I wrote this book for two audiences: teachers and students. For fencing teachers, maybe you've spent years teaching the Bolognese art and are looking for a new perspective or a guide to a different weapon. Maybe you've taught Italian rapier or German longsword and are trying to expand your repertoire to something new. Perhaps you are just now starting to take those first steps from just being a student of the art to being in a position to pass it along and are looking for a "how to" guide by someone a little further down the path. Regardless of which of these describe you best, just know that you have found your way to a tool that represents years and years of intense dedication that will hopefully provide you with some helpful guidance as you find your way.

Maybe, though, you're not interested in trying to keep the attention of two dozen college kids all at once as you rattle off obscure Italian terms, and are instead just looking to hit people better. Well, good news, this book is for you too. Even if teaching others is something that doesn't particularly hold your interest, my goal is for this book to serve as a guide to a deep, rich art passed down to us by some of the worst writers in fencing history. I'm not exaggerating-just try reading Marozzo without looking at the intro or having a background in all of this. The Bolognese art contains thousands of plays, but the authors were clearly writing for an audience far different from our [...] it is always a noble pursuit to look back to the original material in any study, it can be helpful to have someone you have more in common with break that all down in a way that you can more easily digest. Of course, the best way for most people is to learn from a knowledgeable instructor face to face. However, that isn't always possible due to things like geography and finances. You also don't have to worry about waking the book up right after you get out of the shower and need to double check that one random thing before your brain will let you go to bed.

Regardless of where you are coming from in picking up this text, I hope that it will serve you well. While reading it straight through will definitely make more sense than just skipping around, particularly if you aren't previously familiar with most of the vocabulary, I don't really expect people to blaze through it in just a few [...] my own study, I treat most of the fencing books on my shelves as reference material. They are resources I can rely on to help answer this or that question, as opposed to novels with a clear narrative that goes from A, to B, to C.I suspect this book will largely be used the same. That said, now that this book has gone from my hands to yours, it is no longer mine to dictate how you use it. Here's hoping it serves you well.