Gran Simulacro dell'Arte e dell'Uso della Scherma (Ridolfo Capo Ferro da Cagli)

Gran Simulacro dell'Arte e dell'Uso della Scherma
Great Representation of the Art and Use of Fencing
Author(s)	Ridolfo Capo Ferro da Cagli
Illustrated by	Rafael Schiamirossi
Dedicated to	Don Federigo Feltrio della Rovere
Place of origin	Siena, Tuscany
Language	Italian
Genre(s)	Fencing manual
Publisher	Salvestro Marchetti and Camillo Turi
Publication date	1610, 1629, 1632, 1652
Pages	122 pages
Treatise scans	Digital scans (1610) Digital scans (1610) Digital scans (1610) Digital scans (1610) Digital scans (1610) B&W photocopy (1610) B&W photocopy (1610) B&W photocopy (1610) B&W photocopy (1610)

Gran Simulacro dell'Arte e dell'Uso della Scherma ("Great Representation of the Art and Use of Fencing") is an Italian fencing manual written by Ridolfo Capo Ferro da Cagli and printed in 1610. It treats the use of the single rapier, as well as in conjunction with the cloak, dagger, and rotella shield. Though Capo Ferro's treatise is often praised by modern fencing historians, it was neither comprehensive nor particularly innovative and does not seem to have been terribly influential in its own time.

Publication History

Gran Simulacro dell'Arte e dell'Uso della Scherma was first printed in Siena in 1610 by Salvestro Marchetti and Camillo Turi, with illustrations by Rafael Schiamirossi.

A second edition was printed in Siena in 1629 by Ercole Gori, and was reprinted in Bologna in 1652 by G. Longo. This edition omits the entire unillustrated portion of the treatise and begins with the "Method of Laying Hand on the Sword". The layout was changed so that the text appears below each illustration, which appear on the front side of each page with a blank back side, and replaces the plain backgrounds in seven of Schiamirossi's original illustrations with intricate depictions of scenes from the Bible and Greek mythology.

A third edition, was printed in 1632, also in Siena, by Bernardino Capitelli. This likewise omits the unillustrated portion, and also truncates the descriptions of the plays. It includes new simplified illustrations, removing the backgrounds and scaled down to one quarter size.

Capo Ferro's treatise has been published in English at least three times. Jared Kirby's translation was published in London in 2004 by Greenhill Books under the title Italian Rapier Combat: Ridolfo Capo Ferro's 'Gran Simulacro'; Nick S. Thomas's translation was published in 2007 by Swordworks Books under the title Rapier: The Art and Use of Fencing by Ridolfo Capo Ferro; and Tom Leoni's translation was published in 2011 by Freelance Academy Press under the title Ridolfo Capoferro's The Art and Practice of Fencing: A Practical Translation for the Modern Swordsman.

Contents

Ir - IVv	Preface by Ridolfo Capo Ferro da Cagli
1 - 73	Rapier by Ridolfo Capo Ferro da Cagli
74 - 103, 108 - 115	Rapier and dagger by Ridolfo Capo Ferro da Cagli
104 - 107	Rapier and cloak by Ridolfo Capo Ferro da Cagli
116 - 120	Rapier and rotella by Ridolfo Capo Ferro da Cagli

Gallery

Title Pages

1610 Title Page

1629 Title Page

1632 Title Page

1652 Title Page

Illustrations

Heraldry

Portrait

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

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Figure 8

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1629 Illustrations

A copy of the 1629 edition in the Biblioteca Oliveriana contains seventeen watercolor illustrations; these are included below along with the remainder of the seven illustrations that were enhanced in this edition.

Heraldry

Portrait

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 12

Figure 13

Figure 22

Figure 23

Figure 24

Figure 25

Figure 26

Figure 27

Figure 30

Figure 36

Figure 40

1652 Illustrations

The source of these additional watercolors is a copy of the 1652 edition that has not yet been identified.

Figure 6

Figure 14

Figure 21

Figure 34

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.

• Capo Ferro, Ridolfo (2004). Italian Rapier Combat: Ridolfo Capo Ferro's 'Gran Simulacro'. Trans. by Jared Kirby. London: Greenhill Books. ISBN 978-1853675805.
• Capo Ferro, Ridolfo (2007). Rapier: The Art and Use of Fencing by Ridolfo Capo Ferro. Trans. by Nick S. Thomas. SwordWorks. ISBN 978-1906512279.
• Capo Ferro, Ridolfo (2011). Ridolfo Capoferro's The Art and Practice of Fencing: A Practical Translation for the Modern Swordsman. Trans. by Tom Leoni. Wheaton, IL: Freelance Academy Press. ISBN 978-0-9825911-9-2.
• Garcia-Salmones, Eugenio (2009). Ridolfo Capoferro, 'Gran simulacro del arte y del uso de la esgrima', Traduccion al castellano. Editorial Sacauntos. ISBN 978-84-937207-0-4.

Copyright and License Summary

For further information, including transcription and translation notes, see the discussion page.

Work	Author(s)	Source	License
Images (1610)	Rafael Schiamirossi	Internet Culturale
Images (1629)		Biblioteca Oliveriana
Transcription (1610)	Società d’Arme dell’Aquila	Index:Gran Simulacro dell'Arte e dell'Uso della Scherma (Ridolfo Capo Ferro da Cagli)
Transcription (1632)