Quote Originally Posted by Fortinbras View Post
I'm a little bit bewildered by the popularity of the rotella, especially with the famous Spanish soldiers who derived their name from using it.

Capo Ferro seems to be saying that the rotella is too heavy and slow to be used to parry by itself.
It's a time period and regional issue. In Spain rotellas were very popular in the 16th century and according to surviving examples were made of steel. Ridolfo Capo Ferro wrote his fightbooks in Italy in the 17th century, and according to surviving examples of rotellas from that period and region were mostly composite wood and leather. So you're dealing with two objects that *look* the same in illustration, and have the same name, but are fundamentally different in weight and balance.

Also Capo Ferro was a very interesting writer. He constantly talks about how useless things are, like feints, etc. But then later talks about how you shouldn't do anything *but* use feints, etc. He's a bit bipolar.