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The Man who Taught Leonardo Darts. Pietro Monte and his 'Lost' Fencing Book
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 June 2019
Extract
At some time during the years 1497/9, Leonardo da Vinci wrote a little memorandum in one of the notebooks now preserved at the Institut de France in Paris. Evidently he had been puzzling over certain problems concerning the trajectory of javelins, for he sketched what appears to be a technique for hurling spears by means of a sort of sling, and he noted: ‘Parla con Pietro Monti di questi tali modi di trarre i dardi’. And so we meet the man who taught Leonardo darts.
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Notes
* When I first embarked upon the study of Pietro Monte's military writings, nobody else seemed interested in them. Recently, however, I have learnt that my friend Marie-Madeleine Fontaine of the Sorbonne has been working on them quite independently and from a totally different direction, and that Monte's ideas on physical education will be fully analysed in her doctorat d'état. I have also discovered, in the course of a conversation with Professor Carlo Dionisotti, that he is publishing an article in which Monte's connection with Castiglione and Leonardo will be touched upon. I am, at present, preparing an edition and translation of all the chapters in Monte's Collectanea which relate to mounted combat and to arms and armour.
1 Richter, Jean Paul, The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, 2nd edition, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1939), 11, 353 Google Scholar.
2 Palavicini, Giuseppe Morsicato, La schema illustrata (Palermo, 1670), 10 Google Scholar: ‘II primo, che trovo hauere scritto di questa lodevole professione, e Giaime Ponz di Perpignano di Maiorica, il quale impresse il suo libro l'anno del Signore 1474, che fu sommamente stimato. Poi fu Pietro de la Torre, di Natione Spagnola, che fiori parimente nell'istesso tempo; ritrouando stampato il suo libro nel mede-simo anno del 1474. Come quello di Pietro Moncio Italiano nel 15095 c di Francesco Romano Spagnolo nel 1532’.
3 Marcelli, Francesco Antonio, Regole della scherma (Rome, 1686), 11 Google Scholar.
4 Castle, Egerton, Schools and Masters of Fence from the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century (London, 1885: repr. Arms and Armour Press, 1969), xxiv Google Scholar. This is repeated by Thimm, Carl A., A Complete Bibliography of Fencing and Duelling (London, 1896: repr. Benjamin Blom, New York, 1968), 195 Google Scholar.
5 Hergsell, Gustav, Die Fechtskunst im XV. und XVI. Jahrhundert (Prague, 1896), 55 Google Scholar.
6 Gelli, Jacopo and Levi, Enrico, Bibliografia generate della schema, 2nd edition (Milan, 1895), 148 Google Scholar. Subsequently, Gelli, , in his L'Arte dell'Armi in Italia (Bergamo, 1906), 42–4Google Scholar, devoted more words to this problem, and—following Francesco Novati, i n the introduction to his edition of Fiore dei Liberi da Premariacco (see below note 19)—he recognized that ‘Moncio’ must have been Castiglione's Pietro Monte: but he could make no further progress. Later still, Gelli, , in his Scherma Italiana, 3rd edition, (Milan, 1917), 7 Google Scholar, repeated that Monte's book could not be traced, while stressing his belief that ‘II Moncio’ was a Bolognese master, and that his lost work was the first printed Italian treatise on fencing.
7 Bascetta, Carlo Sporte Giuochi. Trattatie scritti dal XV al XVIII secolo, 2 vols. (Milan, 1978), 1, 114 Google Scholar.
