Scola, overo teatro (Nicoletto Giganti)

Scola, overo teatro
School, or Theater
Full title	Scola, overo teatro, nelquale sono rappresentate diverse maniere, e modi di parare, e di ferire di spada sola, e di spada, e pugnala
Author(s)	Nicoletto Giganti
Illustrated by	Odoarco Fialetti
Dedicated to	Cosimo II de' Medici
Place of origin	Siena, Tuscany
Language	Italian
Genre(s)	Fencing manual
Publisher	Giovanni Antonio & Giacomo de' Franceschi
Publication date	1606, 1610, 1619, 1622, 1628, 1644
Pages	95 pages
Treatise scans	Digital scans (1606) Digital scans (1606) B&W photocopy (A / B) (1606) Digital scans (1619) Digital scans (1619) Digital scans (1619) B&W photocopy (1619) Digital scans (1622) Digital scans (1628) Digital scans (1628) Digital scans (1628) Digital scans (1628) Digital scans (1644) Digital scans (1644) Digital scans (1644)

Scola, overo teatro ("School, or Theater") is an Italian fencing manual written by Nicoletto Giganti and printed in 1606. It treats the use of the single rapier and the rapier and dagger. The treatise is structured as a series of progressively more complex lessons, and Tom Leoni opines that this treatise is the best pedagogical work on rapier fencing of its time. Based on the number of republications over the succeeding decades it seems to have been quite popular, and fencing historians have praised it both for its organization and as the first text to fully describe the use of the lunge.

Publication History

Scola, overo teatro was first printed in Venice in 1606 by Giovanni Antonio and Giacomo de' Franceschi, with illustrations by Odoarco Fialetti. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany granted Giganti a special protection against unauthorized reprints for a term of 30 years, including a fine of 300 ducats. This copyright was repeatedly ignored, however, including a 1628 edition published in Padua by Paolo Frambotto, which included an additional dedication from the publisher to Lazaro Stubick di Kœnigstein. Bibliographies also list printings in 1608 and 1610; the first is probably a mistaken reference to Libro secondo, whereas the second seems to be spurious (or possibly a mistaken reference to the treatise of Ridolfo Capo Ferro).

In 1619, still within the copyright period, the treatise was translated into French and German and published in Frankfurt by Jacob de Zeter. He published separate French and German editions titled Escrime Novvelle ov Theatre ("New Fencing or Theater") and Newe Fechtkunst Oder Schawplatz ("New Fencing Art or Show Place") respectively, containing the main text in both languages but the preface in only one. This parallel edition was reprinted in 1522, and Zeter also included translations of book II of Salvator Fabris' 1606 treatise, which has oddly lead various fencing historians to accuse Giganti himself of plagiarism. In 1644, unsold copies had the year covered with a paper saying "1644" and sold as a new edition.

In 2010, Scola, overo teatro was translated into English by Tom Leoni and published by Freelance Academy Press under the title Venetian Rapier: The School, or Salle. A second English translation, titled Nicoletto Giganti's the School of the Sword was released in 2014 by Aaron Taylor Mediema.

Contents

i - v	Preface by Nicoletto Giganti
vii - xiv	Publisher's preface
1 - 47	Rapier by Nicoletto Giganti
48 - 95	Rapier and dagger by Nicoletto Giganti

Gallery

Title pages

1606

1619 (French)

1619 (German)

1622 (French)

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1622 (German)

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1628

1644 (French)

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1644 (German)

Illustrations

Medici Heraldry

Portrait

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Additional Resources

• Leoni, Tom. Venetian Rapier: The School, or Salle. Nicoletto Giganti's 1606 Rapier Fencing Curriculum. Wheaton, IL: Freelance Academy Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9825911-2-3
• Miedema, Aaron Taylor. Nicoletto Giganti's the School of the Sword: A New Translation by Aaron Taylor Miedema. Legacy Books Press, 2014. ISBN 978-1927537077

Copyright and License Summary

For further information, including transcription and translation notes, see the discussion page.

Work	Author(s)	Source	License
Images	Odoarco Fialetti	Italian Digital Library
Transcription		Index:Scola, overo teatro (Nicoletto Giganti)