Ridolfo Capo Ferro

Ridolfo Capoferro or Capo Ferro of Cagli was a fencing master in the city of Siena best known for his rapier fencing manual published in 1610.

He appears to have hailed from Cagli in the Province of Pesaro e Urbino, but was active as a fencing master in nearby Siena, Tuscany.

Although he may have studied with masters of the German school, his teachings do not reflect perceptible German influence, but instead are in the Italian tradition, with a notable influence from the earlier Italian school of swordsmanship of the 16th century.

Capoferro's treatise "Great Representation of the Art and Use of Fencing" was printed by Salvestro Marchetti and Camillo Turi in Siena, and is divided into two parts: Art and Practice.

In the first part, he gives the general principles of swordsmanship and fencing, with the second part of his book covering actual techniques, described in text with accompanying illustrations. His work is interesting in that some methods that he denigrates in his theory he uses in his actions; most notably, he dismisses feints as dangerous or useless (depending upon the situation) and then uses them liberally in various actions in the second part of his book.

The sword that Capo Ferro recommends should be "twice as long as the arm, and as much as my extraordinary pace, which length corresponds equally to that which is from my armpit down to the sole of my foot." For a 6' tall man this would equate to a 4 1/2' long sword.

The book covers the use of single rapier, including basic sword grappling, as well as Rapier and dagger, Rapier and cloak, and Rapier and Rotella, a most unusual combination for the period, though far more common in the tradition of swordsmanship of the 16th century which preceded it. The Rotella is a medium size concave round shield of approximately 60 cm in Diameter with two straps to hold it. Similar metal shields survive, particularly from Spain in this period, though very few from Italy, implying that these shields were made of a perishable material such as wood or leather or a composite of such materials. The manual also includes techniques for fighting against a left-handed opponent.

Ridolfo's book must have been reasonably popular, as it was reprinted several times, although not many of the fencing treatises written in the next generation mention him and those that do are not necessarily complimentary. An interesting example of this is Francesco Alfieri, who, in his 1640 treatise La Scherma, refers to Capoferro as Capo di Ferro (literally: 'Head of Iron'). However, he was strongly praised by later notable swordsman such as Egerton Castle who says in his 'Schools and Masters of Fence (1893)', "...but of all the Italian works on fencing none ever had such a share in fixing the principals of the science as 'Great Simulacrum of the Use of the Sword, by Ridolfo Capoferro", later adding "for once the title of the book fully represented its contents." A later edition of Capoferro's work also incorporated Biblical scenes drawn into the backgrounds of the plates.

...
Wikipedia