8 The bibliographical history of the De concep-tione virginis is obscure. The first edition, issued without any indication of publisher, place or date, has been tentatively assigned by the British Library (IA 25173) to Venice, 1490, and has the following dedication at sig.a.2r: ‘Petr i montis philosophi ad serenissimam illustrissimamque Helisabeth his-paniorum reginam benemeritam in libellum de con-ceptione virginis prefatio: interprete. G.Ayora cordubensi’. The entire text of the De conceptione virginis is incorporated in the De dignoscendis hominibus, printed by A.Zarotus (Milan, 1492), Lib. IV, cap. xxvi, sigs. r.iiiiv-t.iir. There are numerous changes of words and word order, but the text remains substantially the same. The original preliminary dedication from Ayora to Oliviero, Bishop ‘Sabinensi cardinali neapolitano’ (De conceptione virginis, sig. a.iv) is omitted from the reprint, but Monte's dedication to Queen Isabella remains (De dignoscendis hominibus, sig. r.iiiirv) though the word ‘libellum’ is replaced by ‘cor-pusculum’. After the version of the whole text in De dignoscendis hominibus, Monte explains (sig. t.iir) that he has inserted the earlier work in his present volume and confirms that the treatise De conceptione virginis had already been issued separately. Confusion is compounded by the existence at the Hague of an Italian translation of the De conceptione virginis which is described in the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, 4 vols. (Leipzig, 1928), III, no. 3142Google Scholar, as though it were a Spanish work by Gonzalo de Ayora, translated into Italian by Monte: ‘La concepcion de nuestro donna, ital. von Pietro Monte (Pavia: Leonardus Gerla [?] urn 1497)’. This misinformation is repeated in Incunabula in Dutch Libraries. A Census of Fifteenth-Century Printed Books in Dutch Public Collections, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1983), 1, no. 603Google Scholar. I have not yet been able to examine this edition.
9 Baldassare Castiglione, II Cortegiano, 1, xxv: ‘che si come del lottare, volteggiare, e maneggiar molte sorti d'armi, ha tenuto per guida il nostro Pietro Monte, il qual, come sapete, è il vero e solo maestro d'ogni artificiosa forza e leggierezza’. Castiglione also refers to Monte elsewhere in II Cortegiano: I, v; II, xvi; IIi, iii. For some accounts of Galeazzo di Sanseverino's early activity in the lists, see Cartwright, Julia, Beatrice d'Este (London, 1903), 68–9, 72-3, 124, 182, 216-17, 224-5, 322Google Scholar; Valeri, F. Malaguzzi, La cone di Lodovico il Moro, 4 vols. (Milan, 1913-1923), 1, 531–8Google Scholar. For his participation in a ten day tournament held before Louis XII at Milan in June 1507, see D'auton, Jean, Chroniques de Louis XII, ed. Claviere, R. de Maulde la, 4 vols. (Paris, 1889-1895), iv, 319–24Google Scholar. On this occasion Galeazzo's performance in the tourney—that is, mounted fencing—was noteworthy, as was his fighting with the two-handed sword. Later in his career Galeazzo specialized in feats of trick riding, displaying his strength and control by running courses with extremely thick and solid lances. He did this at the Paris tournament of November 1514 on which see Hall, Edward, Chronicle, ed. Ellis, H. (London, 1809), 572–3Google Scholar; and again at the Field of Cloth of Gold in June 1520 on which see I Diarii di Marino Sanuto, ed. Stefani, F., 58 vols. (Venice, 1879-1902), xxix, 245-6Google Scholar. It is interesting to note that Galeazzo's old teacher includes advice on handling the heavy lance in his Collectanea (below note 10), 11, xcix-ci. These three chapters are entitled: De modo ducendi ponderosam lanceam; De modo extrahendi lanceam facilius a bursa; De alio leuiora modo portandi grossam lanceam.
10 Petri Montij exercitiorum: atque artis militaris collectanea In tris libros distincta. Sig. aa. viiir is headed, ‘Petri Montij in exercitiorum atque artis militaris libros ad Dominum Galeacium Sansevuerinatem.
11 See for example, Picinelli, Filippo, Aleneo del letterati Milanesi (Milan, 1670), 464 Google Scholar; Argelati, Filippo, Bibliotheca scriptorum Mediolanensium, 2 vols. in 4 pts. (Mediolani, 1745), II, 956, 2009 Google Scholar; Gaetani, Pier Antonio, Museum Mazzuckellianum, 2 vols. (Venice, 1761, 1763), 1, 159-60Google Scholar; Litta, , Famiglie celebri italiane, 11 vols. (Milan, 1840), vi Google Scholar; Michaud, J. F., Biographie universelle ancienne el moderne, 35 vols. (Paris, 1854), 146 Google Scholar; Seidlitz, Woldemar von, Leonardo da Vinci (Vienna, 1935), 103, 451 n. 210Google Scholar; Erspamer, F., La biblioteca di don Ferrante. Duello e onore nella cultura del Cinquecento (Rome, 1982), 82–3Google Scholar. The most recent attempt to identify Monte— Donati, Claudio, L'idea di nobilta in Italia (Rome, 1988), 49 Google Scholar, n. 45—remains doomed because the autho r still assume s that Mont e was an Italian.
