Pietro del Monte

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Pietro del Monte (also Pietro Monte , Pietro Monti , Latin Petrus Montius ; * 1457 ; † 14 May 1509 near Agnadello ) was one of the most important condottieri of the 15th century. He was a fencing master and lived and fought all over the Mediterranean. He was Leonardo da Vinci's informant for the flight paths ( trajectory ). Baldassare Castiglione mentions him in the Libro del Cortegiano as the teacher of Galeazzo da Sanseverino, who “knows all about all forms of training strength and skill for the future prince”.

Del Monte was the author of at least four books on martial arts since the 1480s. His De Dignoscendis Hominibus (1492), De veritate unius legis et falsitate sectatrum . Milan 1509 (2nd edition 1522) and two works that were only published after his death in 1509 (edited by Giovanni Angelo Scinzenzeler as Exercitiorum Atque Artis Militaris Collectanea and De Singulari Certamine Sive Dissentione ). Two of his unpublished manuscripts have also survived: one in Spain (in the Escorial library as MS A.IV.23 in Spanish), the other in the Biblioteca Estense , Modena , as Codex Estense T.VII.25 (in Italian) . Del Monte was a prominent condottiere who, like many members of his family before, fought as a perfect fighter and trainer of fighters throughout southern Europe for pay. His writings appeared in Latin; it was the lingua franca of fighters in southern Europe, who had very different mother tongues themselves. Del Monte's fencing system precedes the classic Italian fencing school. However, he seems to have influenced the following fencers (but probably the fighters).

Del Monte is long forgotten as a fencing master, but he was a Venetian war hero who preferred to die than to be removed from his assigned position. The French King Louis XII. had his body searched on the battlefield to be buried with royal honors. According to later historians, Venice would have won if everyone like del Monte had done their duty in the battle of Agnadel.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fontaine, Marie-Madeleine: Le condottiere Pietro del Monte, philosophe et écrivain de la Renaissance, 1457-1509 , Geneva / Paris 1991, ISBN 978-2-05-101183-9 .
  2. ^ Anglo, Sydney: 'The man who taught Leonardo darts. Pietro Monte and his lost fencing book. ' Antiquaries Journal 69, 1989. pp. 261-278.
  3. ^ Ed. Opdyke, Leonard Eckstein (1903), The Book of the Courtier .
  4. ^ Bascetta, Carlo. Sport E Giuochi: Trattati E Scritti Dal XV Al XVIII Secolo . Milan: Il Polifilo, 1978. ISBN 978-88-7050-122-3
  5. ^ Anglo, Sydney: 'The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe. Yale University Press , 2000, pp. 25ff.
  6. ↑ Van Houdt, Toon, and Ingrid Sperber. "The Author as Translator." New Latin Yearbook: Journal of Neo-Latin Language and Literature 16 (2014): 237-269.
  7. ^ Marie-Madelaine Fontaine: The Condottiere Pietro del Monte (1457-1509). The gymnastica bellica between philosophy and literature. In: Arnd Krüger , Bernd Wedemeyer (Hrsg.): Learn sports history from biographies. Hoya: NISH 2000, pp. 79-86
  8. ↑ Anglo (2000): "Monte's views on swordsmanship, as expressed in his Collectanea , were ignored. [...] Monte's fate was also determined by his decision to publish in a bad Latin translation rather than in his original Spanish or in the Italian of his adopted land. Cf. Arnd Krüger , John McClelland (eds.): The beginnings of modern sport in the Renaissance. London: Arena Publ. ISBN 0-902175-45-9 contains the most extensive bibliography on Renaissance sport.
  9. ↑ Francesco Sansovino: Dell'origine e delle de'fatti case illustri d'Italia. Venice 1609, p. 257 f.
  10. ^ Francesco Guicciardini: La historia d'Italia . Venice 1563, vol. 3, p. 209.
personal data
SURNAME Monte, Pietro del
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Monte, Pietro; Monti, Pietro; Montius, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Condottiere, writer, field marshal
DATE OF BIRTH 1457
DATE OF DEATH May 14, 1509
Place of death at Agnadello