![]() He has previously shown us one of the guards (posta di donna, the woman's guard) in four variations, and four other positions which may be used for particular actions, on pages 22r to 23r. In this essay I will analyse and comment on Fiore's instructions regarding the twelve cardinal guards of the longsword, rendering them accessible to the modern student of Fiore's art. That aside, there is a wealth of information available to the swordsman in Fiore's text regarding the guards, which can cover the tactical use of the position, the techniques that can be done from the position, and the inherent characteristics of the position, all of which the swordsman should know before committing himself to actually using the position in combat. The closest Fiore comes to stating this outright is in the text describing the boar's tooth guard, in which a fendente (a descending blow) finishes in that position. ![]() Fiore does not discuss this in detail, but comparison with Viggiani's Lo Schermo, and many years of practical experiment, have established this theory beyond reasonable doubt. It has been long established by scholars studying Fior Battaglia that the guards of the longsword form the beginning and end of every movement of the sword, and sometimes a mid-point too. Images by Jari Juslin, taken from Guy Windsor's new longsword book: Mastering the Art of Arms vol 2: The Medieval Longsword ![]() ![]() This page is adapted from Guy Windsor's article from 2007, Technical and Tactical Notes on the 12 Guards ![]()
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