A Gentleman's Guide to Duelling: Of Honour and Honourable Quarrels.

by Vincentio Saviolo, Jared Kirby (Editor)

'A humorous and instructive guide to Elizabethan etiquette which should interest gentlemen of any century'-James Shapiro, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of Shakespeare

A Gentleman's Guide to Duelling is a beautifully illustrated, lyrical guide to duelling etiquette in Elizabethan England. Its author, Vincentio Saviolo, was one of the great Italian fencing masters and a contemporary of William Shakespeare. In the 1590s, both Saviolo and Shakespeare were based in London's Blackfriars; and Shakespeare used Italian fencing terminology in Romeo & Juliet which was written shortly after Saviolo's book was published. 
Originally published under the title Of Honour and Honourable Quarrels Saviolo's guide is devoted to the art of settling a duel in a gentlemanly manner. It was written in a time when honour, virtue and codes of behaviour were of grave importance; and rapier play was seen as ideally suited to the requirements of a gentleman. 
This new edition has updated the Elizabethan language to modern British English in order to make it more accessible to today's reader and includes explanatory annotations. Preceding the guide is the most comprehensive biography on Saviolo ever many suppositions and misnomers have been spread for hundreds of years and Kirby has gone back to the primary source material to finally uncover the truth about Vincentio Saviolo.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2014

Reviews

[Ty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of insight into the mind of a man at arms and gentleman from Italy living in England during the time of Shakespeare (who was influenced by it) in the late 16th century. I breezed through the first half of the book until I made it into the section about lying and dealing with lying which was a bit dense. I love the term dis-beast he uses to describe gentlemen using reason to handle their emotions and apologize when they've done wrong. Saviolo also goes into detail talking about the Nobility of Women whether by words, deeds, reason, or arms which just puts Swetnam in especial consideration and puts the lie to the apologists of misogynists of later periods using the excuse that it was the norm for their time.

I would really recommend the book to writers, screenwriters, and playwrights so they can better capture the code duello and the vast importance of hierarchy in historical pieces or fantasy stories. If you're building a system of honor for a science fiction novel it would also be useful to accurately know an honor system rather than a flawed hollywood system. For example, Saviolo gives examples about how one should be prepared for betrayal by being armed and weapons in hand or how it can be considered noble to allow an opponent to re-arm themselves if you win and an act of stupidity if you lose. Basically, he was very pragmatic and not a bit like "honor-bound" men like the Stark's in Game of Thrones.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit underwhelming.