How Fun!
Hey Mike - As you know from our personal conversations I do not look at the Novati to define the Getty. Each are separate manuscripts. There are a number of plays in Novati that do not appear in the Getty and vice-versa. Ergo, the techniques may be different. I still say that Novati was probably written for a left-hander but only a look at the original PD manuscript MIGHT give a clue if there is any reference (extremely doubtful mind you) to whom it was created for.
Matt, the minute details are where the clues reside. Until recently I did not even consider that there was anything other than 'orthodox' view. To suggest otherwise is heresy. However, when sitting with the original for the third time I started to see a large number of corrections on many pages, down to a single hand being redrawn in the third play of 1st dagger. I had to step back and really question my pre-conceptions and over generalizations of each play. I and my crew have embarked on breaking down each play into its separate parts and found that if we precisely recreate what we see on the page, down to the minute details, it really changes our understanding of what is going on in the play. Our experience from recreating exactly what appears on the page and then backwards engineering the play has been to really open up our understanding of Fiore's art. Truth be told it would be more accurate to say that the more we work out the plays the more we realize the less we really know.
As to the false versus true edge in a cut. The player in the First Master, which we at the Schola call Vero Largo, and the scholar in 29r1 are alike in that their right thumb is not there and only the 1st digit of the fingers can be seen. The fingers are also squared to the cross. When I recreate this position as shown it is the false edge that is leading as the knuckles of my hand are pointing down and not to the right. Employing this cut in 29r1 creates a strike to the player's head using the false edge as the motion is continuous; after you strike a fendente simply wind the blade around. I have found this action to be approximately twice as fast as cutting true edge down and then cutting with the true edge to the head. According to one of my German practitioner friends it is similar to a play he calls the 'krumpau to the flat" save for the fact that it is a fendente cut and not a cross-cut/krumpau. (I know little to nothing of the German system so I may have used the incorrect term.)
Bulot - You may be correct. The right hand of the scholar is cupped so it would make sense the it could be a rising false-edged cut. It would work but I don't know if it is as fast as a winding cut. The scholar would have to at the very least change the position of his right hand from that used in the downward fendente (a knuckled grip) to the 'under-grip' (which we refer to as 'cupped") in order to have his right hand appear as seen in the play. I'll give it a try on during class on Saturday.
My take on 1st Master can be seen via this link should you have an interest.
http://www.scholasanmarco.com/vero-larg ... sword.htmlBrian