12 De conceptione virginis, sig. a.iir (see the dedication quoted above note 8).
13 On Ayora, see Arellano, Rafael Ramirez de, Ensayo de un catdlogo biogrdfico de escritores de la provincia y diocesis de Cordoba, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1921), 1, 42-60.Google Scholar Cat, E., ‘Essai sur la vie et les ouvrages du chroniqueur Gonzalo de Ayora suivi de fragments inédits de sa chronique’, Publications de I'ecole des lettres d'Alger. Bulletin de Correspondence Africaine, 3 (1890), 1–59 Google Scholar, is useful on Ayora but hopeless on Monte. Duro, Cesaréo Fernández, ‘Noticias de la vida y obras de Gonzalo de Ayora y fragmentos de su cronica inédita’, Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia, 17 (1890), 433–46Google Scholar, offers corrections to Cat and recognizes that Monte was Spanish not Italian.
14 On Monte's journey to Jerusalem, see De dig-noscendis hominibus, Lib. IV, membrum xv, sigs.q.iiiir-v.
15 Ibid., sig. A.viiv: ‘G.Ayora e Cordubensis praefacio in libros de dignoscendis hominibus. P.Monti philosophi: ad illustrissima m Elisabeth Hispaniarum regina m praeclarissimam’. And at sig. a.ir-v: ‘Prologus. P. Montis de hominum natura cognitione que ad Iohanne m Hispaniarum principem liber: interprete G. Ayora cordubensi’. The earliest bibliographical reference to Monte is in the Appendix Bibliothecae Conradi Gesneri (Zurich, 1555), fol. 89 V.Google Scholar: ‘Petrus Montis philosophus, ad Ionnem Hispaniarum regem scripsit de dignoscen-dis hominibus libros sex multiphci doctrina refer-tos: quos á G. Ayora Latinitate donatos ad Elizabeth Hispaniarum reginam, Anto. Zarotus impressit Mediolani, anno D. 1492, in folio’.
16 II Cortegiano, I, xxi: ‘Estimo ancora, che sia di momento assai il saper lottare, perche questo accompagna molto tutte l'arme d a piedi’.
17 Elyot, Thomas, The Boke named The Gouernour, I, xvii, ed. Croft, H. H. S. 2 vols. (London, 1883), I, 173–4Google Scholar.
18 It is difficult to establish an y consistent chivalric view of wrestling in this period. Certainly, in the Petit Jehan de Saintré, the impression is given that unarmed combat is improper for knights: though accounts of fifteenth century foot combat s suggest that knights engaged in a good deal of close wrestling even when clad in full armour. See my article, ‘How to win at tournaments: the technique of chivalric combat’, Antiq. J., 68 (1988) 248–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar. That wrestling was regarded, in some circles at least, as an acceptable knightly accomplishment is evident from The Travels of Leo ofRozmital through Germany, Flanders, England, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy 1463-1467 (Cambridge, 1957), 36, 37, 93, 95, 138Google Scholar.
19 Premariacco, Maestro Fiore dei Liberi da, Flos duellatorum in amis, sine amis, equester, pedester, edited by Francesco Novati as Il fior di battaglia (Bergamo, 1902), 125–8Google Scholar; Frati, L., Le tavole di schema e di lotte di Paulo Kal (Bologna, 1910)Google Scholar; Livre d'escrime de Talhoffer, ed. Hergsell, Gustav (Prague, 1901), 190–221 Google Scholar; Albrecht Dürers Fechtbuch, ed. Dörnhöffer, Friedrich, Jahrbuch der Kunsthistori-schen sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, 27, Part 2 (Vienna, 1909)Google Scholar.
20 Carlo Bascetta, ‘II primo manuale italian o di lotta. Testo anonimo del secolo XV’, Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dall'Università di Macerata. The text is, however, more easily available in th e revised edition by Bascetta, op. cit. (note 7), 1, 297-340: and it is to this versio n that I refer.
