His True Arte of Defense

From Karate, Kungfu, Wrestling, Mixed Fighting Information Source

The article is incomplete or needs improvement This article covers an essential topic and is in need of expansion by contributing to Wikimartialarts. Please follow the guidelines in the Manual of Style and complete this article to the highest level of quality before continuing on smaller articles.

The True Arte of Defence was studied and taught by European masters in the late 15th and 16th Centuries. The most famous of the teachers was an Italian, Giacomo di Grassi. Grassi was one of the three premiere Elizabethan masters. He analyzed lines of attack and defense that have been used in fencing to the modern day. He is called the forefather of the small sword and was one of the first masters of fencing to hint at using the sword to parry attacks. He also was a great proponent of using the dagger as a defensive weapon. This work was the basis of St. Didier in France and Meyer and Sutor in Germany. It is the first to mention "lines" (inside, outside, high, and low) and is also the first to distinguish the sections of the sword suitable for offense and defense.