Getty 23v
The formal roster opens here — "there are twelve guards" — with four of them, three classed pulsativa and one instabile by the Getty's own headings. Note that the Getty's page order is not the numbering's: its fourth slot holds [S2H 22], which the Morgan and both verse witnesses place tenth. The Getty groups the twelve four to a page on a plan of its own.
Here begin the guards of the sword in two hands, and there are twelve guards. The first is the Full Iron Gate (tutta porta di ferro), which stands in great strength; and it is good for awaiting every handheld weapon, long and short, provided it has a good sword — it does not concern itself with too much length. It passes with a cover and goes to the close (ale strette); it exchanges the thrusts, and plants its own; it also beats thrusts to the ground. And it always goes with a pass, and against every blow it makes a cover; and to whoever gives it trouble, it deals out great defenses without fatigue.
- The rubric first: here begin the guards of the sword in two hands, and there are twelve.
- The first is the Full Iron Gate (tutta porta di ferro), and its declared quality is strength.
- Its office is awaiting: it will receive every handheld weapon, long or short. Its one requirement is a good sword — and explicitly not a long one; length is not this guard's concern.
- From the wait, its actions — all of them forward: - pass with a cover and go to the close (ale strette); - exchange the thrusts ([S2H 37]), and plant its own; - beat thrusts to the ground ([S2H 39]).
- Two absolutes: it always goes with a pass — never a mere advance — and against every blow it makes a cover.
- And a claim of economy: it deals out great defenses without fatigue.
Classed pulsativa in the Getty's heading — yet almost everything it says of itself is about awaiting and answering. Label and text pull in opposite directions; Technical grouping §1 is right to treat the functional reading of these labels as inference rather than doctrine.
No version has a play numbered [13]; the numbering runs [12] → [14].
This is the Woman's Guard (posta di donna), who can make all seven blows of the sword, and can cover herself from every blow. And she breaks the other guards through the great blows she can make; and to exchange a thrust (scambiar una punta) she is always ready. The foot that is in front advances out of the way, and the one behind passes across; and she makes the companion remain uncovered, and can then strike him at once for certain.
- The Woman's Guard on the right (posta di donna destraza) opens with the widest claim in the roster: she can make all seven blows of the sword — the six cuts and the thrust of [S2H 8]–[S2H 11].
- And cover herself from every blow.
- She breaks the other guards — by the size of the blows she can throw, not by cunning (contrast the fendenti at [S2H 8]).
- She is always ready to exchange a thrust ([S2H 37]).
- Her footwork is given exactly, and it is the pattern of the entire section: - the front foot advances out of the way (acresse fora di strada); - the rear foot passes across (passa ala traversa).
- The result of that off-line pass: the companion is left uncovered, and can be struck at once, for certain.
This is the Window Guard (posta di finestra), who is always quick with malice and deceit; and she is a mistress of covering and of striking. And with all the guards she picks a quarrel, with the high ones and with the low ones; and she goes often from one guard to another to deceive the companion. And at planting great thrusts, and at knowing how to break them and to exchange them — those plays she can do well.
- The Window Guard (posta di finestra) is characterized first by temperament: quick, malicious, deceitful — and a mistress of covering and of striking both.
- She picks a quarrel with all the guards (fa questione), the high ones and the low ones alike. She has no preferred matchup.
- Her working method is mobility: she goes often from one guard to another, and the going is itself the deception.
- Her plays are the point-plays, and Fiore names all three: - planting great thrusts; - knowing how to break them ([S2H 39]); - and to exchange them ([S2H 37]).
Classed instabile — and here label and text agree exactly: her threat is what she is about to become, and she says so herself.
This is the Woman's Guard on the left (posta di donna la senestra), who with covers and with strikes is always ready. She makes great blows, and breaks the thrusts and beats them to the ground; and she enters into the close play through her knowledge of crossing on the traverse. These plays such a guard knows well how to do.
- The Woman's Guard on the left (posta di donna la senestra) mirrors [S2H 14], and is likewise always ready — with covers and with strikes.
