Unterhut Pt. 3- The Fool (And more Eisenport)

Porto di Ferro can be difficult to distill into a single basic concept. For one thing 'Porto di Ferro' doesn't exist as a stand alone guard, it's an overarching term for a set of guards in the Italian/Bolognese longsword tradition. For example, in Fiori's Fior Battaglia, he describes both Tutta Porto di Ferro (whole iron gate) and Porto di Ferro Mezana (middle iron gate).

Generally, the guard set is a low guard, hands near the waist with the point dropped towards the ground. In most descriptions it also trends towards the right side, with the left reserved for the Dente di Cenghiaro guards. However, Cenghiaro Porto Di Ferro does appear in several Bolegnese single sword and sword and buckler manuals.

Needless to say, this guard is quite varied. Marrozo includes six different Porto di Ferro guards, Fiore totals 2/12, and Vadi has about the same, but with deviations from Fiore. Knowing what 'Porto di Ferro' means is highly dependent on manual, weapon, and context, which can make it very confusing to interpret.

Moving back to the German traditions for a minute brings me to 'eisenport.' This guard has a name that is a direct translation of Porto di Ferro, and is functionally similar.  While recently researching nebenhut,  I ran across an interesting passage from Andreas found in Hans von Speyer's fencing anthology dated 1491. In this section, Andreas is comparing the longsword to the messer. When he is describing alber, he says the following:

[15] The fourth guard or stance in the sword is named the fool, place yourself in it thus, set your left foot forward and hold your sword before you with straight arms and the point toward the ground so that the short edge is above.

[16] Many masters say that this guard is named the iron door and indeed it is one guard

Alber (the fool) is a lower guard that typically consists of your waist level and outstretched, one leg forward and the point pointing to the ground. While both legs can be forward, most writers tend to favor one or the other. Like Porto di Ferro, it also seems to be exclusively a long sword guard.

Alber from Meyer 1570 Credit: Grauenwolf

While I'm still attempting to compile all usages of Alber and the other lower wards, it's currently very apparent that it's exclusively a guard of the Liechtenauer tradition. Pre-Meyer, the references for Alber come mainly from four authors: Pseudo-Peter von Danzig, Jörg Wilhalm Hutter, Sigmund Schining ein Ringeck, and glossa of Liechtenauer's unarmed combat. Paulus Kal's illustrations are another source, though they have little emore than captions. After Meyer's manuals, his influence is notable as well, although Meyer was apart of the Liechtenauer tradition, albeit with some Mair influence. The bulk of the manuals are also contemporaries, with most dated to a 102 year span.

With Alber a guard of a single- though predominant- longsword tradition, the earlier quote from Speyer starts to make sense. Eisenport appears to be the German equivalent of Porto di Ferro in more than just name, it also appears to have a similar function. Namely, it's an overarching term for slightly varying lower, point down guards. Unlike Porto di Ferro, at times it is presented as being it's own ward. At other times, it's has been the equivalent of all the other lower wards; nebenhut, alber, and shrankhut. Currently, I'm also attempting to narrow down the earliest reference to Eisenport available. Right now it appears that that might be an addendum in Codex Doebringer where Eisenport is discussed as a variant of Alber. It's also noted to be quite good if you're 'beset with four or six impertinent peasants.'

Codex Doebringer is roughly contemporaneous to Fiore delli Liberi's Fior di Battaglia, the earliest surviving manuscript of the Italian tradition. The question to me is: Was 'Iron Gate' a common term at the time, did one writer copy the other, or was there a third now lost source that both copied from?

Unfortunately, this question will remain unanswered.