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Post by Dante di Pietro on Sept 14, 2020 16:23:09 GMT -5
Giganti is a very good second source for Italian rapier. The manual is often recommended to new students of Italian rapier for the same reason I never recommend it to new students of Italian rapier: it is short and doesn't have many words, comparatively. I find that it often leaves gaps that need to be filled with information from other manuals. This is not to say it is lacking in practical application, but the theory sometimes needs to be teased out in ways that a new student is unlikely to have the skills for. I think it would be fair to say that a person could probably become a reasonable fencer using only the Giganti text, but I don't know that it would be a smooth journey without direct instruction from someone already familiar with the material. It has an exceptionally good description of the lunge and recovery mechanics. He makes some unusual terminology choices that set him apart from his contemporaries (e.g. he doesn't name his guards using the common prima, seconda, terza, and quarta), but nothing insurmountable. Giganti does include some "tricks" as well that, while appealing, are very clearly tricks to anyone with similar knowledge. Apply with caution! Do not buy the Mediema translation for study. It reads as if someone ran the Italian through Google translate and then published an incomplete version (Mediema has admitted that the published version is not a polished translation; the odd and seemingly random placement of ampersands were his marks for areas in need of improvement), all while not knowing how to fence very well. The author's notes are not indicative of someone who understands what he was reading. Leoni's GigantiMediema's Giganti
Giganti's second book thought to be lost forever until a few years ago, it focuses more on cuts than thrusts. I bought TWO copies just to have two copies of something that had just recently been down to the "only one in existence," y'all!!!
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