Getty 33r
The remaining two of the six Masters, and then the turn from guards to plays: the True Cross issues its cover as the section's Remedy Master [8], and his first scholar shows the thrust that comes off it [9]. This is the last folio where all four witnesses carry every plate.
I am called by name the Archer's Guard (posta sagittaria; the Getty scribe writes "porta"). Great thrusts I throw, passing out of the way. And if a blow or a cut comes against me, I make a good cover and immediately I strike my adversary. This is my art, in which I do not vary.
- Take the Archer's Guard.
- Throw great thrusts, passing out of the way (fora de strada) — the thrust and the off-line step are one action.
- If a blow or a cut comes at you first: make a good cover, and strike off it immediately.
- That is the whole program, and Fiore closes it as a boast about consistency: "this is my art, in which I do not vary" (non svario).
I am the guard of the Bastard Cross (posta di crose bastarda), [born] of the True Cross; what she can do, I do willingly. Good covers, and thrusts, and cuts I make by habit, always evading the blows out of the way. And of my blows I deal out a very great bargain (derada).
- Take the Bastard Cross — a guard defined by descent: it is the True Cross's bastard, and "what she can do, I do willingly".
- Its repertoire is hers, plus cuts: good covers, thrusts, and cuts, made "by habit".
- Every one of them is made evading the blows out of the way — the off-line step again, and this time "always".
- How the Bastard differs in form from the True Cross, the text does not say. It gives the relationship and the shared repertoire, and stops.
The plays that follow issue from the two Crosses jointly — [SwordArmor 9] and [SwordArmor 14] both name them as one source.
Paris here uses the name "True Cross" (see the note to [3]).
From the guard of the True Cross I have issued with this cover, passing out of the way on the traverse. And from this cover it will be seen what I can do; through my scholars I can show it, for they will perform my plays in completion — those which are for fighting to the utterance (a oltranza) — they will show the art without hesitation.
- Begin in the True Cross ([SwordArmor 3]).
- Issue from it with the cover — the guard is left behind; the cover is what it becomes.
- The cover is made passing out of the way, on the traverse (ala traversa) — off the line and across it, not backward from it.
- This Master performs nothing further, and says so: what the cover can do "will be seen" through his scholars, who perform his plays in completion.
- The plays he promises are those "for fighting to the utterance" (a oltranza) — the duel to the death, not the friendly bout.
The structural hinge of the section: everything from [SwordArmor 9] to [SwordArmor 26], and the counter at [SwordArmor 27], hangs off this one cover.
I am the first scholar of the Master who is before me, and I make this thrust because it issues from his cover. I say further that from the guard of the True Cross and from the guard of the Bastard Cross this thrust can be made — and I say at once how: as the player throws a thrust at the Master, or at a scholar standing in the said wards or guards, the Master or scholar must go low with his body and pass out of the way, traversing the scholar's sword [sic], with the point high toward the face or the chest, and with the grip (mantenir) of the sword held low, as depicted here.
- The trigger: the player throws a thrust at you while you stand in either Cross ([SwordArmor 3] or [SwordArmor 7]).
- Go low with the body — the whole man drops, not just the hands.
- Pass out of the way, traversing his sword. (The Getty writes "the scholar's sword"; the sense requires the player's — see the comparison.)
- Carry your point high, at his face or his chest.
- Keep the grip low (mantenir): point up, hands down — the geometry that makes the passing cover and the thrust one action.
- Fiore then generalizes twice, both times explicitly: the thrust works from both Crosses, and it is available to the Master or the scholar alike.
The axe cites this exact play as its own: the True Cross with the axe promises "such a thrust… with that method and with that pass" ([Axe 2]). The armored sword's first scholar is the poleaxe's remedy too.
the Getty's "traversing the sword of the scholar" should logically be the player's sword; the Getty also doubles "lo magistro" by scribal error.
Glossological analysis
- posta sagittaria ([6]) — the Archer's Guard (from sagitta, arrow), not a gate: the Getty's scribe writes porta ("gate") in the body where his own rubric has posta. The Morgan has posta and is right.
- fora de strada ([6]–[9]) — "out of the way / off the road", stepping off the line of the attack. It appears on all four plates of this folio: the section's default footwork, not an option among others.
- ala traversa ([8]) — on the traverse, across the line. Distinct from merely leaving it: the cover goes sideways through the attack's path.
- crose bastarda ([7]) — the Bastard Cross. Bastarda is genealogical, not pejorative: the guard is the True Cross's illegitimate offspring and inherits her plays.
- derada ([7]) — a bargain, a deal — the same ironic idiom as the grappling section's bon merchato ([Grappling 2], [Grappling 5]). "Of my blows I deal out a very great bargain" = I hand out plenty of them, and you will not like the price.
- a oltranza ([8]) — "to the utterance", to the last extremity: the judicial duel fought to the death, as against the friendly play. The Master specifies that those are the plays his scholars will show.
- mantenir ([9]) — the grip, the handle of the sword — the part the hand maintains its hold on; not "maintenance". It becomes a striking and levering surface later ([SwordArmor 18], [SwordArmor 22]).
- svariare ([6]) — to vary, deviate: "my art, in which I do not vary" is a claim of consistency, not of variety. The modern svariato ("assorted, various") inverts the sense.
Manuscript comparison
- The Paris's guard-names cross over here. At [7] the Latin says "I am a stance, and by many masters I am called the True Cross" (crux vera) — the name the Italian witnesses give to [SwordArmor 3], which the Paris called the leopard's stance. The net effect across the two folios: Paris [7] and Getty/Morgan/Pisani Dossi [3] both claim to be the True Cross, and no plate in the Paris is the Bastard of anything.
- The Paris rewrites [6] rather than translating it. The Pisani Dossi's Archer's Guard is "the noble one… in no way base"; the Getty and the Morgan give the cover-and-strike program. The Paris has neither: "This point will change its position, piercing the wicked man; for I cover my limbs, upright in strong armor." No archer, no nobility, no cover-and-strike — a moving point and armored limbs. The loosest correspondence on the page.
- A slip in the Getty at [9] — and the Morgan reads differently. The Getty has the defender "traversing the sword of the scholar" (traversando la spada del scolaro), which cannot be right: the scholar is the defender, and it is the player's sword he traverses. The Morgan has no such problem, because it reads "crossing the way" (atraversando la strada) — one letter away from spada, and consistent with the fora de strada two clauses earlier. Whether the Morgan preserves the original and the Getty corrupted strada → spada, or the Morgan repaired a shared error, the two prose copies do not agree here. The Getty also doubles lo magistro on the same line.
- Illustrations. [8] is the Getty's own plate (33r-c) — the Master's cover. [6] carries two figures, the Paris (19v-c) and the Pisani Dossi (25b-a), setting the Latin and the Italian renderings of one guard side by side; it is one of only two Paris illustrations in the section. [7] and [9] are the Pisani Dossi's.
- Coverage. Getty, Morgan, Pisani Dossi and Paris all carry all four plates. This is the last folio in the section where that is true — from 33v the Getty runs alone.