The 'Lost' Second Book of Nicoletto Giganti(1608): A Rapier Fencing Treatise

I was going to give it 5 stars but gave it 4. The book is excellent but alas the artist who he used for the illustrations wasn't as good as the artist of his first book. At the time, he seems to have been an instructor at the Order of Santo Stefano so maybe he used someone there to do the art work. But though the art isn't up to it the content is. It includes sections on sword with rotella, targa, cape, and buckler as well as sword and dagger. He also covers dagger vs. dagger, sword and spear.

I found it worthwhile after reading Giganti's first book. The translation was fine. My only issue was its format - I prefer the format used by Tom Leoni in his translation of Giganti's first book - in Leoni's book, the relevant plates were on the same page as the text as were the footnotes. In this book, plates were on separate pages and the notes were at the back of the book - necessitating flipping back and forth.

Very well translated and curated. Any hema practitioner or sword enthusiast should add this as well as Giganti's first book to their collection. If only we had a third volume!!!

Clear and concise instructions on how to fence well in the Italian style. Covers more weapons and off-hand defensives than his first book such as rotellas, targas, and cloaks. I particularly like the extensive footnotes at the end of the book.

I bought this as a gift for a medieval sword combat snob and it was very well received. I thumbed through it (having close to no knowledge of medieval swordplay) and found myself getting into it. I had to stop myself before I bent the spine!

Got this for my rapier fighting boyfriend and he loved it. It seating now with his mini collection of rapier books.

A must have for anyone who studied Giganti's first book. His discussion of cuts makes it clear we have been missing a major part of rapier combat.

It was a smaller size than I wanted but other wise a good book for historical rapier combat.

This book was recommended by my fencing instructors, and one of them actually rediscovered it!!! Beautifully illustrated. A must for any HEMA participants.

Nice addition to my fencing manuals. Illustrations aren't perhaps the most beautiful I've seen, but that is no fault of the authors and they provide sufficient information with the texts.

If you are reading this, it's a fair bey that you are into HEMA. If you are interested in rapier and it's companion weapons, you need a copy of this on your bookshelf.

Brilliant!! Really well presented and Great translations!!

Giganti's renowned and much published first book sets out in a remarkably clear, concise and precise way how to fence - not just the movements but when and how to use them. However, it was only meant to be the most central stuff. The second book tells us a whole lot more, and it is quite "earth-shaking" in its revelations because it turns on its head some of the assumptions we have been making about Italian Rapier fencing. You can read the book for yourself, but if you know something about fencing history, to put it simply, this second book is very similar to what George Silver advocated, it involves a lot of cutting attacks and even an Open Guard (High Guard) with the sword held up over the head tip up, and used to smash down on the opponent's sword, creating space to attack. Also, we find the "slow hand" technique, also seen in Bolognese fencing and Silver's English Broadsword with the change of a cut's direction mid-flight to defeat the opponent's defenses. Giganti was the fencing master to a Crusading Knightly Order. He knew how to train soldiers for the battlefied. This is very high quality stuff and if you're into Western martial arts, this is a must have book. Book 1 is a good idea to get too, but if you know your rapier basics, you'll be able to get away with just buying the second volume (they actually say this in the preface, so this isn't just me thinking so!) In any case, if you're interested in George Silver, then you'll see how Giganti, the renowned Italian rapier master of the time, vindicates George Silver down to small details! I found this astounding, and I'm very happy to see that it is not a-historical to put the two systems together, as I like both of them very much!