| Scola, overo teatro |
|---|
| School, or Fencing Hall |
 |
| 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 |
|
|---|
Scola, overo teatro ("School, or Fencing Hall") 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.[1] 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. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany granted Giganti a special protection against unauthorized reprints for a term of 30 years, but this copyright was repeatedly ignored, including a 1610 printing and the 1628 edition published in Padua by Paolo Frambotto.
In 1619, still within the copyright period, the treatise was translated into French and German and published in Frankfurt by Jacques de Zeter under the title Escrime Novvelle ov Theatre ("New Fencing or Theater"). He also included translations of Salvator Fabris' 1606 treatise, which has oddly lead various fencing historians to accuse Giganti of plagiarism. This parallel edition was reprinted in 1622 and again in 1644.
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
Gallery
For the present this gallery only contains the pages which are missing from the scans of the 1606 linked above.
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
- Mediema, Aaron Taylor. Nicoletto Giganti's the School of the Sword: A New Translation by Aaron Taylor Miedema. Legacy Books Press, 2014. ISBN 978-1927537077
References
Copyright and License Summary
For further information, including transcription and translation notes, see the discussion page.
