“Of Paces”

The Footwork of Di Grassi

M. Alison Kannon

Rosalind Delamere

Giacomo di Grassi's teachings first reached England in 1594, though they had been originally published in 1570 in Venice, Italy. His manual was translated in England by an anonymous benefactor of the fencing community, who only wished to be known as I.G Gentleman.

Di Grassi believed that fencing was more firmly rooted in footwork than in anything else. It was necessary to provide balance and to help a fighter put force behind his blows. Di Grassi recommends that a fighter stand with his body “stable” and turned towards the enemy. A fighter should make himself as small a target as possible and if he must bend his body, he should take care to bend away from the enemy. When a fighter strikes he should either advance or thrust forward as soon as it is to his advantage to do so. You should always carry your body so as to make yourself firm and immovable. Don’t make any unnecessary movements. Don’t skip or leap. Rather keep your feet on the ground and make firm and unwavering movements. Always strike or defend in one or half a motion and be careful to keep foot and arm movements together.

When moving your feet you should always take care to “frame a reasonable pace.” If you want to strike you should advance or increase one foot. Conversely, when defending you should retreat or withdraw one foot, taking care not to put yourself off balance or fall.

Di Grassi does not specify what distance is to be considered a reasonable pace. Instead he explains that since all fighters have different body types a given distance, which might be “reasonable”, or comfortable, for one fighter would not be for another fighter. Thus, since everyone’s “reasonable pace” will be different, fighters should take care to figure out the distance that is comfortable for them.

In Di Grassi’s world, feet move straight or circularly, forwards or backwards, in a half or a whole pace. A whole pace is made when the back foot is carried forwards in front of the front foot without moving the front foot. The whole pace can be made in a straight pace or a slope (crooked) pace, however Di Grassi notes that a fighter seldom performs a straight whole pace. In a slope (crooked) pace the back foot is still brought in front of the front foot, but this time it is placed at an angle so ass to carry the body out of line of the attack. A whole pace can also be made backwards, but usually only as a straight pace. A half pace is a transitional movement and is made when the back foot is brought even with the front foot and left there or then moved forwards. When preformed backwards, the front foot is moved even with the back foot and left there or from there moved behind the back foot.

A circular pace is made when the front or back foot is moved to the right or left in a compass motion.

Di Grassi also stressed the agreement of the feet and hands stating that the strength of the right hand came from the right leg. Similarly the left leg is the strength of the left hand. By this logic, the force of a blow should come from the legs. Because of this, the position of the arms should agree with the position of the legs. For example, if the right leg is behind the body then the fighter should stand so that the right hand is behind the left.

On line AB:

Whole Straight Pace : C-D

Half Straight Pace : C-F

Whole Slope Pace : C-E

Half Circular Pace : C-G

AKA: Compass Step

Fig 1. An illustration from Di Adoprar si Curamente L’Arme Si Da Offesa showing Di Grassi’s basic footwork.

This display has been designed to allow someone who may have little or no experience with Di Grassi to try his footwork for himself. Here the feet have been painted onto the canvas to help the student with proper foot placement. The placement and size of the feet were based on a female subject with size 9.5 feet, medium build, and a height of 5’7”. Thus placement may and pace length vary depending on body size and type as indicated above. I have included with the display a rapier and dagger from my personal fencing kit. I have chosen to leave the bird blunts on the ends of the weapons for safety reasons. In period, weapons were often baited with corks for practice. In the SCA, for safety reasons, we tip the blades of our heavy rapiers with rubber bird blunts with a metal washer or coin on the inside to prevent the ends of the heavier rapiers from punching through the rubber. I have chosen to use my schalger in this display due to its length. My schalger is 35” long and while the cross-section of the blade is oval and not as period as a diamond cross-section blade, which I do have in my kit, the diamond cross-section blade is 42” long. Due to space constraints I have chosen to use the shorter weapon. Its weight makes it a much closer approximation to a period weapon that a foil or epee and it is still a fair approximation even with the oval cross section. The dagger and the guard for the sword were both made by Darkwood Armories.

Fig. 2. Two fencers wearing padded leather doublets and Venetian breeches. Note that their blades have been bated with corks covered with cloth. c.1611 ( Arnold, p.25)

References

Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion: The cut and constructions of clothes for men and women c1560-1620. Macmillan. London, England. 1985

Jackson, James L. Three Elizabethan Fencing Manuals . Scholars’ Facsimiles & Reprints. Delmar, New York. 1997

Castle, Egerton. Schools and Masters of Fencing: From the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century . Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola, New York. 2003

Turner, Craig and Soper, Tony. Methods and Practice of Elizabethan Sword Play. Southern Illinois University Press. Southern Illinois University , USA . 1990

Moondragon, Tivar. “A Distilled Di Grassi”.

Di Grassi, Giacomo. Di Adoprar si Curamente L’Arme Si Da Offesa, Come Da Difesa…Di Giacomo di Grassi. PDF available at http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/%7Ewew/fencing/manuals.html. Downloaded 10/13/2001.