| Opera Nova |
|---|
| A New Work |
 |
| Full title |
A New Work by Achille Marozzo of Bologna,
General Master of the Art of Arms |
|---|
| Also known as |
The Art of Arms of Achille Marozzo of Bologna |
|---|
| Author(s) |
Achille Marozzo |
|---|
| Illustrated by |
Hans Sebald Beham (?) |
|---|
| Dedicated to |
Count Rangoni |
|---|
| Place of origin |
Bologna, Italy |
|---|
| Language |
Italian |
|---|
| Genre(s) |
Fencing manual |
|---|
| Publication date |
1536, 1546, 1550, 1567, 1568, 1615 |
|---|
| Pages |
296 pages |
|---|
| Treatise scans |
|
|---|
Opera Nova ("A New Work") is a Bolognese fencing manual written by Achille Marozzo and printed in 1536.[1] This is arguably the most significant treatise on the Dardi (or "Bolognese") style of Italian swordsmanship, as well as one of the most influential fencing manuals of the 16th century.
Publication History
Opera Nova was first printed in Modena in 1536 by D. Antonio Bergolae, featuring woodblock illustrations possibly engraved by Hans Sebald Beham.[2] The treatise was reset and reprinted in Bologna in 1546, and reprinted again in Venice in 1550 using the original typeset. In 1567-68 it was reprinted in Venice again, but this time based on the 1546 Bologna printing.
Perhaps owing to the popularity of the 1567 publication, a revised edition was created by Marozzo's son Sebastiano and published under the title Arte dell'Armi di Achille Marozzo Bolognese ("The Art of Arms of Achille Marozzo of Bologna"). This edition featured corrections to the text (but omitted additions made in the 1546 printing) and replaced the woodblock images with smaller copperplates by Giovanni Battista Fontana; it was printed in Venice by Antonio Pinargenti in 1568-9, and reprinted in Verona in 1615.
Four of the woodblocks from the first edition survived until at least 1711, when they were used by Carlo Giuseppe Colombani to decorate his treatise L'Arte maestra.
Various other editions of the text that have been reported in literature but never confirmed. Jacopo Gelli's fencing bibliography makes reference to an edition published in Venice in 1517, of which a copy resided in the R. Biblioteca Pisana,[3] but this edition has never been found or mentioned by any other author. In 2016, Roberto Gotti published a description of a set of 17th or 18th century prints from the original woodblocks to which a date of 1529 was added; Gotti speculates that this may have been added based on a date inscribed on the blocks themselves, which would suggest an earlier edition in or around that year.[4] Google books includes scans of two copies that it dates to 1540, but the date page is missing from both and they appear to be copies of the 1546.[5] Finally, there are a few references in bibliographies to a French translation of Marozzo's work titled Livre d'escrime pour apprendre a tirer de l'espée et de toutes armes blanches, published in Lyon in 1580 by Pierre Mareschal,[6] but there is no known record of any copy and these references seem to be spurious.
Contents
Gallery
Digitally restored and painted images © Heidi Zimmerman, Draupnir Press; used under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
Cover Pages
Woodblock Images (1536)
Copperplate Images (1568)
Additional Resources
References
- ↑ According to page 148.
- ↑ Gotti 213-220
- ↑ Gelli, Jacopo. Bibliografia Generale della Scherma. Florence: Tipografia Editrice di L. Niccolai, 1890. pp 126-130.
- ↑ Gotti 213-220.
- ↑ See copy 1 and copy 2.
- ↑ See, for example, Blanc, Joseph. Bibliographie italico-française universelle. Vol. 1. Milan: L'auteur, 1886. p 1438.
Copyright and License Summary
For further information, including transcription and translation notes, see the discussion page.
