If the twelve guards are the alphabet of Fiore's longsword, then the seven swords are its grammar. The guards tell you where to stand. The seven swords tell you where to go.
Fiore dei Liberi laid out these seven lines of attack on one of the most striking pages in his manuscript: the Segno della Spada, a figure with seven swords radiating from his body like the points of a compass. Each sword represents a line along which a blow can travel. Together, they account for every strike you will ever make.
The Segno: Four Virtues of the Swordsman
Before Fiore describes a single cut, he places four animals at the corners of the page. Each one speaks, declaring a virtue that every swordsman must possess:
The Lynx says: "No creature sees better than me, the Lynx. And I always know my angles and distance." This is prudence — the ability to read a fight before it happens.
The Tiger says: "I am the Tiger, so quick to run and turn that lightning from the sky cannot overtake me." Speed, not just of the hands but of decision.
The Lion says: "There are none more than me, the Lion, to bring a daring heart, for I invite all to do battle." Boldness — the willingness to act when the moment arrives.
The Elephant says: "I am the Elephant and I carry a castle for my load. And I do not kneel or lose my footing." Fortitude — the strength to hold your ground.
These four virtues are not decorative. Fiore is telling you that technique without character is incomplete. You need the Lynx's eyes to see the opening, the Tiger's speed to reach it, the Lion's courage to commit, and the Elephant's stability to survive the exchange. Every session at HEMA Penzance is training all four, whether you realise it or not.
The Seven Blows
Fendente: The Cleaving Cut
"We are the fendente. And in the art we cut skillfully from the teeth down to the knees."
The fendente is the descending cut, and Fiore gives us two of them: one from the right (dritto) and one from the left (roverso). The name itself means "cleaving" — and Fiore cannot resist a pun, noting that the fendente's business is fender gli denti, cleaving the teeth. The blow travels from above the head down to the knees, and Fiore tells us that it leaves a trail of blood along its path.
This is the blow you learn first at HEMA Penzance. It flows naturally from Posta di Donna, the great offensive guard, and it is the most powerful strike in the system. When you swing a longsword in a great descending arc from your shoulder, the weight of the blade, the rotation of your hips, and the step of your front foot all combine into something that feels deeply right. That feeling is the fendente doing what it was born to do.
The two fendenti together — right and left — create the fundamental figure-of-eight that is the heartbeat of longsword practice.
Sottano: The Rising Cut
"We are the colpi sottani, and we go from the knees to the middle of the forehead in the same path that are made by the downward cuts."
The sottano is the mirror image of the fendente. Where the fendente falls from above, the sottano rises from below, travelling the exact same line in reverse. Again, there are two: one from the right and one from the left.
Fiore's description is elegantly precise. The sottano travels "in the same path" as the fendente but going upward, from knee to forehead. This is not a different attack on a different line — it is the same line, reversed. This matters because it means that anything which defends against a fendente on a given line must also account for the sottano on that line.
The sottano rises naturally from the low guards: Tutta Porta di Ferro, Porta di Ferro Mezzana, and Dente di Zenghiaro. These guards load the sword low and let it spring upward with devastating effect, catching opponents who expect the blade to come from above.
Mezzano: The Middle Cut
"We are the colpi mezani, so called because we go through the middle of the downward blows and the under blows."
The mezzano is the horizontal cut, splitting the difference between the descending fendente and the rising sottano. Two again: right and left.
Here Fiore gives us a crucial technical detail buried right in the description. From the right side (mandritto), the mezzano uses the true edge — the long, sharp edge of the blade. From the left side (roverso), it uses the false edge — the shorter back edge. This is not arbitrary. It follows the natural mechanics of how a sword moves through space when both hands are on the grip. The true edge leads on the forehand, the false edge leads on the backhand.
This single instruction encodes centuries of fighting knowledge into one sentence. When you practise mezzani at the club, you feel it immediately: the right-side cut flows with the true edge, and trying to force the true edge on the left feels wrong. Fiore's system does not fight your body. It works with it.
Punta: The Thrust
"We are the thrusts, cruel and deadly. And our path is in the middle of the body between the groin and the forehead."
And then there is the thrust. Just one line of attack — straight forward along the centre — but Fiore gives it a voice that chills: cruel and deadly. No other blow in the system receives language like this.
The thrust travels along the centre line of the body, between the groin and the forehead, and it comes in five varieties: two from above (one from each side), two from below (one from each side), and one straight through the middle. But Fiore counts it as one of the seven because the line is always the same: forward, into the opponent.
The thrust is emphasised throughout the manuscripts as more dangerous than any cut. A cut wounds the surface. A thrust penetrates. In Fiore's art, the thrust is always present: Posta Longa threatens with it, Dente di Zenghiaro drives it upward into the face, and every exchange can resolve into one.
Seven Lines, Infinite Possibilities
Seven. That is all there are. Two descending, two rising, two horizontal, one straight forward. Every attack you will ever make with a longsword travels along one of these lines. Every defence you will ever need covers one of these lines.
This is the genius of Fiore's system. It does not give you a hundred techniques to memorise. It gives you seven lines and twelve guards, and then shows you how they interact. A guard opens certain lines and closes others. A blow travels along a line, and the sword arrives in a new guard, opening new lines for the next action.
When Fiore says that Posta di Donna "can do all of the seven blows of the sword," he is making a precise technical claim: from that one guard, every line of attack is available to you. That is why she is the queen of the system.
The Complete Picture
The four animals. The seven swords. The twelve guards. These are not separate lessons to learn independently — they are three views of the same thing.
The animals tell you who you must be: perceptive, fast, brave, unshakeable. The seven swords tell you where the blade can go: the lines carved into space by six hundred years of martial knowledge. The twelve guards tell you where to wait between actions, loading the sword for its next journey along one of those seven lines.
Stand in Posta di Donna. You are the Lion, ready to invite battle. The fendente dritto is loaded and waiting. Release it, and the sword descends along its ancient line, arriving in a low guard where the sottano is already loaded for the return. The conversation continues.
That is what it feels like to study Fiore. Not memorising moves, but learning to speak.
Come and Learn
We practise Fiore's complete system every Tuesday evening at Penzance Leisure Centre, 7pm to 9pm. Your first lesson is free, all equipment is provided, and no experience is necessary. Come along and see for yourself.