"Et l'oggetto di questa scienza altro non è che il riparare et il ferire... le quali non potrà alcuno sapere se prima non havrà la cognitione dè tempi e delle misure..."
[...and the goal of this science is nothing else but to parry and to wound... Things nobody can perform unless they are aware of times and measures...]Nicoletto Giganti, 1606
It's easy today to have a very distorted view of what fencing was at the time of the Ring of Fire. Real fencing is not Errol Flynn or the Three Musketeers. Hollywood swashbuckling movies set in the early modern era feature unrealistic flamboyant fencing. The only other fencing moderns see is lightning-fast Olympic fencing. Both of these are far different from the fencing taught in the 1630s in hundreds of academies throughout Europe.
The slow rate of fire and the poor accuracy of firearms made fencing the most common form of self-defense. And as any form of self-defense it was quick, lethal and, most of the time, brutal.
Dueling and the use of the sword are as old as human civilization. During the period from the end of the middle ages until the Ring of Fire, the art of sword fighting changed radically. Those changes set the foundations of fencing as we know it now. This article will focus on Europe during that period.
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the use of plate mail transformed fencing into something very technical. The first known treatise was written in 1295, in Germany. This manuscript, called I33, codifies a form of combat with sword and buckler. During this time fencers developed the thrust with a long sword. Its purpose was to find openings in a foe's armor. This attack became a well-known technique amongst fighters. The use of the two handed sword, with a complex system based on many different guards, began a codification of the techniques used, the birth of the first styles and what is considered the first form of true fencing. General military sword fighting was still based mostly on strength. Cutting blows, as opposed to the thrusts and lunges, were still used in combination with grappling techniques to knock down an adversary who was well protected by plate armor.
A radical change happened once the invention and the development of firearms greatly reduced the effectiveness of armor. Because firearms began to appear on the battlefield during the sixteenth century, the use of a complete plate armor was limited mostly to heavy cavalry in tournaments and in battle. After 1490, duels were fought mainly afoot and with much lighter weaponry.
The rise of the thrust, and the decline of the cutting stroke in fencing, began a demand for different swords. Sword making answered this call for lighter weapons, and swords became longer, thinner and more suitable for lunges. The broadsword became a sidesword easy to carry all the time. Typical Renaissance sword fighting required the use of sword and a small target shield or sword and dagger. Even the use of a target shield faded during the sixteenth century, giving way to fighting with sword and dagger. This last style is considered more effective, as a dagger can be used both as a defense, and it can become a terrible offensive weapon in close combat.
Another innovation of this period was the growing use of the sword alone. This was permitted by the development of fencing techniques that favored the use of the blade both for defense and offense. In the second half of the sixteenth century, numerous fencing treatises were printed and the number of wards (ten or sixteen) dropped to the four standard wards based on the different hand positions. The wards (or guards) are the basic fighting stances from which any attack and defense develop. The Pallas Armata, a fencing treatise of 1639, describes the different wards:
"There are but four guards according to the four ways thou canst turn thy hand, viz. Prime, Secunde, Tertz, and Quarte.
"The Prime is when thou holdest thy Rapier in such a manner that the outside side of thy hand doth look towards thy left side out, and the inside of thy hand look towards thy right side out. This is subdivided into a straight Prime, when thy point looketh straight forwards, and into a hanging Prime, when thy point doth look towards the ground.
"The Secunde is, when thou holdest thy Rapier in such a sort that the outside of thy hand looketh upwards, and the inside of thy hand towards the ground. This is likewise subdivided into a straight Secunde when thy point looketh straight forwards; into a handing Secunde, when thy point looketh downwards towards the ground, and finally into the middle Secunde, when thou holdest thy Rapier with a Secunde and a bowed arm, so that the point of thy Rapier looks sheer out towards thy left side.
"The Tertz is when thou dost hold thy Rapier in such fashion that the outside of thy hand looks towards thy right side out, and the inside of thy hand towards thy left side out.
