Frederico Ghisliero
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Fredrico Ghisliero was an Italian fencer and soldier who wrote his text Regole di molte cavagliereschi essercitii in 1587.
Ghisliero is unique to the world of Renaissance fencing, as his book, Regole di Molte Cavagliereschi, combined the pragmatic street fighting elements of the Italian rapier school with the Spanish school's emphasis on the use of Eulidean geometry to guide footwork and, blade motions.[citation needed]
His mathematical concepts were founded upon a series of concentric circles, with the center being the duelist's back foot (which was usually the foot on which the majority of one's weight rested in most of the systems of the time). Each concentric circle expanded out from the center by the length of one pace. There were also crossing lines, which shared their common midpoint with the central point of the concentric circles. These crossing lines pointed forward, backward, right, and left, relative to the fencer.
This particular use of geometry is thought to be due to the influence of the Spanish school, however, the Spanish school used a single circle that encompassed both duelists, while Ghisliero's system used numerous circles centered around a single fencer. While, this common usage of geometry in the context of blade combat has been thought to show at least some Spanish influence, it should be noted that Jeronimo de Carranza, the father of the Spanish school, was heavily influenced by Agrippa's application of geometry to combat in his book,entitled Trattio di Scienzia d'Armes, which also incorporated the idea of a circle that would encircle the duelists. Thus, it is conceivable that Ghisliero's system was influenced purely by Italian sources, since the use of geometry was common to Agrippa as well as to the theorists of the Spanish system. In the end the question is a toss up, because Ghisliero's use of geometry is applied from a perspective that is distinct from both the Italian and Spanish systems. Ghisliero also used guard names from the Bolognese school (an older style geared to the use of the "spada de filo," propounded by Marrozzo), and the four rotational hand positions from Camillo Agrippa's manual. Therefore, his system is ultimately a mixed bag of of Italian/Bolognese techniques, and nomenclature, unified by a simple, and unique, mathematical construct, and with possible Spanish influences.
Like the other systems of civilian combat prevalent in Europe at the time, Ghisliero's system emphasized the use of the thrust over the cut. He also wrote on the use of the dagger, and the cloak in combination with the sword, which were mainstays of civilian dress, and were often discussed in manuals of the time, especially those related to the Italian school. He was noted by Don Luis Pacheco de Narvaez, a major proponent of the Spanish school, as being one of ten leading experts on mounted combat in Europe, at the time. Ghisliero wrote other treatises on artillery, siege warfare and more, however many of these works are now lost. More about him can be found at www.thearma.org/, where a discussion of his work is given, based on the work of Dr. Sydney Anglo.
