Getty 26r
Four plays about what you should not do, and what to do when he does it: the Peasant's Blow [33]–[34] answers the untrained man's committed swing; [35] forbids striking at the leg and answers the man who tries it; [36] kicks the groin and then supplies the counter to itself. The Paris carries none of this page.
This play is called the Peasant's Blow (colpo di villano), and it goes in this way: one must wait for the peasant to strike with his sword. And he who awaits the blow should stand in a small step with the left foot forward. And as soon as the peasant strikes to wound you, advance the left foot out of the way toward the right side, and with the right foot pass across, out of the way, catching his blow at the middle of your sword. And let his sword run off to the ground, and immediately answer him with the descending blow to the head or to the arms, or with the thrust in the chest, as depicted. This play is also good with the sword against the poleaxe, and against a staff, heavy or light.
- The name first: the Peasant's Blow (colpo di villano) — named not for what you do but for who you are doing it to.
- The premise, stated as an instruction: you must wait for the peasant to strike. The play does not begin until he commits.
- Your setup: stand in a small step (picolo passo), left foot forward.
- As soon as he strikes to wound you — and not before: - advance the left foot out of the way, toward the right side (acresse … fora de strada); - pass across with the right foot, also out of the way (passa ala traversa).
- Catch his blow at the middle of your sword — take it on the strong, not on the tip.
- Let his sword run off to the ground (lassa discorrer la sua spada a terra). Do not stop it, do not oppose it: it spends itself.
- Immediately answer, with your choice of three: - descending blow to the head; or - descending blow to the arms; or - thrust to the chest.
- Application beyond the sword, given explicitly: this play is also good sword against poleaxe (azza), and against a staff, heavy or light.
The whole play is [S2H 14]'s two-step — advance off the line, pass across — bolted to a decision to wait. The reasoning is structural humility: Fiore does not propose to out-muscle the peasant, he proposes not to be there (Tactical grouping §7).
The Pisani Dossi couplets aligned with [33]–[34] never mention the Peasant's Blow; they speak only of the pass off the line and the strike to the arms.
Here before is the Peasant's Blow, where I have well planted the point in his chest. And likewise I could have made a blow to the head, and to the arms with the descending blow, as was said before. Also, if the player wished to work against me, wanting to strike me with the backhand blow (riverso) under my arms, I immediately advance the left foot and put my sword above his, and he can do nothing to me.
- The Peasant's Blow completed: the point is planted in his chest — the third of [S2H 33]'s three finishes.
- The other two are re-offered, not withdrawn: a blow to the head, or to the arms with the descending blow, "as was said before".
- Then the plate turns and becomes a counter to a counter. If the player, instead of being finished, works against you —
- specifically, wanting to strike you with the backhand blow (riverso) under your arms —
- immediately advance the left foot,
- and put your sword above his.
- Outcome: he can do nothing to you.
The answer to being answered is one step and one placement — no strike at all. Fiore shuts the line and lets the man discover it for himself.
When someone strikes at your leg, withdraw the foot that is in front, or draw it back behind, and strike the descending blow at his head, as depicted here. For with the sword in two hands one should not strike from the knee down, because the danger is too great for him who strikes: he who strikes at the leg remains entirely uncovered. Except that if a man had fallen to the ground, then one could well strike at the leg; but otherwise not, sword against sword.
- When someone strikes at your leg:
- withdraw the front foot (discresse lo pe ch'e denanzi), or draw it back behind (torna in dredo). Take the target away.
- Strike the descending blow at his head — while he is committed low.
- The plate then stops being a play and becomes a prohibition, with its reason: - with the sword in two hands, do not strike from the knee down; - because the danger is too great for the man who strikes; - because he who strikes at the leg remains entirely uncovered.
- One exception, and it is narrow: if a man has fallen to the ground, then you may well strike at the leg. Otherwise not — sword against sword.
Doctrine, and the clearest case in the section of Fiore arguing from exposure rather than from opportunity. Note that the two escapes at step 2 are precisely discressere and tornare, two of the four things of [S2H 1], deployed here as the entire defense. The Pisani Dossi adds the reckoning the Getty leaves implicit: "by the shorter time, the measure is plain".