"This again is subdivided into the High Tertz when thou holdest thy point upwards yet with bended arm, so that thy hilt equalize thy Right breast in height; into a Middle Tertz, when thou holdest thy weapon with a bent arm that the point looks straight out forwards, so that the Hilt in height equalize thy waist: And lastly into a Low Tertz, when thou holdest thy weapon with a straight arm downwards, so that thy Hilt be equal to thy knee in height, or a little below.
"The Quarte is when thou holdest thy Rapier in such a manner with a bended arm, that the outside of thy hand look down towards the ground, but the inside upwards. This is likewise subdivided into a straight Quarte when thou holdest thy Rapier with a Quarte and let the point sink down."
All the writing about fencing in this period (mostly in Italian), was abundantly detailed and showed a very quick evolution of the art of combat.
Italian style fencing was practiced throughout Europe, in courts and salles, the private gyms where fencing was taught. At the end of the sixteenth century the sword assumed a shape that would last for another fifty years. It was enriched by a basket hilt to better protect the sword wielder's hand and it was longer and thinner than a sidesword. Englishmen called it a rapier. The end of the century also brought the birth of the disengagement technique that will be thoroughly developed in its many variants during the following century. The most used of these disengagements is the cavazione or trade, the maneuver that permits one to exchange or switch sides on the opponent's sword, without making contact with it.
It is the seventeenth century that sees the birth of national styles and a more clear-cut division between dueling styles and military styles.
This development can be attributed to several factors: the growing influence of the printing press, the beginnings of a modern mentality that brought the rise of centralized nation states, the birth of "modern" scientific methods (many books have amazing anatomic and geometric details), the rise of the middle class with the consequent increase in students of the "gentlemanly arts of combat," and the need for a more codified method of teaching.
Dueling swords became lighter, fencing became faster, and the combination of thrusts and parries more complicated. Furthermore, the seventeenth century saw the introduction of two new kinds of blades: the small sword, a thrusting only sword, thinner and shorter than a normal rapier, and the saber.
The saber, a curved sword with one cutting edge, began to be used in western Europe but became widely spread only during the eighteenth century. The small sword was developed in France at the time when a distinct French school of fencing was also coming into being. The small sword's lightness permitted a faster style that influenced greatly the future classical fencing and modern fencing and began a path that brought the introduction of the foil in the nineteenth century.
The second half of the century saw the transition from fencing in single to double time. In "single time," the swordsman's main goal is to provoke an attack and counter into the opponent's offense while blocking the path of the incoming blade with one's own. In "double time," an incoming attack is first parried with the sword blade and then followed up with a fast counterattack (riposte). Fencing in double time wasn't unknown before, but it was neglected as the fencer's movements required were too fast to be performed with a rapier. The favorite technique was instead the time thrust—a thrust along a line that opposes the attack and permits the swordsman to parry and to hit simultaneously.
While dueling fencing based its movements on agility and reflexes, military fencing maintained the use of power moves and larger movements. The use of a dagger as a defensive weapon disappeared. One century later it would be taught only by Neapolitan academies.
The seventeenth century was a period of great sword masters, of experimentation and of development of the art of combat. Ridolfo Capoferro, Marco Docciolini, Salvatore Fabris, Nicoletto Giganti, Francesco Alfieri, Bondi di Mazo, Morsicato Pallavicini, Don Luis Pacheco de Narvaez, Girard Thibault were some of the great Masters of the time. It was the time of the Italian and Spanish styles that used predominantly thrusts, but didn't neglect cutting blows especially in defensive actions.
The training was rigorous and focused on self-preservation in an actual combative situation. The goal was to enable a fencer to survive a combat on any terrain.
The styles taught were strict, essential and conservative as with any things where human life is at stake. Fencing in Italian is "scherma," a word that means barrier, shelter. The main tactic is closing with the enemy, finding his blade and using touches, disengagements and counterdisengagements to create an opening in his defenses.
