Ferdinando Masiello

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Classical Italian Fencing

[edit] Ferdinando Masiello (ca. 1849-????)

Maestro Masiello traded the habit of a priest to acquire the habit of fencing, against the wishes of his parents^[1]. Masiello first learned to fence under Moschetti, prior to enlisting in the 72nd Infantry at age 17, where he continued to study fencing, now under Lt. Leocani, in the ancient neapolitan system (that of Rosaroll Scorza and Pietro Grisetti^[2]). Masiello attended the Scuola Magistrale at Parma under Maestro Cesare Enrichetti, and after two years of hard work was awarded the title of Maestro di Scherma^[3] In 1876, Masiello joined the staff of the Scuola Magistrale at Milano, after learning its system from Maestro Giuseppe Radaelli^[4]. After the closure of the Scuola Magistrale at Milano, Masiello was offered the opportunity to teach at the new Scuola Magistrale at Roma under Maestro Masaniello Parise, but refused.^[5]. Instead, Masiello put great study into removing the few defects of the Radaellian system and further expanding it.^[6] It continued life under the name of the pure Italian system.^[7] Masiello is also credited with the idea that the cavazione should be executed with the primary pivot point in the shoulder, rather than the wrist, under the theory that such cavazione are tighter and more useful^[8].

[edit] Texts

La Scherma Italiana di Spada e Sciabola, (Stabilimento Tipografico G. Civelli, Firenze 1887).

[edit] Footnotes

1. ↑ Jacopo Gelli, Bibliografia Generale della Scherma con Note Critiche, Biografiche e Storiche, 142-43 (Tipografia Editrice di Luigi Niccolai, Firenze 1890).
2. ↑ Id at 143.
3. ↑ Id.
4. ↑ Id. at 144.
5. ↑ Id.
6. ↑ Id. at 141-42.
7. ↑ Id. at 141.
8. ↑ Id. at 142.