In 1597 the great French traveller Seigneur de Villamont translated a fencing manuscript by his teacher, Girolamo (in French ÔHieronymeÕ) Cavalcabo of Bologna, along with a shorter piece by Paternostrier of Rome. This treatise seems to have brought Cavalcabo to the attention of the French court and he, and later his son CŽsar, would be invited to teach the future Louis XIII. This treatise may represent survival of the great fencing tradition of Bologna, and could have influenced the development of French swordplay in the early seventeenth century. Now translated into English, this treatise offers an insight into the fighting style of the period.