Getty 34r
The scholar-plays of the Cross guards resume at [14] with the throw; then three plates work the sword at close quarters as a club and a lever — crossguard, pommel, and the grip laid across the neck. [15] is numbered into this run but written on the next page (34v-b), and [16]–[18] are the Getty's alone.
This play issues from our first Master of the guard of the True Cross and of the Bastard: that is, when someone throws a thrust at him and the scholar awaits it in his guard, and immediately passes to the cover out of the way and throws a thrust at his face; and with the left foot he steps (acresse) outside the player's forward foot, in the manner that is depicted, to throw him to the ground, so that the point of the sword extends past his neck.
- Stand in either Cross and await his thrust ([SwordArmor 3], [SwordArmor 7]).
- As it comes, pass to the cover out of the way — [SwordArmor 8]'s cover, [SwordArmor 9]'s entry.
- Throw a thrust at his face off that cover.
- Advance the left foot (acresse) so that it lands outside his forward foot — the throwing structure, set while the thrust occupies him.
- Carry the sword through until the point passes beyond his neck, and throw him down over the foot you have placed.
One cover, two plays: [SwordArmor 9] stops at the thrust; [SwordArmor 14] adds the foot and turns the same thrust into a throw.
When I come from the guard into the close cover, if I cannot strike with the edge, I strike with the point; and if I cannot strike with either of these two, I strike with the crossguard (elzo) or with the pommel. And this is done according to one's understanding. And when I am thus at close quarters, and the player believes I still want to play with the sword, I set myself to grappling if I see that I have the advantage; and if not, I strike him with the crossguard in the face, as said before, according to what seems best to me.
- You have come from the guard into the close cover (coverta stretta).
- Work down the ladder of what the sword still offers, in Fiore's order: the edge first; if not the edge, the point; if neither of those, the crossguard (elzo) or the pommel.
- No rule is given for choosing — "this is done according to one's understanding" (segondo che gl'intelletti sono). The selection is left to judgment.
- The deception: at this measure the player still expects you to play with the sword.
- If you see the advantage: set yourself to grappling instead ([SwordArmor 12], [SwordArmor 15], [SwordArmor 19]).
- If not: strike him in the face with the crossguard — which is [SwordArmor 17], the plate below.
The section's doctrinal plate: an explicit descending order of what a sword is worth against harness — edge, point, crossguard, pommel — and then the sword stops being a sword and becomes a grappling implement.
As you see, the scholar before me strikes the player in the face with the crossguard of his sword; quickly thereafter he can strike him with the pommel in the face, as you can see here below.
- The scholar before you has taken [SwordArmor 16]'s last option: the crossguard into the face.
- Quickly thereafter — the same tempo, no reset — the same man can strike again, with the pommel, in the face.
- That second strike is [SwordArmor 18]. Fiore uses the page itself as the sequence: "as you can see here below."
Again I say that this scholar before me, who strikes the player with the pommel of the sword in the face, could have done as I do: that is, advance the right foot behind his left, and set the grip (mantenir) of his sword at his neck to throw him to the ground, as I do.
- The pommel strike of [SwordArmor 17] has landed.
- What follows is an alternative, not a continuation: the man who threw it "could have done as I do" instead.
- Advance the right foot behind his left ([SwordArmor 14] does the same with the other foot).
- Set the grip (mantenir) of your sword at his neck.
- Throw him down over the foot.
The sword is now a bar across the throat. [SwordArmor 15] does the same job with the blade and the other foot — the section keeps arriving at the neck by different routes.
Glossological analysis
- elzo ([16], [17]) — the crossguard (the cross, the quillons), and in armor a striking part in its own right. [SwordArmor 29] requires it to be pointed and well tempered, which is what makes this play possible.
- pomo ([16]–[18]) — the pommel, likewise a head to strike with. [SwordArmor 29]–[SwordArmor 30] require it heavy and pointed.
- mantenir ([18]) — the grip; here not held but used — laid across the neck as the lever of a throw. The Morgan uses the same word for a striking surface ([SwordArmor 22]).
- acresse / acrescere ([14], [18]) — to advance, gaining ground with a foot, as against passare (passing through). Both throws on this page are built by an advance that plants a foot outside or behind his.
- coverta stretta ([16]) — the close cover: the cover made at the near measure, and the state from which the whole crossguard-pommel-grappling menu opens.
- segondo che gl'intelletti sono ([16]) — "according as the understandings are", i.e. as judgment dictates. Intelletto is discernment in the moment, not learning; Fiore uses the phrase to license choice exactly where he declines to give a rule.
- bona derada (PD, [14]) — a "good bargain" again, and ironic again: "if I do you no worse, you have a good bargain" = you have got off lightly. Cf. [SwordArmor 7], and the grappling section's bon merchato ([Grappling 2]).
Manuscript comparison
- A real divergence at [14]: two different plays under one number. The Getty's [14] issues from the Cross guards and succeeds: await the thrust, cover, thrust to the face, left foot outside his forward foot, the point carried past the neck, throw. The Morgan's [14] is not that play. It begins from failure ("when the scholar who is before me cannot [harm] the player with the thrust"), advances the left foot behind his right, and puts the point under his throat. Different premise, different foot, different point-placement. The verse witnesses arbitrate nothing: the Pisani Dossi and Paris give only the outcome — you go to the ground by the point of the sword.
- The Morgan chains [14] to [15]; the Getty does not. In the Morgan the two plates are a linked pair with mirrored feet: [14] advances the left foot behind his right and puts the point under the throat; if that fails, [15] passes the right foot behind his left and throws the sword to the neck. The Getty's [15] is instead a free-standing instruction ("when a scholar has come to close quarters and… cannot ruin his companion with his sword, he must set himself to grappling"). The same two plates, wired together in one prose copy and left loose in the other.
- [16]–[18] survive in one manuscript. No other witness has the crossguard-and-pommel run: the Morgan goes [14] → [15] → [19], and so do the Pisani Dossi and the Paris. The clearest statement in the corpus of what a sword is worth in harness — edge, point, crossguard, pommel, grappling — exists only in the Getty. The other family does show pommel-strikes, but at [SwordArmor 21]–[SwordArmor 24], where the Getty in turn has no text: the same technique, in non-overlapping plates. Compare [SwordArmor 18] against the Morgan's [SwordArmor 22], which build from the same two components to opposite ends.
- Illustrations. [14] is the Pisani Dossi's (26a-a); [16]–[18] are Getty figures (34r-b…d) — necessarily, since no other manuscript has the plays to draw.