In Praise of 10 Historical Fencing Masters

In Praise of 10 Historical Fencing Masters

By Nick Evangelista

Marozzo

1.)    Achille Marozzo: for his early attempt to bring an ordered system of combat to fencing. Opera Nova (1536).

Agrippa

2.)    Camillo Agrippa: for his stressing the value of the thrust. Tratto di scientia d’arme (1553).

Fabris

3.)    Salvator Fabris: for consolidating the best ideas fencing had to offer during the 16th century. Scienza e pratica d’arme (1606).

Capo Ferro

4.)    Ridolfo Capo Ferro: for popularizing the lunge, and insisting that fencing engagements should be carried out in a linear fashion. Gran simulacro dell’arte e della Scherma (1610).

Besnard

5.)    Charles Besnard: for establishing the superiority of French theory and practice over the Italian school during the 17th century. Le maistre d’armes liberal (1653).

Liancour

6.)    Wernesson de Liancour: For removing from the French system of fencing the majority of theories and practices that were either outdated or manifestly false in the mid-17th century. Le Maistre d’armes, ou l’exercice de l’espee sculle dans sa perfection (1686).

Danet

7.)    Guillaume Danet: for his general fencing principles which became the basis for foil fencing in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Art des Armes (1766).

Hope

8.)    Sir William Hope: for his numerous books on the small sword. Various titles (1687-1729).

D. Angelo

9.)    Domenico Angelo: for establishing during the mid-18th century the concept that, beyond its martial origins, fencing could be employed for exercise, and as a sport to enhance health, poise, grace, and character; and for writing a book that became a showcase of French fencing for decades. L’Ecole des Armes/The School of Fencing (1763, 1765, and 1767).

H. Angelo

10.)  Henry (Harry) Angelo, son of Domenico: for fully defining and expanding his father’s notions on the healthful benefits of fencing, and for welcoming everyday citizens as potential students, not just “persons of rank,” as his father imagined. During the late 18th century, when fencing was otherwise fading away as a martial discipline due to the ascendency of the pistol as a dueling weapon, his insights infused new life into the art. His book, A treatise on the utility and advantages of fencing, giving the opinions of the most eminent Authors and Medical Practitioners on the important advantages derived from a knowledge of the Art as a means of self-defence and a promoter of health (1817), was the medical verification of his ideas. He also published a less ornate, and cheaper, version of his father’s The School of Fencing (1787 and 1799) to further promote his strategies. In addition to the aforementioned, he was the first fencing master to publicly promote the concept of fencing for women. The author and biographer of the Angelo family, J.D. Aylward (The House of Angelo, 1953), described Henry Angelo as having “a shrewd business head with a gift of turning circumstances to professional advantage.” Moreover, as it turned out, what he thought was also good for fencing.