[SCA-BMDL] OT - Exercise/Fitness Guild?

[L. J. Sparvero]

On 6/15/07, Wolfgang Guntherson <wolfgangguntherson at yahoo.com> wrote:
>     Who knows, if we get enough people, perhaps we
> can form a BMDL Fitness Club/Guild. Is there any
> documentation for period exercise techniques?

Actually yes ;-)

Arbeau comments on dance as being a good exercise form, along with
fencing. He mentions it being. But just about any work on fencing or
dancing will mention some relation to physical fitness. See Negri for
a specific example of a dancer building up leg strength by doing
gagliarda kicks while balancing some of his weight with his hands on
nearby chairs. See
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/negri/facsimile/0092.pdf for a detailed
scan of the image -- can we say "parallel bars"? ;-)

Arcangelo Tuccaro held the position of "Hofspringmeister" (translate
as you will, most scholars call him "Gymnastics" or "Fitness"
instructor) to Holy Roman Emporer Maximillian II. See
http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/italiandance/intro.html

The Second Book of the Courtier has a discussion of the pros and cons
of doing vigorous physical exercise. You can do a keyword search for
"exercise" on Opdycke's published modern translation, available online
through http://books.google.com/


Happy leaping, -L.J. aka Lyev