21 De dignoscendis hominibus, Lib. V, particula prima, sigs. x.iiir-y.vir. Ther e are a numbe r of insignificant textual alterations in the Italian version and one major omission from th e introductory paragaph o n the temperaments—that is, sig. x.iii v-iiiir, which amount s to about a page an d a half. The gloss by Ayora on the sacaligna (sig. x. v1) is omitted; as is the Latin title for the Membrum secundum at sig. y.iiir: ‘Quibus conditionibus pro hostium diversis habitudinibus in palaestra procedendum sit'; and that for Membrum tertium: ‘Quae leges in palaestra conuenientur observari debeant’. On the other hand, the lacuna in the Italian manuscript noted by Bascetta, op. cit. (note 7), 315, appears to miss nothing of note from the Latin text (sig. x.v r).
22 Bascetta, , op. cit. (note 7), 319 Google Scholar; De dignoscendis hominibus, sig. x.viiv. Cf. the comment on the clunilevio in Bascetta, 314—‘la quale versuzia da li ispani si chiama anche discaderada’—with the original Latin at sig. x.vir, ‘qua e quidem magna descaderada a nostris dicta est’.
23 See below, notes 41, 48. It is interesting to compare Monte's Spanish technical vocabulary with the wrestling terms used by Alfonso Martinez i n the mid-fifteenth centur y to describe th e comba t between Poverty and Fortune. See the analytical comments in Penna's, Mario edition of the Argipreste de Talavera (Turin, 1955), XLIII–XLVIGoogle Scholar.
24 Monte especially favours short steps on the tips of one's toes, with the feet pointing slightly outwards; while it is equally important, he says, to watch the opponent's behaviour in this respec t because one sees by experience that the whole success of an attack or defence may depend upon the slightest variation of foot movement. De dignoscendis hominibus, sig. x.iiiir; cf. Bascetta, , op. cit. (note 7), 310 Google Scholar.
25 De dignoscendis hominibus, sig. x.iiiir-v.
26 Ibid., sig. x.vr.
27 Ibid., sig. x.vv.
28 Ibid., sig. x.vir.
29 Ibid., sig. x.viv.
30 Ibid., sig. y.iv: ‘Magnitudin e & grossedine exuperantes homines nudi commodius luctari assuescunt. gracilia siquidem corpora manibu s cingunt, quod econtra fieri omnino nequit: sed quum uestibus tegimur & ab eis capi & contrahi possumus’. Cf. Bascetta, op. cit. (note 7), 326: ‘Li omini abundant! di grandeza ed i grosseza sogliono luttare piu commodamente nudi perch6 cingono cum le mano li corpi sutili, il per contrario per niente si per fare a loro; ma quando siamo coperti de veste possemo essere da loro presi e tirati’.
31 De dignoscendis hominibus, sig. y.iv.
32 Ibid., sig. y.iiir-ivr. This chapter is entitled Quibus conditionibus pro hostium diversis habitudinibus in palaestra procedendum sit, and it includes some brief observations on diet which were subsequently expanded in Monte's Collectanea, I, cviiij, entitled Quonam modo homines in cibis: et exercitijs gubemari debeant.
33 De dignoscendis hominibus, sig. y.iiir.
34 Ibid., sig. y.iiir-vir.
35 Ibid., sig. y.vir.
36 Ibid., sig.y.vr-v.
37 Ibid., sig. y.vr: ‘censent & enim omnia ut hos-tem superent, licere. neque illud denegare auderem: si hac appraehensione aduersarii suc-cumberent’. Cf. Bascetta, op. cit. (note 7), 337-8: ‘Impero che pensano che ogni cosa sia licita a fare per vincere lo inimico e io no n averia ardire di negarlo, se di questa apreensione li avversarii succombesseno’.
38 De dignoscendis hominibus, sig. y.iiiiv: ‘reliqu a praeterea quia luctandi facultas saepe armis coniuncta & semper cognata est. At in tempore quo vera pugna committur: nude praeliare minime utile est: eodem quippe modo multum periculo patere-mur’. Cf. Bascetta, op. cit. (note 7), 335: Taltra perch6 la faculta del luttare sempre e coniunta e cognata a le arme; e quando si combatte da vero non è utile a ritrovarsi nudo, perché in quello modo molto ci esponeressimo al periculo’.
