Art of Marozzo: Intro

Marozzo is a vastly misunderstood martial artist. There are some notable people doing good work with the manual…for some of them see the “Links” section on the sidebar…but most people I’ve run across either ignore Marozzo for being too complex, or else only have the most superficial knowledge, and try to make it seem like more than it is.

In an effort to strip away some of the illusions and misconceptions, we are going to work through Marozzo’s manual, one little step at a time. We’ll use William Wilson’s translation, because most of the readers here are English monoglots. I heartily encourage learning enough Italian to understand the original text, though.

We’ll go through the manual in the sequence it is written, and hopefully we will all do the exercises in the same sequence. We can discuss the results of our exercises in the comments of each post.

I’ll first post a section of William Wilson’s translation, and then I’ll follow up with my interpretation. If relevant or if I have the time, I’ll also add the original Italian, and such photos, video’s, or illustrations that help.

And yes, I plan to cover the entire manual in this fashion, in bite size chunks, one after another. When we are done this, I plan to do the same for Capo Ferro. My way of giving back.

Marozzo and Da Boys

I should clarify one thing before we begin though. I am not a researcher, or a re-creationist. I am a martial artist. I have no interest in exactly recreating Marozzo’s style. I am instead a student of his text. When I was a Shotokan Karate student, I would diligently study what my instructor taught. Then I would go and spar with my friend, who was an equally diligent Wing Chun student. I would test what I learned against my friend, learning things from him and learning to make my Karate effective against what he brought. In Karate class I was the perfect Shotokan stylist. But when I went out and fought and challenged people who were not friends, I fought with a blend of Shotokan and Wing Chun, and other styles I learned. And when it came time for me to teach unarmed martial arts, I taught the whole of what I knew, which was a hybrid style.

And this is how I am a student of Marozzo’s text. I did my diligent class time, and I tested myself against friend and almost-foe alike. And now what I teach is inevitably a hybrid, properly termed my own…as a student of the text. It’s important to point this out, as there are, as I mentioned at the beginning, people doing exceptional work on re-creating Marozzo. I will always defer to them on what is more “correct.”…which also means you shouldn’t bother asking questions or arguing with what I post in regards to it’s correct interpretation. Take such questions to the masters of the subject, you will get a better answer from them!

But if you want to know how to make something from the manual actually work in a combat-like situation, that’s a question I can answer.

On to part one