[Jasper B.]

Hi,

As many other people, I'm like the design of the schiavona quite a lot. I searched the internet, but couldn't really find anything related to the fighting style used with the schiavona.

I realise there are is a huge variation in blade forms and that the fighting style was probably different for the various types of blades, but I still wonder if there is there anything known on how it was typically used. Was it used in combination with a shield (rondella? targa?) a parrying dagger? or some other style?

J.B.

[Jeffrey Faulk]

There's actually not quite so many variations as you may think.

A schiavona can be used fairly well with a buckler or targe, and (with accommodations for the basket hilt) fairly standard single-hand sword techniques. Messer could apply as well, or dussack.

Really there are only so many things you can do with a sword in hand. A schiavona would be well suited to basket-hilt techniques, but if you wanted to add a little Oriental flair to it you could consider looking at Ramtazafar (I think that's the term), Persian martial arts, and drawing some inspiration from their movements.

[Lafayette C Curtis]

It's probably going to be quite similar to contemporary Italian side-sword stuff. I doubt the schiavona would have needed an entirely new swordsmanship system designed for it since it was basically just a pretty conventional Renaissance cut-and-thrust sword with a fancy hilt.

[Craig Peters]

Although it's a bit early for a schiavona, I imagine George Silver's Brief Instructions upon my Paradoxes of Defence sections on the short, single sword might work suitably.