Getty 28v
The folio of the bound arms: the throat-cut that finishes 28r's pommel plays, two ways of shutting up his arms with his sword inside them, and the counter that claims to break the whole taking-of-the-sword family. Our plate numbers pull the page apart — in the manuscript the columns run 28v-a = [S2H 53], -b = [S2H 67], -c = [S2H 68], -d = [S2H 63].
By the play that is before me, and as the scholar said, I have put my sword at your neck, and I can well cut your throat, for I feel that you have no collar (colare) at all.
- You arrive here from the plate before: the scholar of [S2H 52] said he could throw his sword at your neck — this is him having done it.
- Your sword is at his neck, edge on.
- Cut the throat.
- The condition Fiore names is armor, and he feels it rather than sees it: "I feel that you have no collar (colare) at all". The cut is licensed by what the bind reports about his gorget.
Compare [S2H 65], where the same sword-at-the-neck is a lever for a throw rather than a blade for a cut. Fiore never says which to prefer; the position is one and the finish is chosen.
When I am crossed I come to the close play. I put the hilt (elzo) of my sword between your hands, and I lift your arms, with your sword, up high; and I will throw my left arm over yours on the backhand side, and I will shut your arms, with your sword, under my left arm. And I will not leave off striking you until I am weary. The play that is behind me, which the scholar does — it is my play, and that is what I mean to do to you.
- From the crossing, come to the close.
- Put the hilt (elzo) of your sword between his two hands — into the gap in his grip, the same target as [S2H 50], but entered with steel instead of a hand.
- Lift his arms, and his sword with them, up high.
- Throw your left arm over his arms on the backhand side.
- Shut his arms, with his sword, under your left arm — arms and weapon locked together as one bundle.
- Strike him. Fiore's stated stopping condition is your own fatigue, not his state: "I will not leave off striking you until I am weary."
- He names the next plate as the same play in another hand: [S2H 64], the middle lock — "it is my play, and that is what I mean to do to you."
When I am crossed I step with a cover, and I strike at your arms in this position; and this thrust I put in your face. And if I advance my left foot, I will bind both your arms. Or else I will take you in this play that is behind me — that is, I will bind your sword and hold it by the hilt (elço).
- From the crossing, step with a cover.
- Strike at his arms in that position.
- Put the thrust in his face.
- If you then advance the left foot: you bind both his arms.
- Or take the play behind instead ([S2H 68]): bind his sword and hold it by the hilt (elço).
Three finishes offered off one cover — strike the arms, thrust the face, bind. Fiore ranks none of them.
The hold that the scholar before me spoke of — that one I do to you: I can strike you without hindrance. And I hold the hilt of your sword; of thrusts and cuts I will give you a bargain (derada). And this play breaks every taking of the sword, and, done at once, it spoils the close play.
- This takes up the alternative the scholar of [S2H 67] offered — "the hold that the scholar before me spoke of, that one I do to you".
- Hold the hilt of his sword. His weapon is now steered by your hand, not his.
- Strike him "without hindrance", with thrusts and cuts — a bargain (derada) of them.
- The two claims the plate makes for itself: it breaks every taking of the sword; and, done at once, it spoils the close play.
Not a counter to a play but to a family — and, in its second clause, to a whole section. Fiore uses "every" sparingly, and all four witnesses back him here.
Glossological analysis
- colare ([53]) — the collar: the mail standard or gorget defending the throat. Armor, not clothing. Its absence is what licenses the cut, and Fiore reports it by feel.
- elzo / elço ([63], [67], [68]) — the hilt, spelled two ways on one page. Distinguish from mantenir, the handle proper ([S2H 50]), and from pomo, the pommel ([S2H 51]). At [63] it is a tool inserted between his hands; at [67]–[68] it is the thing you grip on his sword.
- derada ([68]) — a bargain: a lot of something for the price. The same sardonic idiom as [Grappling 2]'s bon merchato — "a bargain of thrusts and cuts" means more than you paid for. Not "dread". Recurs at [S2H 66] and [S2H 75].
- tor de spada ([68]) — the taking of the sword, the disarm family delivered at [S2H 75]–[S2H 79]. [68] declares itself the break of all of it.
- zogho stretto ([68]) — the close play, named here as the thing the play "spoils" — a counter aimed not at a technique but at a section.
- binding the arms with the sword in them ([63], [67]) — the folio's governing idea, and the close play's characteristic object. Neither plate disarms him: the sword stays in his hands and is bundled up with them. Cf. [S2H 64], "your sword is in prison" (in prisone).
Manuscript comparison
- Coverage collapses on one column of this page. [S2H 53], [S2H 67] and [S2H 68] all have Getty + Morgan + Pisani Dossi, and [S2H 68] adds the Paris. But [S2H 63] is Getty-only — no Morgan, no Italian verse, no Latin. Three of the best-attested plays in the section sit on the same leaf as a play no other manuscript records.
- Physical order versus plate order. The Getty's columns run 28v-a = [S2H 53], -b = [S2H 67], -c = [S2H 68], -d = [S2H 63]. Nothing is out of order in the manuscript; our numbering follows the concordance across witnesses, and it is what scatters the page.
- All three families independently make [S2H 68]'s counter-claim. Getty: "this play breaks every taking of the sword". Pisani Dossi: "I am also the counter to lifting the sword from the hand". Paris: "I am called the counter to lifting the sword from the hand". The Paris expands to five lines against the Pisani Dossi's four, and alone names the crossing ("Mighty in the crossing, I pluck your own sword from you") — but the boast itself is common property. It is the one place in the close play where prose and verse agree on a claim, not just an action.
- The verse repositions [S2H 53]. The Getty and Morgan cut the throat; the Pisani Dossi and Paris both throw the man to the ground and merely set the sword at the neck. Prose finishes with the edge, verse with the earth — and the Getty's diagnostic detail (no collar) is in neither verse witness.
- [S2H 67] has no Paris, and its Pisani Dossi couplet claims a counter to the taking of the sword that the Getty prose does not make for this plate. The verse attaches that claim here and at [S2H 68]; the prose only at [68].
- Illustrations. [53] and [67] show the Getty's own plates (28v-a, 28v-b) with the Pisani Dossi alongside; [63] is Getty 28v-d — the only image for a Getty-only play; [68] shows the Pisani Dossi alone (23a-b).
- Morgan leaf 16v carries [S2H 53], [S2H 67], [S2H 68] and [S2H 62] as 16v-a…d. Note the last: the Morgan puts [S2H 62] on this leaf, where the Getty places it two folios later, on 30r.