Vincentio Saviolo

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Fencing master Vincentio Saviolo (d. 1598/9), though Italian born and raised, authored the first book on fencing in the English language.

He arrived in London from Padua in 1590, with his brother Jeronimo. John Florio described Saviolo's fencing school being, in 1591, "in the little street where the well is...at the sign of the red Lyon." It was described by George Silver as being "within a bow shot" of what was later the Bell Savage or la Belle Sauvage, at this time "Savage's inn, otherwise called the Bell on the Hoop" ( Inns and Taverns of Old London by Henry C. Shelley, 1909), on Ludgate Hill. His particular nemesis among the Masters of Defence of the English school was this George Silver, who wrote his own book to attack Saviolo's systems.

Vincentio Saviolo, his practise, in two bookes, the first intreating of the use of the Rapier and Dagger, the second of Honor and honorable quarrels. London, printed by John Wolfe, 1595, undertakes to instruct in the rapier fencing techniques of his day. The careful reader will notice the absence of the lunge, which has not yet entered fencing and was not so suitable to the heavier weapons of the 1590s.

As was ordinary in that day, it was structured like a conversation between Saviolo and an imaginary student. Those of today, used to FAQs, find this easier to follow than readers twenty years ago did. The original version has the idiosyncratic spelling common to the age. The terminology is strange to those used to modern fencing, but the illustrated versions make it possible to reconstruct. He was, after all, writing for people unable to get to a fencing master like himself.

[edit] Saviolo's Relevance Today

This is one of the basic texts for reconstructing Renaissance fencing, among students of historical European martial arts. In conjunction with this, fight arrangers or combat choreographers, for stage or screen, find it a guide to constructing authentic duels, since it gives long practice routines.

The book is revealing to the non-fencer for the courtesy of the day, as expressed between the two characters, the stories of actual duels and either what caused them or how they came to be won or lost.

The author needing a quick duel can learn to decipher the practice bouts and use them as an authentic armature for the drama taking place in their story.

Artists can use the illustrations to develop their own drawings or paintings of rapier fights.