This is Posta Frontale (Headband or ornament worn on the forehead), called by some masters Posta di Corona (Crown), which for crossing [incrosar - crossing blades] is good, and for the thrusts she is also good, because if they strike at her with a high thrust, she crosses it, passing out of the way. And if the strike is delivered low, also she passes out of the way, beating [rebatendo] the thrust to the ground. Also, she can do another thing, because in delivering a thrust, returning with the rear foot and makes a fendente for the head and for the arms and arrives in Dente di Cengiaro and immediately stabs a thrust or two with an advance [acresser] of the foot and returns with a fendente to its own gaurd.
Separating the different actions Fiore describes, we have:
- Crossing swords (cuts)
Crossing thrusts, specifically...
Crossing a high thrust, passing forward offline
Beating a low thrust to the ground, again passing offline
The last one is a little less clear - Tom Leoni's translation puts this as:
...against a thrust, pass back while delivering a fendente to the head or arms down the Dente di Chinghiaro, then immediately deliver one or two thrusts with an accrescimento of the front foot. Finish with a fendente that gets you back in that guard.
I'm a big believer in doing what Fiore tells us explicitly to do so a few days ago a friend and I were playing around with these specific actions. It was interesting, and it actually raised a number of questions.
Crossing swords - This one is pretty basic - I've done this many times, and it's pretty common. I think Guy Windsor uses it for all of his crossing plays, if you look at his Swordschool videos. My main issue with this is that if someone is cutting at you with any intent, and you cover by moving into frontale, it definitely works, but their blade ends up against your quillion - it definitely does not resemble any of the "ideal" crossings (tip to tip, middle to middle, etc.) that are illustrated and described.
Crossing high thrusts - This seems like the exchange of point, except that you end up in frontale instead of a thrusting position. The assumption is that you start from another position (tutta porta di fero, finestra or di dona ont he right), and the footwork seems slightly different from the exchange - no accrescimento off the line with the front foot.
Defending low thrusts - This seems straight forward, except that the implication is that you are starting from frontale - something I'd have to say I've never really done. Depending on where you hold the sword you are also obscuring you vision to a degree, making it a little tricky to pick up the incoming low thrust.
Other low thrust option - I think this is reasonable, though again frontale is apparently your 'waiting' position. Distance is also a bit of an issue - if an attacker thrusts at you they are presumably passing forward from a starting position. If you pass back, are you not at the same distance as when the play began? What I mean is, wouldn't an accrescimento with your thrust from Dente di Chinghiaro still leave you a little short of distance?
Anyway, I know I'm a little pedantic when I look at the manuscripts, but these are some of the thoughts I've been having. I'm interested to hear if anyone else has tried to look at these specific actions and had any thoughts.