Salvator Fabris also takes the pragmatic position, writing in his preface: "We have written in our mother tongue, Italian, dispensing with flowers of rhetoric

Salvator Fabris also takes the pragmatic position, writing in his preface: "We have written in our mother tongue, Italian, dispensing with flowers of rhetoric and elegance of style, not thinking shame to acknowledge our little learning, or, following the example of a very famous captain of our age, to declare that in our youth we could not wield both the sword and the pen. [...] We have shunned the use of geometrical terms, although swordsmanship has its foundations more in geometry than in any other science. Simply and as naturally as possible we have tried to bring the art within the capacity of all. "