39 See Cat, op. cit. (note 13), 4, n. 2.
40 Petri Montij de singulari certamine siue dissen-sione: Deque veterum: recentiorumque ritu ad Carolum Hyspaniarum principem & Burgundie Archiducem Libri Tres (Milan, 1509)Google Scholar.
41 Ibid., Lib. I, Prologus, sig. AA.ivv: ‘Et quoniam in hoc libro de materia ad multos spectante tractamus: in lingua latina ex castellana ipsum trademus: quemadmodum & in quibusdam aliis tractatibus egimus: quemadmodum in exercitijs: arte militari: & prouerbiis’. Monte then continues with some observations on the problems of the technical vocabulary (in Latin and in the vernacular) of the judicial duel. His reference to a separate work on proverbs is interesting. Argelati, op. cit. (note 11), 957, lists a book, De Proverbiis; and the article on Monti in the Biographie universelle notes its existence as a manuscript, De proverbiis tractatus. Clearly Monte was deeply interested in proverbs for he lists some in the De dignoscendis hominibus, sig. b.i v-iiv; and devotes a chapter to them in his Collectanea, I, xxxiii.
42 De singulari certamine, 1, xi, sig. A.viv.
43 De unius legis veritate et sectarum falsitate opus vtilissimum & perspicacissimum (Milan, 1509)Google Scholar. The second edition was also printed by Scinzenzeler and is described in Valli, Donato, Catalogo della biblioteca'Siciliani'diGalatina (Florence, 1979),no. 525Google Scholar. It was this latter edition which deluded Solmi, Edmondo, Leonardo (1452-1519), 2nd edition, (Florence, 1907), 80–1Google Scholar, into thinking that the book was conceived as an attack on Luther.
44 It is daunting to read, in th e first Prologus to this massive tome, that Monte claims to have kept his text as brief as possible by avoiding circumlo-cutory figures of speech: ‘At nil prorsus de alle-gorico seu per circulationes significatiuo in ipsarum auctoritatum expositione interferam. expositio enim que a sensu litterali deuiat: nullo pacto affir-mare possumus. Quo d talem auctoris intentionem denotet. Succincte perscribere temptabimus. Quum sub paucis sententia constare uideatur: licetni sui declaratione clara probatio plerunque in longum protendatur’.
45 De unius legis veritate, Lib. X, caps, lxix-lxxviii.
46 Ibid., Lib. X, cap. lxxv: De velocitate lapidum a bombardis exeuntium.
47 Ibid., Prologus primi, which begins: ‘Ceperam mee iuuentutis tempore post uaria membrorum exercitia aliquid de cognitione hominum inscribere: & tun e non in doctrina a maioribus nostris tradita quicquid scripturus era m annotabam: de quod aut de ineundo labore timerem: aut de plurimorum hominum iudicio illis libris finem imponi ex optantium ratus quottidie quietiore mmihi uitam aflumere’. Compare this with his remarks on the composition of the Collectanea, see below (note 71).
48 Collectanea, 1, i: ‘Quo aute m dominatio vestra facilius deinceps intelligat, priusque ad exercitia accedamus, non nulla vocabula exposituri sumus, turn latina, & turn vulgaria, aut simul omnia. Saltern de Hyspano idiomate multa dicemus, eo quod in primis hunc libellum in ipso scripsimus. Sicut de industria & strategemate luctandi. Hie enim sepe vocabula ad libitum dicemus. Et eg inter alios ad conformitatem membrorum accipiendi ac dimittendi in vulgari quedam inu-sitata vocabula ad inveni. Similiter in ludendo vel decertando armis plures ictus sunt, qui in latino vsu nequaquam reperiuntur’. Th e only modern references to the Collectanea ar e exclusively to Monte's definitions of the staff weapons spetums, partizans and ranseurs. See Skelton, Joseph, Engraved Illustrations of Antient Arms and Armour from the Collection at Goodrich Court, with the descriptions by Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick (Oxford, 1830)Google Scholar, notes to plates LXXXVII, XCIX; Demmin, Auguste, Weapons of War, being a history of Arms and Armour (London, 1870), 446 Google Scholar; Planchd, J. R., Cyclopaedia of Costume, or Dictionary of Dress, 2 vols. (London, 1876-1879), 1,414-15, 476 Google Scholar; Laking, Sir Guy Francis, A Record of European Armour and Arms through Seven Centuries, 5 vols. (London, 1920-1922), in, 107, 109-10Google Scholar.
