Giuseppe Radaelli
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[edit] Giuseppe Radaelli (1833-1882)
Giuseppe Radaelli was an Italian fencing master most famous for his method of Sabre fencing. In 1872, his student Cav. Settimo Del Frate published his second and best known book, Istruzione per la Scherma di Sciabola e di Spada del Prof. Giuseppe Radaelli.[1]
This book served as the textbook for Maestro Radaelli's school, the Scuola Magistrale at Milano, established by the Ministry of War in 1869.[2] In 1874[3] or 1875, the school at Milano absorbed Maestro Cesare Enrichetti's school at Parma.[4] Radaelli directed this school until his death in 1882.[5]
[edit] A Brief Biography of Radaelli
Radaelli took his first fencing lessons from his brother, Bonaventura, who owned a well known sala d'armi in Milano.[6] In 1859, Radaelli joined the Monferrato cavalry for the campaign against Austria, and was taken under the wing of then Capt. Avogadro di Narova.[7] He also met Capt. Settimo Del Frate (an 1856 law graduate of the University of Pavia) who became his student and close friend, during this time.[8] In 1868 Radaelli returned to Milano to be near his brother, and during 1869 Radaelli was made director of the Scuola Magistrale at Milano, which was created to provide fencing masters for the cavalries of Monferrato, Lodi, Saluzzo, et al.[9] Radaelli fell ill during 1878 for the first time, and then passed away in 1882.[10]
[edit] The Radaellian System of Sabre
The primary features of Radaelli's system of sabre include molinelli (circular cuts) which are made with the elbow[11] as the primary pivot point in the circular motion, as opposed to the primary pivot point in the wrist that was favored by his contemporaries.[12] The shoulder plays a supporting role in providing movement horizontally and vertically during the molinello. These are not gentle cuts, instead, Radaelli would have the student lean out of and into the molinelli and bend the knees in the same direction as the motion of the hand, thus putting the entire body weight into the blow.[13] Also notable about Radaelli's system is that the guard positions of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th are made with the arm almost fully extended[14] and that as a result the parries are contracted toward the body in their execution.[15] The guard of 2nd is favoured for the bout[16], with 3rd and 4th being used primarily in lessons. The only direct cuts are executed from the parries, since the retracted parry position provides the chambering action, though these are still just considered variants of a coupe, because all cuts are divided into molinelli and coupe. The coupe is any cut that isn't made as a molinello[17], and is made either from the position of a parry or is fully chambered above and behind the head (elbow at shoulder height, forearm vertical, sabre edge upward) and in this context may or may not pass over the opponent's blade in order to strike open target.[18] In other words, the coupe fills both the role of the modern coupe and the role of the direct cut, which is implied by Del Frate's synoptic table.
[edit] Italian Sabre After Radaelli
Please see the Article From Radaelli to the Present at the Order of the Seven Hearts webpage.[1]
[edit] Notable Radaellian Students
Notable students include Maestri Ferdinando Masiello, Ciullini, Eugenio Pini, Arista, Giordano Rossi, Carlo Pessina and Salvatore Pecoraro, the latter two of which went on to serve as Maestri at the later Scuola Magistrale at Roma under Maestro Masaniello Parise. [19]
[edit] Lessons
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Jacopo Gelli, Bibliografia Generale della Scherma con Note Critiche, Biografiche e Storiche, 61 (Tipografia Editrice di Luigi Niccolai, Firenze 1890).
- ↑ Claudio Mancini, Breve Storia della Scuola Magistrale Militare di Scherma di Roma, (Associazione Italiana Maestri di Scherma, at http://www.maestridischerma.it/mancini.html, Sept. 2003).
- ↑ Gelli, supra note 1 at 75. (Noted because the date conflicts with Mancini's article.)
- ↑ Mancini, supra note 2.
- ↑ Id.
- ↑ Gelli, supra note 1 at 166.
- ↑ Id. at 166-67.
- ↑ Id. at 63.
- ↑ Id. at 167; Mancini, supra note 2.
- ↑ Gelli, supra note 1 at 167.
- ↑ Settimo Del Frate, Istruzione per la Scherma di Sciabola e di Spada del Prof. Giuseppe Radaelli, 17 (Litografia Gaetano Baroffio, Milano 1876).
- ↑ See, E.g.,Masaniello Parise, Teorico-Pratico Della Scherma Spada e Sciabola, 267(Tipografia Nazionale, Roma 1884.
- ↑ Del Frate, supra note 1 at 40.
- ↑ Id. at Tavola I N.4-6
- ↑ Id. at Tavola I N.7-9 and Tavola II N.10-13.
- ↑ Id. at 14
- ↑ Id. at 19.
- ↑ Id. at 48-49.
- ↑ Mancini, supra note 2; Gelli, supra note 1 at xxiv, 165-66.
