There is a moment in every longsword exchange where the blades meet. You have cut, your opponent has parried, and suddenly two long steel edges are crossed somewhere in the air between you. Fiore dei Liberi, studying this moment for forty years, noticed something important: the crossing is not always the same crossing. Sometimes the swords meet at their tips, a long way apart. Sometimes they meet at the hilts, a hand's breadth from each other's faces. What you can do next depends entirely on which of those crossings you are in.

He gave these two situations names. Zogho largo, the wide play. Zogho stretto, the narrow play. The whole of the longsword section of Fior di Battaglia is organised around them. Beginners often read past the distinction, thinking it is just Italian jargon for "the crossing." Experienced practitioners come to realise it is one of the most important technical decisions in the whole system.

This post is about that distinction, and why it runs deeper than it first appears.

Two Measures, Two Worlds

Measure, in fencing, is simply distance. The measure between two fencers is the space between them, and every technique has a range it prefers. Fiore's genius was to see that the longsword bind actually contains two measures inside it, each with its own logic, its own footwork, and its own repertoire of plays.

Zogho Largo: The Wide Play

Wide play begins when the swords meet at or near their tips. The fencers are at the outer edge of the sword's reach. Both of them have their left foot forward. Their arms are extended. The blades cross, but weakly: neither blade has strong leverage on the other, and neither can strike without taking a step.

"Both swords lack any real leverage in this crossing, making both the Master and the player weak in the bind. Also, due to the distance of the combatants and the angles of the blades, neither directly threaten each other with the point."

Listen to that. Neither directly threaten each other with the point. At wide-play distance, the sword tips touch but the point is not actually on target. You cannot simply push forward and wound your opponent. Something has to happen first: a step, a disengage, a flick, a grab. The wide-play repertoire is the repertoire of how to convert a touch at the tip into a hit.

Common wide-play actions in Fior di Battaglia:

  • Switch sides. Lift the sword over the opponent's point and strike down on the outside, landing on the forearm.
  • Disengage with a thrust. Drop the point under the crossing and extend into Posta Longa, driving the point into the face.
  • Lateral twist. A wrist-level twist as you complete the cover flicks the opponent's blade further offline, creating a clearer opening.
  • Grab the blade. Release one hand from your own grip and seize the opponent's blade in the middle, immobilising it long enough to strike with a single-handed cut.

All of these require a step to actually land. Wide play is the territory of extension, disengagement, and converting distance into a hit.

Zogho Stretto: The Narrow Play

Narrow play begins at a very different crossing. The swords meet at the base of the blade, closer to the hilts. Both fencers' points are past each other's heads. Their bodies are almost within arm's reach. Crucially, where wide play is entered with the left foot forward, narrow play is entered with the right foot forward, which closes the dominant hand to the opponent.

"It is noteworthy that where the masters of wide play crossed swords with their left foot forward, the master of narrow play leads with the right. This closes the distance between the master's dominant hand and the opponent, altering the lines of attack. Combat now occurs at the range of grappling and dagger techniques."

That last sentence is the key. At narrow play, you are close enough to touch the opponent's face with your pommel. You are close enough to grab their wrist. You are close enough that the sword in your hand becomes, in effect, a very heavy dagger. Everything you learned in abrazare and the dagger sections of Fior di Battaglia becomes useful again, because the distance has compressed until the sword is no longer the primary weapon of the exchange.

Fiore's Narrow-Play Repertoire

Where the wide play asks "how do I convert a touch at the tip into a hit?", the narrow play asks "how do I finish this exchange before my opponent does?" The plays that answer that question are famously brutal:

  • Pommel strikes to the face. Rolling the sword under the bind and driving the pommel like a hammer into the bridge of the nose. Fiore makes a specific claim: "I have proven that four teeth will be knocked out of the mouth with such a play." Four teeth. Proven. That extraordinary specificity, coupled with the mention that he has "proven" it, has led scholars to wonder whether Fiore is referring to one of the five duels he personally won. We cannot confirm that he is. We also cannot help wondering.
  • Grabbing the opponent's sword at the hilt. Stepping through, the left hand leaves your own grip and seizes the opponent's weapon between their hands. With the sword now immobilised, your own blade is free to cut or thrust anywhere you want.
  • Wrapping the sword around the neck. Having made a pommel strike, the blade continues its arc and ends up behind the opponent's neck. A slight pull and the throat is cut, assuming no protective collar.
  • Throws. The fully compressed distance of narrow play is the distance where abrazare principles apply. A throw from the bind puts the opponent on the ground and the fight ends there.

Every one of these techniques happens without a step, because you are already close enough. Narrow play is the measure of actions that resolve immediately.

The Footwork Tell

One of the clearest diagnostic signs of which measure you are actually in is the footwork of the master as drawn in the manuscript. Fior di Battaglia is remarkably consistent: wide-play masters stand with the left foot forward, narrow-play masters with the right. Fiore is telling you visually, before you even read the text, which world you have entered.

Modern HEMA practitioners sometimes miss this because they are focused on the sword. Look at the feet. The feet tell you the measure.

The Transition Between Them

A great longsword exchange is often a journey through both measures. You begin out of range. You step into wide play and the blades cross at the tips. The wide-play exchange happens: a disengage, a sidestep, a flick. If the fight has not resolved, you close further into narrow play. The blades now cross at the bases. A pommel strike. A grab. A throw. The fight ends.

This is why Fiore devotes so much space to both. He knew that a real longsword duel rarely stays at one distance. The competent fencer has to be fluent in both languages, and fluent in the transition. A fighter who only knows the wide play gets bewildered as the distance closes. A fighter who only knows the narrow play cannot enter it safely, because wide play teaches you how to arrive at the bind without getting hit.

The Philosophical Dimension

There is a temperament difference between the two plays, and it is worth noticing. Wide play rewards patience, disengagement, and conversion: the fencer who can see the opening at the tip and find the tempo to exploit it without forcing. Narrow play rewards commitment, decisiveness, and closeness: the fencer who is comfortable at the distance where wrestling and sword overlap, who will not flinch when the pommel is six inches from their face.

Different bodies suit different plays. Some fencers find wide play more natural. Others come alive in the bind. A complete Fiore practitioner does not have to love both equally, but they should be able to do both competently. Fiore's system assumes fluency in both.

What Modern Training Teaches Us

At HEMA Penzance we spend time in both measures, and we try not to make one more glamorous than the other. New students often gravitate toward the wide play because it feels "fencerly" in the way modern sport fencing feels: thrusts at distance, exchanges at the tip, clear hits. But the narrow play is where Fiore's system reveals its full character. The grappling-at-the-root logic of armizare lives there. The five things live there. The reason he is different from later fencing traditions lives there.

When your first real bind compresses into zogho stretto and your sparring partner's pommel arrives three inches from your nose, you understand the system at a level you did not before. That moment is what studying the two measures is for.

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.

Fiore's words in this article are from the Getty manuscript translations at Fight Like Fiore.