Camillo Palladini

Camillo Palladini
Occupation	Fencing master
Influences	Camillo Agrippa
Influenced	André des Bordes
Genres	Fencing manual
Language	Italian
Manuscript(s)	MS 14/10 (ca. 1600)

Camillo Palladini was a 16th or 17th century Italian fencing master. He seems to have been a professional fencing master, and to have written his treatise (MS 14/10), around the turn of the 17th century.

In the title to his work Palladini declares himself a native of Bologna: Camillo Palladini Bolognese, although he seems to have been active in Rome, Torquato D'Alessandri, naming a Camillo Paladino from Bologna among the masters teaching in Rome as of 1609.

...the good and honoured masters of Rome, such as Messrs. Oratio and Cesare Cavalcabo, Camillo Paladino [sic], most excellent men, known as the Bolognese; Messers. Francesco and Vincenzo Marcelli, most exquisite men, known as the Abruzzese; and Messrs. Appio Castelli, Gio[vanni]. Angelo Paternostraro and Antonio Rinaldi, most fine and famous men, known as the Romans.

Palladini mentions a number of earlier fencing masters in his work, including Tapa di Milano, presumably the “great Tappé of Milan” mentioned by the French chronicler Brantôme, and Camillo Agrippa, whom he cites in order to disagree with, explicitly rejecting overwrought geometrical explanations of fencing.

Palladini’s own method of fencing demonstrates commonalities with a number of contemporary and near-contemporary treatises, presaging the methods of later Italian rapier masters, while conserving some elements of the earlier Bolognese school (for example cuts or beats with the false edge of the sword, and mentions of the older Bolognese guard names).

The treatise covers the sword alone, sword and dagger, sword and cloak, double swords, spadone, pike and halberd.

Palladini’s manuscript was not published in his own lifetime, and bears no dedication, however the 1610 treatise of André des Bordes appears in large part to be a plagiarism in French translation (without illustrations) of sections of Palladini’s work.

Additional Resources

• Terminiello, Piermarco and Pendragon, Joshua. The Art of Fencing - The Forgotten Discourse of Camillo Palladini. Royal Armouries Museum, 2019. ISBN 9780948092961