Parva Leves Capiunt Animos
We heard that Thibault liked diagrams, so here are some diagrams about Thibault’s diagrams…
Some years ago my partner-in-crime (and life) and I presented an introductory workshop on Thibault, and as part of preparing for that, they drew up some flowcharts for the relationships between the “circles” in Thibault’s plates, from Chapter 5 through Chapter 8.
Continue reading “Thibault – with added diagrams”Zachary, in the preceding chapter, saw how easy it was for Alexander to defend the simple attacks at First Instance. He asks Alexander to give him those attacks so that he can practice. Alexander, being a jerk, tries to win the drill by introducing the subjection, to which Zachary responds with a variety of “oh my god, you have your SWORD in my FACE” reactions.
This is the first chapter where Thibault leaves off his purely theoretical discussion and begins actual paired exercises. Poor Zachary comes off rather the worse for wear here, as he launches a variety of simple thrusts straight down the diameter (with one exception) from the first instance i.e. the distance he minutely detailed in the previous chapter. At least part of the point of this chapter is to setup the reasons for the actions and plays in the next chapter, as well as illustrate that the straight line is sufficient preparation and fortification against these attacks. Having said that though, to use his own words:
…fortified against all manner of feints, assured against all attacks…always making the (counter) with small movements, which have more force than showiness, and making the execution with as much force and assurance as possible, in opposition to common practice. If you say to me that it is not likely that anyone may easily reach such perfection in demonstrating all these effects, I answer that nothing commendable can ordinarily be acquired without great labour.
A brief interlude resulting from a conversation over rather a nice stout, while we explore Chapter 5 with sword in hand. It is worth thinking about the context for Thibault’s life. Think about some of the other people and masters:
| Who | Birth | Death |
|---|---|---|
| Thibault | 1574 | 1627 |
| Narvaez | 157? | 1640 |
| Fabris | 1544 | 1618 |
| Giganti | 155? | 1622 |
| Swetnam | ???? | 1621 |
| Carranza | 1539 | 1600 |
| Shakespeare | 1564 | 1616 |
| Ben Jonson | 1572 | 1637 |
| Elizabeth I | 1558 | 1603 |
It is also worth noting that he was roughly contemporaneous with Luis Díaz de Viedma, who we have been looking at with LLA in recent months.
His late life is framed against the Thirty Years War, and the years when he was (probably) studying La Verdadera Destreza saw the publication of Don Quixote, Guy Fawkes’ adventure underneath Parliament, the establishment of the Jamestown, Virginia, and the Dutch East India company beginning to trade.
It is far too easy, and common, for you and I, the modern reader, to view a historical individual or event as a discrete and disconnected entity, forgetting or not observing what is contemporaneous. Take 1969 for example: Nixon became POTUS, Armstrong stepped onto the moon, the Beatles are photographed crossing Abbey Road, and Monty Python’s Flying Circus began to be broadcast.
The cultural milieu of Thibault needs to be taken into account – what is the context of sword play? What contemporary and near-contemporary masters influenced him? What sort of people would have he been teaching, and why? There are direct clues to some of this in his book, even the simple differentiation between “arresting with courtesy”, a thrust, and ramming it through the opponent’s eye suggests the student will be playing, but may expect to be fighting in earnest.
Some entirely context-less links for your additional consideration:
This is a somewhat clunky chapter, needing to be partly read with Chapter 3, and suggesting that a good editor would have helped with the structure at this point. There are three distinct sections in this chapter that are not entirely related but also not quite separate enough to warrant their own chapters.
The first section explains what is going on with Alexander in Chapter 3, explaining and finishing the partially complete actions that are carried forward to meet Zachary at first instance. First there is a movement forward that brings the sword up from beneath to meet Zachary in the straight line at first instance, reaching the hilt, with the sword finishing parallel and below. Next are two examples where Zachary is in the oblique angle, meeting him both inside and outside the arm. Finally there is an example where Alexander moves forward without leading with the blade to meet the straight line, which is ill-advised.
This is the first chapter where Thibault has the student doing something with the sword, and falls neatly into the natural progression of learning. Interestingly this is one of the few places where he talks about making it work on the street – his justification for learning how to draw the sword is so that the student becomes comfortable with the action so that it comes naturally when required.
In addition to explaining the draw, this is the first time where he works through the action as distinct steps linked to particular images, using four images or steps for drawing while moving forward, and for drawing while moving backward.
Having apparently dealt with the circle and proportions of the body completely in Chapter 1, Thibault returns to it in Chapter 2, in what feels to me l like a somewhat defensive inclusion outside his main thrust of teaching.
The chapter starts by restating the argument that the measuring stick for all fencing is the human body, but he then feels the need to defend it:
Continue reading “Thibault – Chapter 2”… seeing that this correspondence is so extremely great … perhaps someone will take occasion to suspect that we have accommodated the aforesaid figure to our fantasy, in order to get the desired proportions, rather than simply following the natural truth …
Chapter 1 is very dense, both with theory and the way that the theory is discussed, but has a number of key statements that need to be observed. It’s a pretty good illustration of his habit of stating something once, and expecting the student to remember it.
This chapter begins with a lengthy discussion about the ratios and proportions of the human body, calling back to Pythagoras, Plato, Vitruvius, Pliny, Hippocrates and the Bible as examples of previous proofs. This is a fairly typical way of constructing an argument at his time, where first the prior knowledge is laid out, and then the author’s own assertion posited as though another layer on top of the previous arguments. The truth of the argument can be tested because it has some logical connection to the previous arguments that have been accepted as true.
Since I last wrote, and started searching around, I have found a record of one sale through Christies of a copy that changed hands for around €19,500 in 2009. There’s some interesting details there around that physical copy, including the size, listed as 550 mm x 410 mm, which is roughly the size of an A2 page. As I said last time, this is a big book.
If you are looking to be able to leaf through the images, the National Library of Netherlands has most of the images up on line, and you may care to have a look at the Wiktenauer page for the book for some background.
Continue reading “Thibault – Author’s Note”I have in recent weeks began re-reading Academie de l’Espee by Gerard Thibault d’Anvers, for a variety of reasons. Sadly my virtually non-existent French means I am reading the 2005 translation by John Michael Greer. To my surprise and delight, re-reading after having left it alone for several years I find it opening up for me, and it makes much more sense than it did the first few times.