Hi, all.
Would anyone happen to have a qualified opinion on the most popular means of rapier parrying in northern europe in the mid 16 hundreds? Would it be the single rapier technique or using a parry dagger? I suppose bucklers were out of the question by then? Being a complete novice to rapier history and on the verge of acquiring a rapier with a design from this period, I appreciate any input, thanks.
Borger
I think that by 1650 in Northern Europe, the smallsword or lighter rapier should already have made off-hand weapons obsolete. However, this was the heyday of the sail gaurd main gauche and cup hilt rapier in Spain, so it's not unthinkable that rapier & dagger fighting could still have been practiced by some Northern Europeans.
| Borger Kruge wrote: |
| Hi, all.
Would anyone happen to have a qualified opinion on the most popular means of rapier parrying in northern europe in the mid 16 hundreds? Would it be the single rapier technique or using a parry dagger? I suppose bucklers were out of the question by then? Being a complete novice to rapier history and on the verge of acquiring a rapier with a design from this period, I appreciate any input, thanks. Borger |
Hi Borger,
Well, that's a hard question to answer broadly. The thing is, most rapier masters taught the use of the single rapier first without a parrying weapon, and only add a secondary weapon for advanced learning. But that does not actually imply whether the dagger was popular or not. Regardless of popularity, it was definately still not uncommon for the usage of the dagger by this time.
A couple side tangents to your point. With or without the dagger, the rapier was still the primary form of defense. Many people believe that with the dagger the sword no longer is used for defensive actions, which is not the case at all. This is why the single sword was taught first by most masters.
Secondly, there is no evidence to my knowledge of the round buckler being used with the "true" rapier; that is, the longer, thrust oriented rapier. Bucklers appear in fencing manuals for cutting weapons, but for true thrusting rapiers, manuals such as those by Cappo Ferro or Fabris do not depict the buckler at all. This is just a theory (and I'm not the only one who's independently come up with this theory), but whenever I've played around with rapier and buckler, I find that a buckler is of very little use against someone who understands proper rapier theory. I can easily disengage around an opponent's buckler. Because of the lack of evidence, and because of personal experience, I have strong reason to doubt it's usage with the rapier.
Hope I'm not throwing out too much irrelevant info! :) Welcome aboard to the world of the rapier, though. It's certainly a passion of mine!
| Bill Grandy wrote: |
|
Hope I'm not throwing out too much irrelevant info! :) Welcome aboard to the world of the rapier, though. It's certainly a passion of mine! |
Not at all, Bill, I'm all ears and eager to learn. Thank you.
And yeah, I started being interested in the chivalric arsenal of broadswords, flails, maces etc. and have now worked my self up to the "finer" renaissance. :) It might be a passion of mine, too. :)
Borger
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