Anonimo Bolognese Survey Results

Recently I made a survey asking what readers are most interested in seeing next at the Techniques of Anonimo Bolognese.

I am going to use the results to guide the work on the project, so here is a quick run-down of what I am going to do.

Firstly some were in favor of a literal translation, some a modernized (more fluid) translation. Generally those who favored one did so over the other. Since this was quite even, I will simply translate in a way that feels most right to myself, and in case I am making significant changes in order to make the text more readable I will add footnotes. But for example, I will give myself the liberty to add punctuation and paragraph breaks at will. This is the quickest for me to make and should offer an acceptable compromise for all.

Many hoped for a side-by-side transcription of the original, and I would provide it if I had the possibility. I will see if it would be possible somehow but it is unlikely for the time being. Rather just get the Il Cerchio book if you need the transcription.

Video interpretation and written analysis of the plays were considered very important with the video being the most desired feature. Tabular script of the plays came close behind these.

As much as I would like to be able to offer all of these at once, it now seems like the best course of action to focus on finishing the translation at least of the sword alone (by far the most requested topic, with sword and buckler and sword and rotella following after it), and then going through the plays iteratively, first making the video and then on a later time adding both the tabular script and textual analysis. I hope at that stage it will be possible to recruit more people to work on the project to ease the work load.

But what remains for certain is that there will first be a complete translation of the spada sola, then also the introduction (even if it was not among the top desired parts, it is important to myself), and then new, better quality videos of these plays.

Many requested the videos to be broken down a bit, and I will do that as well. But it means there will be more time required for each play. The translation of spada sola can be finished still this year, but the videos and the rest are going to stretch far to next year.

Luckily poleaxe in armor was the least requested part, so I am in no need to buy armor any time soon!

Thank you to all who replied to the survey. Your voice has been heard!