With the release of The Duel x5, Melville House is launching a new digital innovation, HybridBooks, which combines the concept of a digitally enhanced eBook with the printed book. For more information on HybridBooks please click here.

Throughout August we will be posting samples from the Illuminations — additional material that will appear exclusively in the first releases in our Hybrid Books series. So sharpen your sword, keep your powder dry and get ready for a month of dueling history, lore and technique. That’s right. Dueling technique…

Of all the different material to be found in the Illuminations for The Duel x5, perhaps none is quite as wonderfully arcane as the writings at the back of The Duel by Heinrich von Kleist. After a survey of readings exploring the history of trial by combat, which is an essential aspect of Kleist’s plot, we happily offer you a series of selections from fencing, shooting and all manner of bladed combat technique.

Why? Because if you’re going to do it, then do it right. Because it demonstrates the fascinating complexity of cultivation surrounding the act of dueling.

Everything from a Middle English text on fighting with a two-handed sword to a Victorian manual on the proper handling, shooting and loading techniques for 19th century pistols can be found in this admittedly tongue-in-cheek anthology. Tongue-in-cheek is an important distinction: Sincerely, we do not want anyone to attempt to actually use the knowledge contained in this particular installment Illuminations.

That said, this particular volume of The Duelist’s Anthology is titled “The Art of Dueling: How To Shoot and Slash Your Way To Satisfaction” and the portion I’d like to share with you today concerns fighting with daggers and cloaks. But as the title of this post suggests, one could substitute a jacket if a need should arise. Again, please note that we are being facetious.

Joking aside, it is fascinating to explore the realm of western medieval martial arts. The duelist was a polished technician, who practiced and studied their craft carefully. The complex nomenclature and dance-like memorization of movements is just one facet of this complex realm, but to give you an understanding of just how complex such training could be, here is a description of one maneuver involving a cloak and dagger being used as weapons.

The Dagger used by Marozzo was the “Pugnale Bolognese,” a large double-edged weapon, sufficiently heavy for cutting as well as thrusting.

He is most impressive on one very important point, namely, that as the dagger is a very short weapon, so it is an extremely dangerous one, and requires most careful watching, and that therefore the eyes must never be taken off the dagger-hand of the enemy. The cloak is worn and manipulated in much the same manner as when it accompanies the sword (Plate 33). Feints may be made with the dagger in order to gain openings, and, similarly, openings may be shown with the cloak for the purpose of drawing an attack, the parry and riposte having been already determined on. The following movements of dagger and cloak are extracts from Marozzo’s work.

I. Hold your dagger in quarte (coda lunga e stretta), with the right foot leading, and keep your cloak rather low, in order to draw a mandritto at the head, or a high thrust; and as the enemy does this, oppose the folds of your cloak to his dagger, pass forward the left foot, and give him a quarte thrust (punta riversd) in his right side.

Recover by passing the left foot back, and take the same guard as before.

II. Make a great oblique pass with your left foot outside his right, envelop his dagger-arm with your cloak, and deliver a thrust or a riverso at his neck.

Recover, passing back three or four paces, and take the same guard.

III. Lower your cloak and give an opening above, and as he attacks give a mandritto at his hand on the pass.

Recover, passing back the right foot.

IV. Stand on guard in tierce, with the left foot advanced. Show an opening at your left side by carrying your cloak a little over towards your right, and when he attacks, force his dagger well over to your left, pass forward your right foot, and give either point or a riverso at his face.

Recover, retiring three or four paces.

—from Old Swordplay: The Systems of Fence in Vogue During the XVIth, XVIIth, and XVIIIth Centuries, with lessons arranged from the works of ancient masters by Alfred Hutton.

The real difficulty to this technique is finding matching jackets and daggers for two combatants. For those of you wondering what a tierce and riverso are, we’ll cover some of the basics of sword fighting tomorrow. In the meantime you may want to take dueling into account while shopping for your fall coat.