49 Collectanea, 1, ii: ‘Et ita in operandis exercitiis contingit que si magistrum probum habemus, fere in instanti cu m exemplo actus membrorum simpli-citer atque facile id quod littera dick intelligimus, sed non tarn cito operamu r in ea rectitudine vt magister operatur’.
50 Ibid., 1, xxx. This is Monte's constant preoccupation. It underpins the structure of the Collec-tanea which, in fact, culminates in the application of all the lessons, learnt from exercises and games, to the strenuous art of real war.
51 Ibid., 1, lxii. The chapter is entitled, Signa principalia ad cognoscendum homines, qui solent pingues fieri.
52 Ibid., 1, lxx: ‘et quamvis lignum ilicis durius sit, dum plicar i incipit, multo facilius, quam de taxo rumpitur, et tale, exemplum inter homine s disciol-tos, ac rigidos ponimus’.
53 Ibid., I, lxxvi: ‘In ha c membrorum subse-quenti descriptione ferme hispanorum idiomata assequar, licet omnia firma vocabula membrorum in latina lingua reperiantur, & turn hie causa, quod hoc capitulum cum aliis conformetur, quidam nomina hyspan i idiomatis continebuntur’.
54 Ibid., 1, lxxxxv: ‘Primo impetu strenui viden-tur, & victoriam assequi sciunt: Du m vero aliquam resistentiam reperiunt cito declinant, & alios aggredi volentes semper iubent gentes communes preire. Iccirco optime arce s expugnant, attamen ad earum defensionem multo minus valent’. Cf. Livy, VII. xxxviii. Also see Machiavelli, Discorsi, III. xxxvi.
55 Collectanea, I, cviiii: ‘quanto minus bibimus maior vtilitas emanat, precipue in quinque partibus principalioribus hoc est i n sanitate, viribus, anhelitu, leuitate, & tollerantia’.
56 Ibid., 11, i: ‘Pictores quoque veteres, ac moderni sepissime hunc comunem errore m sec-tantur. Optimam eni m figuram effingere censent, vario tamen modo, ac monstroso. Quod si isti cum ratione suis viribus potiri scirent aliter depinger-ent’. Mont e sums up: ‘Rursus de principio reiterando membra, qui rigida, tortuosa, nimium musculosa, quodammodo monstrosa sunt, inimica intellectui reperiuntur, & vbi suauitas intellectioni s non datur nunquam opus maximum, & laude dig-num resultat itaque membra expedita, & tamen suauia esse debent non nodosa, nee collinosa. Sed quod videatur fere tanquam a natura sine labore extensiones, atque diuisiones esse innatas, & hec sunt vera corpora, licet in comuni errore pictores, qui musculosa corpora depingun t comendantur. Attamen quid agant, vel dicant nesciunt’.
57 Ibid., II, lxxxiii.
58 Ibid., II, caps, x-xiii.
59 Ibid., II, xiii which begins, ‘Galli presertim, & alamani quamplures ludunt aza’. See my forthcoming article, iLeJeu de la Hache. A fifteenth-century treatise on the technique of chivalric axe combat’, Archaeologia, 109 (1990).
60 Collectanea, II, xv, xvi. On Filippo Vadi's De arte gladiatoria dimicandi, see Bascetta, op. cit. (note 7), 146-83, and especially plates LXXV, LXXVI.
61 Collectanea, II, xxxii. Cf. Fiore, , op. cit. (note 19), 129–42Google Scholar; Talhoffer, , op. cit. (note 19), plates 170-90Google Scholar; Marozzo, Achille, Opera nova. Chiamata duello, 0 vero fiore dell'armi de singulari abbatimenti offensivi et diffensivi (Modena, 1536)Google Scholar.
