Getty 39r
The first two of the three forehand Masters, both standing in an Iron Gate taken from the longsword — and [2]'s opening sentence says so outright, making the borrowing the section's announced premise rather than a resemblance a reader has to notice. [3] then stops being a play and states the general theorem the six Masters exist to prove.
We are three Masters in guard with our spears, and we agree to take up those [guards] of the sword. And I am the first, set in the Full Iron Gate (tutta porta di ferro) to beat aside the player's spear quickly: that is, I will step with the right foot crosswise, out of the way, and crossing his spear I will beat it aside to the left side — so that the step and the beat are made in one pace together with the strike. This is a thing that cannot fail.
- Take the Full Iron Gate (tutta porta di ferro) with the spear — the longsword's own low guard ([S2H 12]), borrowed entire.
- Wait. Let the player commit his spear.
- As it comes, step with the right foot crosswise (ala traversa), out of the way — across the line of his shaft, not back from it.
- Cross his spear and beat it aside to the left (in parte stancha).
- The step, the beat, and the strike are made in one pace — the rule of [Spear 1], stated here in prose.
- Fiore's guarantee: "a thing that cannot fail."
The trio's first sentence is the section's thesis: "we agree to take up those [guards] of the sword". The spear does not have guards of its own — see Technical grouping §9.
I have set myself in the Middle Iron Gate (meza porta di ferro) with the spear. The beat and the strike are ever my custom. And let him come who will, with half-spear (meza lanza) or staff (stanga): with a beat and a step, the strike does not fail me. For all the guards that stand out of the way, with short spear and short sword, are sufficient to await any long handheld weapon. And those of the forehand side cover, and with the cover they step and place the thrust; and the guards of the left side cover and beat aside and strike with a blow, and cannot place the thrust so well.
- Take the Middle Iron Gate (meza porta di ferro) — the longsword's point-in-line guard ([S2H 16]), and it behaves the same here: it waits with the point out.
- The guard's standing habit: the beat and the strike, always.
- Let him come with half-spear or staff — so the Getty. On what weapon each man actually holds, the witnesses do not agree; see the comparison.
- Answer with beat plus step; the strike is already in it, and "does not fail me".
- Here the plate stops describing a play and states a rule: - any guard that stands out of the way — with the short spear or the short sword — suffices to await any long handheld weapon (ogni arma manuale longa). This is the licence for the whole section, and for [Sword-Spear 2] and [Spear-Other 17]; - the forehand guards cover, step under the cover, and place the thrust; - the left-side guards cover, beat aside, and strike with a blow — and "cannot place the thrust so well".
- Note what that concedes: Fiore rates his own two trios unequally. The backhand three are the worse thrusters, and he says so before introducing them.
The second half of this plate is doctrine, not technique: the six Masters are the demonstration, and this is the theorem.
The Morgan reading (short spear awaiting the long) matches the Pisani Dossi verse "Your spear is long and mine is short" and the Paris couplet; the Getty's "meza lanza" for the incoming weapon stands alone.
Glossological analysis
- tutta porta di ferro / meza porta di ferro ([2], [3]) — Full and Middle Iron Gate, both taken from the longsword ([S2H 12], [S2H 16]) and named as borrowings in [2]'s first line. The Middle Iron Gate keeps its longsword character exactly: the point-in-line guard that awaits.
- ala traversa ([2]) — crosswise: the step goes across the line of his spear. Always paired with fora de strada — one names the direction, the other the destination.
- in parte stancha ([2]) — to the left side. Stanca is Fiore's ordinary word for the left hand or side; it is not the modern stanca, "tired".
- rebatter vs coverta ([2], [3]) — the beat and the cover, and [3] is the one place in the section that separates them: the forehand guards cover and thrust; the left-side guards cover and beat and strike with a blow. Elsewhere the two words run together.
- arma manuale longa ([3]) — a long handheld weapon: Fiore's category term, covering spear, staff, and the ghiavarina. It is precisely what "short spear and short sword" are declared sufficient against — the claim that the whole matchup rests on.
- meza lanza / stanga ([3]) — half-spear / staff. The section's real textual crux sits on these two words; see the comparison.
- scambiar de punta (PD, [2]) — the exchange of thrusts, imported by name from the longsword ([S2H 37]). The verse hands the spear Master a sword action that the Getty's own [2] never mentions.
- vilania (PD, [3]) — villainy, an outrage. The root is the villano, the churl, whose untrained fury also names the longsword's colpo di villano ([S2H 33]); what he does is by definition ungentle.
Manuscript comparison
- The crux at [3]: who is holding the short spear? The Getty arms this Master "with the spear" (cum la lanza) and has him await "half-spear or staff" (cum meza lanza o stanga). The Morgan arms him "with the short spear" (cum curta lanza) and has him await "long spear or staff" (cum longa lanza, o stanga) — the reverse relation. The verse family settles it against the Getty: the Pisani Dossi has "Your spear is long and mine is short", and the Paris "Though my spear be the shorter, you will still go away pierced through". Three witnesses to one — and the Getty's own next sentence ("all the guards that stand out of the way, with short spear and short sword, are sufficient to await any long handheld weapon") argues against its own reading. The Getty's meza lanza for the incoming weapon stands alone. (Flagged in Spear translation.)
- A Morgan scribal slip at [2]. The Morgan's first Master announces "io non son lo primo" — "I am not the first" — where the Getty has "io son lo primo". The negative is an evident slip: the speaker then does exactly what the first Master does, in the first Master's guard, and no other witness knows of it.
- The verse names a sword action the prose withholds. The Getty's [2] describes only the beat and the strike. The Pisani Dossi closes the same plate with "to beat aside and to exchange thrusts (scambiar de punta) is my custom", and the Paris opens with "Accustomed to exchange" (Consuetus mutare). Both verse witnesses put the longsword's scambiar di punta on the first Master; the Getty holds it back until [Spear 4].
- Paris expands where the Italian verse compresses. The Pisani Dossi's [3] is two lines; the Paris runs to three, adding a taunt the Italian has no room for ("do not flee: tearful rewards await you in your sorrow"). The same relation the Latin shows at [Grappling 11] — it is the least metrically disciplined of the verse witnesses, not simply the Pisani Dossi in Latin.
- Illustrations. Both plates are the Getty's own (39r-a…d), two figures each — the attacker and the Master. This section is one of the few where Wiktenauer's illustration column is Getty-led rather than Pisani-Dossi-led.
- Coverage. All four witnesses carry both plates. This is the section's fullest folio, and the only one where Getty, Morgan, Pisani Dossi, and Paris all speak on every plate.