The thrusts were aimed with precision at vital organs or at the limbs to incapacitate the adversary. The sword was held with delicacy (the Italian school called this method "a straccio bagnato," the wet towel way) so that it is possible to control the sword in the most subtle way and use a vast array of techniques.
The main difference between the Italian and the Spanish school is that the Italian style was more energetic, more animated, more of a linear style prone to the attack, rich of lunges (long thrusts). The Spanish style was more defensive, cool and deliberate. It used circular footwork movements waiting for the opportunity to strike the enemy. The second style is more dancelike and has a single flat-footed stance and only two basic positions compared to the multitude of the Italian style. The stress on defense permitted the Spanish swordsmen to use just the rapier, whereas the Italians still used a dagger. A typical Spanish swordsman would keep his body straight upright and use fast circular paces with arm and rapier held straight, menacing the face or body of their enemy.
From the end of the sixteenth century, the rapier had become the predominant civilian sword. These swords were custom-crafted for each swordsman. They were very long and still quite heavy (around 2.5 lbs.) compared to today's swords. Their ideal length was twice the length of the fencer's arm. The blade was divided into two parts: the strong and the weak. The first goes from the hilt to half blade and is used mostly to parry; the second from half blade to the tip and is used to hit. As to military swords, the seventeenth century saw the growth of the use of sabers and of the "schiavona." This two-edged sword combined the full hand protection of a deep basket hilt made up of a number of connecting iron bars, and a very efficient blade that allowed both cut and thrust. The schiavona won a wide popularity in several European armies. Fitted with a long blade, it became the favorite sword of the heavy cavalry.
If you are taught the Italian style, the use of a dagger as a defensive weapon is recommended. The main functions of a dagger are to parry, hit and trap the enemy's blade. There are two types of fencing daggers. They usually both have a straight, pointed, double-edged blade between fifteen and twenty inches long. The first type is a simple cross-hilted design, usually with slightly drooping or forked quillons (the two arms, straight or bent, that are the sides of the hilt) creating an acute angle with the blade itself. This is to entrap and break the enemy sword by a simple twist of the wrist once its attack has been parried. It also has an additional side ring called an "anneau," whose purpose is to protect the knuckles. The second form of fencing dagger is called a shell-guard dagger or main gauche. This weapon's hilt is formed by long straight quillons and a shell protecting the whole hand.
Almost no academy taught the use of the sword alone. Much time was dedicated to fencing with daggers in close combat. The name for dagger and knife fighting was "scherma corta": short fencing. In the seventeenth century, short fencing reached extraordinary levels of complexity and the training was performed with the dagger alone or with other tools (cloak and dagger, dagger and hat, dagger and pistol, dagger and cane).
Multiple techniques of offense and defense with the dagger were developed and taught. Due to the brutality of knife fighting it wasn't uncommon for the duelers to fight with knife alone, especially when the duel was to the death. These are the words of Salvatore Fabris, fencing teacher in Padua:
"There are moments, where there is neither time nor the occasion to use a rapier, and it's important for a gentleman to never neglect his skills with the use of a dagger."
When not busy studying fencing with rapier or dagger, a good swordsman would be studying other forms of codified combat. These included the use of spear and pike and the use of batons and walking canes as self-defense weapons. There were, of course, moments when none of these weapons were available, so a good swordsman had to learn hand-to-hand combat. European unarmed forms are not so different from modern martial arts. A treatise written in Florence at the beginning of the century states in its introduction "my system teaches both the use of fists and kicks and the use of limb locks and torsions depending on the occasions and the intentions of the enemy."
In conclusion we may say that a seventeenth-century swordsman had to be good at fencing both in a melee and during a duel as well as a ruthless fighter ready to defend himself from assaults when simply walking on a lane. He would have to know how to use all the weapons at his disposal: his own hands, daggers, one or two sticks as tall as a man or as long as an arm or as short as a dagger; rapiers, sabers, spears, halberds. In a few words he was a tough nut to crack.
The Internet is full of interesting pages about the Western Martial Arts. I selected a few of them for whoever is interested in studying the topic in more depth.