62 Collectanea, II, lxxxii: ‘Me o quidem iudicio nullus homo vallidus in membrorum dispositione debet cum alio equestri praeliari in conuocation e de vno ad vnum, quum ad beneficium equorum vel brutorum ponuntur. At vero transacta obuiatione lancearum satis tut i remanent dummodo optime armati sint, & tun e facile est debilem contra fortem tutari, precipue quu m varia infortunia et causa equorum euenire solent hoc poterit debili prodesse, sed pedester manendo quisque clarius valitudinem suam demonstrat’.
63 Ibid., II, lxxii.
64 Ibid., II, lxxviii: ‘Siquis reparare nouit & hos-tis est valde armatus sepius vtile est habere viseram que in altum vadat eo quod anhelitus noster potius durat & melius quoque videri potest quid faciun-dum sit, & fere nullum imminet periculum, aut de raro eueniet, maxime si ferreas cyrotecas tenemus ad deviandum armam alterius’.
65 Ibid., II, cii: chapter entitled Quo pacto lancea prolongari potest ad obviandum. This is worth comparing wit h the advice offered by later writers such as Bartolomeo Sereno and Antonino Ansalone. See my article, ‘How to win at tournaments’, op. cit. (note 18), 258.
66 Collectanea, II, lxxxxvi.
67 Ibid., II, ciii: chapter entitled Quatentis manu vti debeamus: & cum oculo Concordes manere vt iactus aut conflictus quos agimus directi vadant.
68 Ibid., II, cxxv: chapter entitled De modo colli-gandi imam peciam siue frustum armorum cum alio.
69 Ibid., II, cxxviii: chapter entitled De altera leui armatura ad decertandum.
70 Ibid., ‘Si quisquam vult arma leuia ac tuta, agere oportet omnino ferrum siue calibe optimum assumere. In spruco germanie ciuitate optimum ferrum, & calibs inuenitur. Ideo illic magistri dant ad experiendum arma cum balistis, & vulgariter dicitur quod talis temperies causetur propter vna aqua per loca ilia transeuntem. Sed in rei veritate cum quacunque aqu a frigida temperant, & visa bonitate illius ferri aliqui experiri voluerunt ad faciendum thoracem resistentem scloperis, que species bombardaru m paruula est, & r e ipsa com-pertum: Nihilominus oporte t ponere cultram bom -biceam & telam nimium sutam super thorace’. There is no satisfactory history of the proofing of armour, though there is a rich collection of references and sources in Charles Buttin, ‘Notes sur les armures à l'épreuve’, Revue savoisienne (1901), 1-100. I am indebted to my friend Claude Blair who provided me with a copy of this extremely inaccessible monograph. Buttin discusses proofing against firearms, but hi s earliest reference is dated 1568. There is also an interesting series of technical studies by Williams, A. R.: ‘Metallographic examination of sixteenth-century armour’, Bull. Hist. Metall. Group, 6 (1972), 15–23 Google Scholar; ‘Some firing tests with simulated fifteenth-century handguns’, J. Arms Armour Soc, 8 (1974), 114–20Google Scholar; ‘Medieva l metalworking: armour plate and the advance of metallurgy’, The Chartered Mechanical Engineer (September 1978), 109–14Google Scholar; ‘A technical note on some of the armour of King Henry VIII and his contemporaries’, Archaeologia, 106 (1979), 157–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
71 Collectanea, II, cxxviii: ‘In tempore quo ego componebam hoc opus, dux Sigismundus de austria, Galeacius de sancto seuerino, & Claudius de voldre natione burgundius nimium in inquirendis diuersis generibu s armorum negociabantur: ante ipsos vero fere omnes armigeri vno & eodem modo armabantur presertim de armis indutiuis: hi tres illustres viri multa nova arma inuenerunt tarn pedestribus, quam equestribus attinentia, & non tantum diuersa imo vtilima’.
72 For information on the Innsbruck armourers during Sigismund's reign, see Bruno Thomas and Ortwin Gamber, Die Innsbrucker Plattnerkunst, catalogue of the exhibition held at the Ferdinan-deum, Innsbruck (June-September 1954), 17-20, 51-61. There are also some relevant comments by Pizzinini, Meinrad in Ammann, Gert (ed.), DerHerzog und sein Taler. Erzherzog Sigmund der Münzreiche. Politik. Münzwesen. Kunst, catalogue of the exhibition held in the Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck (June-September 1986), 16–21 Google Scholar.