This device, where I strike you with my foot in the testicles, I do to give you pain and to make you falter in your cover. And this play, in the doing, must be done quickly, so as to have no fear of the counter. The counter to this play must be made swiftly: that is, the player should seize the scholar by his right leg with his left hand, and he can throw him to the ground.
- The state, per the verse: crossed with him, and come to the close.
- Strike him with the foot in the testicles.
- The purpose is stated, and it is not to end the fight: to give him pain, and to make him falter in his cover. The kick buys a tempo; it does not win one.
- The condition on doing it at all: it must be done quickly, so as to have no fear of the counter.
- The counter — which Fiore supplies against his own play — and it must be made just as swiftly: - the player seizes the scholar's right leg with his left hand, - and throws him to the ground.
Play and refutation on the same plate — and the refutation is the one grappling gives to the same attack: catch the committed leg ([Grappling 17]). The kick to the groin is a single action in this book, whether or not there is a sword in your hands.
Glossological analysis
- colpo di villano ([33]) — the Peasant's Blow. Villano is a churl, a peasant — a man of no training, not a villain. The play is named for its opponent's ignorance: it is the blow he throws, and the technique is what you do about it.
- picolo passo ([33]) — a small step: a short, unextended stance, adopted deliberately because you intend to move out of it. Fiore prescribes the stance he wants you waiting in, which he almost never bothers to do.
- fora de strada / ala traversa ([33]) — out of the way / across on the traverse. Strada is the line his blow is travelling; to go fora de strada is to leave it. The whole play is these two prepositions.
- discorrer ([33]) — to let run. Here it is the enemy's sword running off to the ground; at [S2H 29] it is your own running over his hands. One verb for both — a blade travelling along the path it is already on.
- riverso ([34]) — the backhand blow, from the left side; paired with dritto. The terms name sides, not edges — though in the mezani the edge follows from the side ([S2H 10]).
- discresse / torna in dredo ([35]) — withdraw / return backward: two of the four things of [S2H 1], deployed as a complete defense. The distinction is real — discressere shortens the stance, tornare changes which foot leads — and Fiore offers them as alternatives.
- partido ([36]) — a set piece, as at [S2H 31] and in grappling ([Grappling 14]): a trick whose safety lies entirely in its speed. Fiore says so in both sections in almost the same words.
- cogloni ([36]) — the testicles; plain and unhedged, as at [Grappling 17]. Fiore's anatomical register does not soften because there is a sword in the picture.
Manuscript comparison
- The Peasant's Blow is named only in the prose. The Getty calls the play colpo di villano and explains the name; the Morgan carries the same. The Pisani Dossi's couplets aligned to [33] and [34] never mention it — they speak only of the pass off the line and the strike to the arms. And the word is not missing from the verse's vocabulary: the Pisani Dossi used villano two plates earlier at [S2H 31], of a base churl to be beaten. The name exists in the verse family; it is simply not attached to this play (Manuscript comparison §5).
- The Morgan breaks off mid-claim at [33]. Where the Getty extends the play to other weapons — "this play is also good with the sword against the azza, and against a staff, heavy or light" — the Morgan's final clause stops at "this too is good" and goes no further. The cross-weapon application, which is the plate's widest claim, survives in one prose copy only.
- The verse names a blow the taxonomy does not. At [35] the Pisani Dossi offers, against the blow to the leg, either "a descending blow to the head, or a round blow (tondo) to the throat". Tondo is not among the blows enumerated at [S2H 8]–[S2H 11]; the nearest is the mezano, which the verse itself describes as "going crossing athwart". Either the couplet is using a name the prose's taxonomy dropped, or it is naming the mezano twice.
- Same prohibition at [35], two different reasons, and neither witness has the other's. The Getty forbids the low blow because "he who strikes at the leg remains entirely uncovered" — an argument from exposure. The Pisani Dossi gives a calculation instead: "sooner would the arms be ruined than the head; by the shorter time, the measure is plain" — an argument from tempo and measure. Both reach the same rule by different roads.
- Coverage. Getty, Morgan, and Pisani Dossi carry all four plates; the Paris has none of this folio — its wide play skips from [S2H 30] straight to [S2H 37].
- Illustrations. All four plates are the Pisani Dossi's (20a-c, 20a-d, 20b-a, 20b-b); the Getty's own 26r figures are not the ones shown.