Weaponry: The Rapier

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Around the same time as Agrippa, Giacomo di Grassi was teaching a style that favored the thrust. The thrust at that time was delivered directly from the shoulder from a stance that placed the left foot forward. That put the off-hand weapon (usually a dagger) forward of the rapier, where it could beat aside or deflect an opponent’s blade, thus clearing the way for a simultaneous attack with the rapier.

Angelo Viggiani then advanced the art by developing the lunge or, as he termed it, the punta sopramano. That technique led him to teach a stance that led with the right foot. This side stance, reducing the visible target area, eventually led to the abandonment of the off-hand weapon.

Vincentio Saviolo was the first master to insist on the total superiority of the point, which led to the narrowing of the blade. Since the rapier no longer possessed the weight to cut by percussion, the draw cut was used. In that technique, the blade was placed against the target and rapidly pulled back under pressure, creating a slicing action that often involved a fair length of the overall edge. During that period, it was not uncommon for blades to exceed 40 inches in length. Held with the palm facing backward, the pommel was often butted against the wrist to help counterbalance the weight of the blade.

By now one may have noticed that all the names mentioned thus far have been Italian. That is not to imply there were no masters of significance elsewhere. The art of fence flourished in Germany, France and Spain as well as Italy, and masters such as Besnard, Narvaez and Sainct Didier were well known and revered. The Italians, however, did most of the work that significantly advanced the art of fence and, hence, the design of the rapier. In England, where a 13th-century law forbade the establishment of schools of fence, and the social status of a fencing instructor was on a par with vagabonds and (God forbid) actors, the atmosphere was less conducive to the advancement of the art.

The last master of importance was Salvator Fabris. The lunge, in real combat, requires a fair bit of nerve, since such an extension not only exposes the thruster but also limits his options for recovery and response. Fabris, therefore, taught to engage in misura stretta–close measure–wherein one can hit one’s opponent through a simple arm extension. To do so, the swords end up crossed. Since the major target area is on the side of the opponent’s blade, it now became necessary to remove one’s blade and reposition it to the other side by dipping under the opponent’s blade. The cavatione di tempo–or disengage, as it is known today–necessitates a similar counteraction to negate it, returning the blades to their original position. The contra cavatione, which modern fencers would recognize as the circle parry, is the first instance of a technique designed solely to parry an opponent’s blade with the rapier itself.

That and subsequent techniques would result in the quillons of the rapier’s curving up and away from the hilt on one side, the better to catch and immobilize or entrap an opposing blade. The curved quillon entrapped more readily than a straight one, but also made it harder to release or ‘lose’ the captured blade. In effect, if you had him, he also had you. When a dagger was employed, it could take over the offense, but later fencing styles (those that employed the cup hilt) had abandoned the main gauche.

There were three main methods of making hits with the rapier: the imbrocatta, which thrust over the opponent’s sword; the stocatta, which thrust under; and the punta riversa, delivered from one’s left to the opponent’s right, with the palm forward and upward. There were also techniques where the sword and dagger both hit simultaneously, and where two swords were used together. These twin rapiers, known collectively as a ‘case,’ were often designed to fit together side by side to resemble one sword, and were released into individual weapons by depressing a stud. Rapier and dagger were often made as companion pieces with beautifully wrought hilts of matching design. Regardless of its ornamentation, however, the rapier remained a highly functional and deadly weapon.

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