73 Collectanea, II, cxl: chapter entitled Remedium contra dolores brachii dum ex causa iaculandi dolet.
74 Ibid., II, cxli-cxlvi. Vaulting is one of the exercises mentioned by Castiglione, Il Cortegiano, 1, xxii, where it is said to be extremely beneficial though exhausting and difficult: ‘N6 di minor laude estimo il volteggiar a cavallo, il quale bench^ sia faticoso e difficile, fa l'omo leggerissimo e destro piu che alcun’ altra cosa, ed, oltre alia utilita, se quella leggerezza e compagnata di bona grazia, fa, al parer mio, piu bel spettacolo che alcun degli altri’. Elyot, op. cit. (note 17), 1, 186 writes that there is ‘a ryght good exercise which is also expedient to lerne, whiche is named the vauntynge of a horse: that is to lepe on him at euery side without stiroppe or other helpe, specially whiles the horse is goynge. And beinge therin experte, than armed at all poyntes to assay the same; the commoditie wherof is so manifest that I nede no further to declare it’. Francois Rabelais, Gargantua, 1, xxiii, also has an interesting reference to vaulting in his account of Gargantua's education: explaining how he learnt to leap from one horse to another without touching the ground, and to mount from either side without using the stirrups. Indeed, he was so skilled that ‘Le voltiger de Ferrare n'estoit qu'un singe en comparaison’—thus putting the celebrated Cesare Fiaschi in his place.
75 Collectanea, II, cxliii: ‘Plura enim ex iis potius ad beneplacitum quam ad conformitate dicta sunt. Attamen aliqua suntque ab auctorum cognomi-nibus nomina assumunt, & nos quoque alia plura huiuscemodi nomina posuimus’.
76 Ibid., in, xiii: ‘Bellum quidem de propria eius natura res crudelis est. Quum semper totaliter ad deuincendos alios armis attendit, partim truculenta morte, parti m etiam depredationibus, & carceratio-nibus taliter quod si quis nollet belli condictiones assequi nihil vtique in preliis valebit quamuis si vincere possemus compatiendo laudabile esset’. Monte writes, ‘De annybale aphrycano dicitur quod asperrime hostes debellauerit, & raro eis aliquam promissionem obseruasse’.
77 Ibid., III, xiiii.
78 One is reminded of Leonardo's drawin g of a tank, and of chariots fitted with flails or scythes. See Popham, A. E., The Drawings ofLeonardo da (London, 1946), nos. 308–11Google Scholar.
79 This point was evidently noted by Litta, op. cit. (note 11) who attributes the idea to Pietro dal Monte di Santa Maria, but does not give the source.
80 Regular physical training, in the form of gymnastics, games and combat sports, featured, for example, in the educational theories and practice of Pietro Paulo Vergerio, Vittorino da Feltre, Guarino da Verona, Matteo Palmier i and Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini. Their observations are always cited by historians of physical education: but nobody ever seems to penetrate beyond the pioneering work by Woodward, W. H., Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators (Cambridge, 1897), 65, 103-4, 112-16, 138, 244-7Google Scholar; and the same author's Studies in Education during the Renaissance 1400-1600 (Cambridge, 1906), 23, 37, 71Google Scholar. Vergerio's observations on military education, in his De Ingenuis Moribus, are especially anticipatory of Monte's position. Noting the importance attached by the Romans to systematic training in arms, he continues: ‘So, too, our youth must learn the art of the sword, the cut, the thrust and the parry; the use of the shield; of the spear; of the club; training either hand to wield the weapon. Further, swimming, to which Augustus rightly attached so great importance, running, jumping, wrestling, boxing, javelin throwing, archery, thorough horsemanship, in sport or in war,—these are all needful to the full training of the soldier’. This quotation is from the translation by Woodward, Vittorino da Feltre, 115.
81 Collectanea, III, xii: ‘Quamobrem non tantum i n legendis libris insistendum est, immo in oper-ando vt egerunt homines quos commendamus’. This is the last sentence of the chapter.