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Giacomo di Grassi

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Revision as of 17:06, 14 November 2013 by Jon Pellett (talk | contribs) (Translator's reasons for translation spada as rapier - since no one ever reads the translator's introduction!)
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Giacomo di Grassi
Born 16th century
Modena, Italy
Died after 1594
London, England
Occupation Fencing master
Genres Fencing manual
Language
Notable work(s)
Concordance by Michael Chidester
Translations Český Překlad

Giacomo di Grassi was a 16th century Italian fencing master. Little is known about the life of this master, but he seems to have been born in Modena, Italy and acquired some fame as a fencing master in his youth. He operated a fencing school in Trevino and apparently traveled around Italy observing the teachings of other schools and masters. Ultimately di Grassi seems to have developed his own method, which he laid out in great detail in his 1570 work Ragione di adoprar sicuramente l'Arme ("Explanation of Striving Safely with Arms"). In 1594, a new edition of his book was printed in London under the title His True Arte of Defence, translated by an "I.G. gentleman" and published by an admirer named Thomas Churchyard. While di Grassi's teachings were arguably designed for the side sword, the English translation substitutes "rapier" for every mention of the sword. The translator explains - since English (of his time) distinguishes between "sword" and "rapier", while Italian does not - that he has generally chosen to translate spada as "rapier", because in Italy the rapier and dagger are carried, and not the sword (except in a military context), as is also the case with gentlemen in England; however, the reader should not construe the word in such a narrow sense as to exclude the sword altogether.

Treatises

Additional Resources

  • di Grassi, Giacomo; Saviolo, Vincentio; Silver, George. Three Elizabethan Fencing Manuals. Ed. James Louis Jackson. Scholars Facsimilies & Reprint, 1972. ISBN 978-0820111070
  • Gentleman I.G. Giacomo Di Grassi His True Arte of Defence Plainlie Teaching by Infallable Demonstrations Apt Figures and Perfect Rules the Manner and Forme How a Man. Eebo Editions, Proquest, 2010. ISBN 978-1171317555
  • di Grassi, Giacomo. Di Grassi, Giacomo: His True Art of Defence. Fines Mundi Verlag.

References