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Federico Ghisliero

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Federico Ghisliero
Died 1619
Turin, Italy
Occupation
  • Soldier
Nationality Italian
Genres Fencing manual
Language Italian
Notable work(s) Regole di molti cavagliereschi essercitii (1587)

Federico Ghisliero was a Bolognese soldier and fencer. Little is know about his early life, but he studied fencing under the famous Silvio Piccolomini.

In 1587, he published a fencing treatise called Regole di molti cavagliereschi essercitii, dedicated to Ranuccio Farnese, who was 18 years old at the time of publication and would become Duke of Parma, Piacenza, and Castro. Ghisliero's manual is notable for his use of geometry in relation to fencing, and the incredibly detailed illustrations, using concentric circles centered on where the fencer has placed most of their weight (often, but not always, the back foot), and illustrating multiple versions of each figure in a plate, showing the progression of the movements he describes.

Treatise

Additional Resources

The following is a list of publications containing scans, transcriptions, and translations relevant to this article, as well as published peer-reviewed research.

  • Anglo, Sydney (1994). "Sixteenth-century Italian drawings in Federico Ghisliero's Regole di molti cavagliereschi essercitii." Apollo 140(393): 29-36.
  • Gotti, Roberto (2023). "The Dynamic Sphere: Thesis on the Third State of the Vitruvian Man." Martial Culture and Historical Martial Arts in Europe and Asia: 93-147. Ed. by Daniel Jaquet; Hing Chao; Loretta Kim. Springer.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Cavagliereschi is Corsican for "chivalrous", while the Italian is "knightly".
  2. La gratia is Catalan for "grace".
  3. Ghisliero is telling his reader that he is a soldier not a civilian swordsman, so it will have a different perspective to others, hence his later comments on siege craft. [note from Henry Fox]
  4. This and the previous paragraph are commending the work to the patron, justifying the work’s existence and its purpose, common in treatises of the period. [note from Henry Fox]
  5. It was common to refer to “ancients” in the justification of the art of swordsmanship. [note from Henry Fox]
  6. When ‘this art’ or ‘the art’ is referenced it means the art of fencing. [More expansively the arts militari (military arts) or for the more classical, the Arts of Mars, of which swordsmanship falls within.] [note from Henry Fox]
  7. Further justification by demonstration of the benefits to those who practice the art in question, also common, especially referring to defense of the person and the realm. [note from Henry Fox]
  8. The version dedicated to Antonino instead reads "...for the instruction of the Most Illustrious Lord Antonio Pio Bonello".
  9. Cavalier – cavaliere – knights – so indicating the noble nature of the art which he is presenting. [note from Henry Fox]
  10. The Humours.
  11. Means sad.
  12. Means calm.
  13. Means optimistic.
  14. Means bad-tempered.