- She makes great blows — the family trait.
- Against thrusts she does not exchange: she breaks them and beats them to the ground — the [S2H 39] answer, not the [S2H 37] one.
- And she enters the close play (zogho stretto), by a named skill: knowing how to cross on the traverse (traversare).
The two Woman's Guards divide the answer to a thrust between them: the right one exchanges ([S2H 14]), the left one breaks. The branch point of Tactical grouping §4 is encoded in which guard you chose to stand in.
The Getty and Morgan call this figure the Woman's Guard on the left; the Pisani Dossi and Paris verses instead name it the left-side True Window Guard.
Glossological analysis
- pulsativa / stabile / instabile ([12], [14], [15], [22]) — beating / stable / unstable. These are not editorial classes: they stand in the Getty's own play headings (`· Porta di Ferro, pulsativa ·`). They are also Getty-only — see the comparison below.
- tutta porta di ferro ([12]) — the Full Iron Gate. Tutta = full/whole, distinguishing it from the mezana ([S2H 16]); the same full/middle split governs the two Boar's Teeth ([S2H 20], [S2H 25]).
- ale strette / zogho stretto ([12], [22]) — to the close / the close play. Stretto is "narrow, tight, pressed", not "strict": the state in which the fighters are already within arm's reach and the sword becomes a lever ([S2H 48] onward).
- scambiar una punta ([14], [15]) — to exchange a thrust: answer a thrust with a thrust and arrive covered ([S2H 37]). Distinct from romper, to break it — beat it down and refuse the trade ([S2H 39]). Both are named on this page, on different guards.
- acresse fora di strada / passa ala traversa ([14]) — advance out of the way / pass across on the traverse. Strada is the line the attack travels, not a road; ala traversa is athwart it. The pair is the section's standard entry.
- traversare ([22]) — to cross on the traverse, named here as a skill ("her knowledge of crossing on the traverse") rather than an action — the thing that gets you into the close play.
- magistra ([15]) — mistress, feminine of magistro. The grammatically feminine guards are addressed as women throughout, but the Window is the only one titled a master of her craft.
Manuscript comparison
- The Getty's pages disagree with the numbering — and it is the Getty that is the outlier. This folio runs [12], [14], [15], then jumps to [22]. The Morgan (12r-a…d) and both verse witnesses run the same guards in the numbered order, with [S2H 16] in the fourth slot. Three witnesses agree on the sequence; the Getty rearranges. The numbering our translation uses follows the majority, which is why these folios look scrambled.
- The class labels are the Getty's alone. Pulsativa, stabile, instabile appear in the Getty's play headings and in no other witness: the Morgan carries near-identical prose for all four of these guards with no label above any of them, and the verse witnesses have no headings at all. The three-way classification of the twelve guards is one manuscript's editorial layer over a text all four share.
- A guard-name divergence at [22]. The Getty and the Morgan call this figure the Woman's Guard on the left (posta di donna la senestra); the Pisani Dossi and the Paris both call it the left-side True Window Guard (vera finestra) — the same name they give [S2H 15]. The families do not agree on what this guard is: for the prose a Woman's Guard, for the verse a Window (Manuscript comparison §5).
- And a naming divergence at [15] within the prose family. The Getty heads it simply Posta de Finestra; the Morgan specifies posta de fenestra dextra — the Window Guard on the right. The Morgan is reading the roster as a symmetric pair — right Window at [15], left Window at [22] — which is exactly what the verse family does. On this point the Morgan sides with the verse against the Getty.
- Form at [12]. All four witnesses carry the "we are named, and like guards are counters" preamble: the Pisani Dossi as a quatrain, the Paris compressed to three lines, the Getty and Morgan dissolved into prose — [S2H 1] having already said it at length in the one witness that has [S2H 1]. The Morgan is otherwise substantially identical to the Getty across this folio.
- Illustrations. [14] is the Getty's own figure (23v-b); [12], [15], and [22] are the Pisani Dossi's (18a-a, 18a-c, 19a-b).