Postby Matt Easton » Thu Jan 26, 2006 9:42 am
Fiore has this to say about it (my translation, which is on my website linked below):
"Of these and of others, to whom I, Fiore, have taught, I am very proud, because I have been well rewarded and I obtained the esteem and the affection of my students and of their relatives. Also, I say I always taught this art secretly, so that no one was assisting to the lessons except for the student and some discrete relatives, and if someone else who was there by grace or favour, with Sacrament they stayed, promising with faith not to reveal any of the plays they saw from me, Master Fiore. And most of all I was wary of other fencing Masters and of their students. And they, the Masters, out of envy demanded me to fight with cut and thrust swords in zuparello darmare, without any other armour except for a pair of suede (chamois) gloves; and all this had happened because I did not want to practice with them and teach them anything of my art. And this fact happened five times. And five times, for my honour, I have had to fight in unfamiliar places without relatives and without friends, not trusting anyone but God and my art and myself, Fiore, and my sword. And by the grace of God, I, Fiore, kept my honour and I did not injure myself. Also I, Fiore, told my students who had to fight in the barriers that fighting in the barriers is much and much less dangerous than fighting with cut and thrust swords in zuparello darmare because to the one who plays with sharp swords, failing just one cover gives him death. While the one who fights in the barriers and is well armoured, can be given a lot of hits, but still he can win the battle. Also there is another fact: that rarely someone dies because he gets hit. Thus I can say that I would rather fight three times in the barriers than just once with sharp swords, as I said above. And thus I say that a man who fights in the barriers, being well armoured, and knowing the art of combat, and having all the advantages which can be obtained, if he is not valiant, he would better hang himself, although I can say that for the grace of god never one of my students I have made a looser in this art. In fact they have always kept their honour. Also I, the aforementioned Fiore, say that these noble knights and squires, to whom I showed this art of combat, have been satisfied of my teachings, not wanting any other master but me. Also I say that none of my students, especially those mentioned above, have ever had a book about the art of combat, except for Messer Galeazzo da Mantova. Because he said that without books no one can be a good master or a good student in this art. And I, Fiore, confirm it to be true, because this art is so vast that there is no one in the world who has such a big memory to keep in mind the fourth section of this art without books. Though not knowing the fourth section of this art I would not be a Master any more. So that I, Fiore, being able to read and write and draw, and having books about this art and having studied it for 40 years and more, yet I am not a perfectly good master in this art, although I am considered a good and perfect master in the art I mentioned above, by great noblemen who have been my students. And if I say that if I had studied for 40 years law and politics and medicine as I studied the art of combat, I would have been doctor in those three subjects. And in this science of combat I had big difficulties and effort and consequences, to be just a good student. I, the aforementioned Fiore, considering that of this art there are few Masters in the world, and wanting be remembered in it, I will write a book about the whole art and about all the things I know, of steel and of tempere and of other things, following the instructions which that other nobleman gave me, the one who above the others, because of martial virtue, I like the most, and who deserved more this book of mine, for his nobility, than any other nobleman who I will ever meet or could meet, that is, my illustrious and excellent lord, the powerful prince Messer NICOLO’ Marquis d’Este, Signore of the noble city of Ferrara, of Modena, Reggio and Parma et cetera, to whom God may give a good life and future prosperity, with victory over his enemies AMEN. "
You must remember that 'Master' does not necessarily mean the same in different places and at different times. In medieval Italy a Maestro was simply someone who was generally recognised to be a teacher. In Elizabethan London a Master was someone who had passed a test to become a teacher, under the London Masters of Defence (basically a guild).
Regards,
Matt
