the ghiavarina, in the Boar's Tooth, those on horseback". [16] and [17] never say so — [18] is the only place in the section that tells you the three companions are mounted, and it is why all four manuscripts file this Master with their cavalry material.
This too is a play of the said Master before, in the guard of the Boar's Tooth; in his stead I do this, which he can do. When the spear has been beaten aside, I turn my spear and strike him with the butt (pedale), for this iron is tempered and all of steel (di tutto azale).
- The same Master, the same Boar's Tooth, the same scholar standing in his stead (in suo scambio) — this is [Spear-Other 18]'s alternative, not a new play.
- The spear has already been beaten aside — the entry is done; both plays branch from that one moment.
- Turn your spear (io volto mia lanza) and strike him with the butt (pedale).
- The justification is metallurgical, not tactical: "this iron is tempered and all of steel" (temperado e di tutto azale). The butt is not an improvised club; it is a forged, hardened head.
The section's third appearance of the turned butt, and the third role for it: a counter at [Spear 6], a decoy at [Spear-Other 12], and here simply the second of two strikes the guard offers. The verse adds the one qualification the prose omits — "I keep the point at its other end the finer" — conceding that the two ends are good, but not equally good.
Glossological analysis
- ghiavarina ([17]–[19]) — a type of spear, and the Master's own weapon: it cuts as well as thrusts ([18], "with cut and thrust"), so it carries a bladed head rather than a simple point. The Getty spells it ghiavarina, the Morgan chiavarina. Fiore never defines it; he treats it as a spear whose head has an edge.
- a meza lanza / a tutta lanza ([16]) — at half-spear / at full spear: not two weapons but two grips on the shaft — near the middle, or back at the butt. The first companion has the short, controllable carriage; the second the long, committed one.
- restada ([16]) — couched, the lance set in the rest. The mounted section's own word (lanza in resta, [Mounted 8]–[Mounted 9]), and the load-bearing hint that these three companions are on horseback.
- schivo la strada ([17]) — "I shun the road": the strada is the line the attack travels, and the Master leaves it rather than contesting it. The positive form of the section's constant fora de strada — same idea, stated as an action instead of a destination.
- de patto ([16]) — "by agreement": the terms of the encounter, one blow each and one man at a time. Cf. the grappling's partido ([Grappling 14], [Grappling 16]) and the verse's a questo partito at [17] — the same family of words for a fight fought on stipulated conditions.
- in suo logo / in suo scambio ([18], [19]) — "in his place / in his stead": the scholar performing what the Master describes. The two phrases are used interchangeably on this folio for one office.
- di tutto azale ([19]) — "all of steel", of the butt's iron, alongside temperado, tempered. One of the very few places Fiore argues from the material of the weapon rather than its handling — the same argument [Spear 6] makes ("as good an iron on the butt as on the point").
- a questo partito (PD, [17]) — "on these terms". The verse uses for the Roland-and-Pulicane boast the same word the prose uses for the three companions' agreement — the challenge is conditional in both.
- rolando / pulicano (PD and Paris, [17]) — Roland and Pulicane, champions of the chivalric romances: the paladin of the Charlemagne cycle, and the half-dog hero of Buovo d'Antona. They are not history but a measuring stick — the verse names the best imaginable spearmen in order to say the guard would hold against them. Pulicane returns alone at [Sword-Spear 3], where the Pisani Dossi calls him "a good thrower".
Manuscript comparison
- Every witness files this Master with the cavalry. The Getty puts him at 46r, interpolated inside its mounted section (41r–46v, which otherwise runs 45v → 46v); the Pisani Dossi at 34a, likewise inside its own (30a–34b, running 33b → 34b). The Morgan (8r-c–8v-c) and Paris (6r-b–6v-b) place him at the seam where their mounted material ends and the spear begins. Four witnesses, one instinct: a man on foot against riders belongs with the horses. Our sections file him under the spear instead — a modern decision, and worth knowing when reading [18]'s "those on horseback".
- [16] has no verse in any witness. The Pisani Dossi and Paris both carry [17], [18], and [19] and skip [16] entirely; only the Getty and Morgan state who the three companions are and on what terms they come. The scene-setting is prose work — the verse witnesses begin at the Master's boast.
- …but the illustrations for [16] are the Pisani Dossi's. Wiktenauer assigns two Pisani Dossi figures (34a-a, 34a-b) to [16], for a plate the Pisani Dossi has no text for — and 34a-b is the folio the Pisani Dossi's [17] verse actually sits on. Image-numbering and text-numbering come apart here exactly as they do at [Spear-Other 11]/[Spear-Other 12], and in the same direction: the figures crowd onto the earlier plate.
- A Latin flourish and an Italian economy at [17]. The Pisani Dossi gives Roland and Pulicane four lines; the Paris gives them five, adding "harsh" (asper) and "raging" (turbida) to the challengers, "the more furious" to the Master, and closing on "I will pull down the proud heads of those who press me". Both name the same two romance champions. The Morgan's only addition is a mild "look at them [the plays that follow], I pray you" — the prose family recruits the reader, the verse family recruits the paladins.
- Morgan tracks the Getty closely on all four. The differences are orthographic (chiavarina / ghiavarina, zenghiar / çenghiaro) plus the closing plea at [17]. Where the Morgan diverged sharply in this section, it diverged at [11], not here.
- Coverage. All four witnesses carry [17], [18], [19]; only the prose pair carries [16]. This is the section's best-attested folio — the opposite of 31v, which the Morgan drops whole.