Amendment to Radaelli's Low Parries

Since publishing my last post entitled "Radaelli's Low Parries", I have come across new information that compels me to write an amendment to my interpretations, specifically regarding the parry of low 3rd. This new information comes in the form of scans of the original 1876 text (in Italian), which can be found here.

In Del Frate's description of the parry of low 3rd in the 1876 text, Holzman's translation reads:

"The grip should be hip high and in the direction of the flank approximately eight inches ahead of it."

Since Holzman's use of the word "flank" was somewhat ambiguous to me, I relied on Del Frate's 1868 description:

"...the sabre with the grip at the height of the left flank about one palm away..."

Thus I concluded that Holzman was intending to mean the left flank. However, I now know this to be untrue and that the original Italian states:

"...l'impugnatura all'altezza e in direzione del fianco destro 20 centimetri circa avanti..."

That is, with the grip in the direction of the RIGHT flank. It does not seem unlikely that Radaelli may have slightly tweaked the parry of low 3rd between the publication of the two manuals, therefore I am inclined to believe that the change from left flank to right was intentional.

As a result of this information, the photos depicting my interpretation of the parry of low 3rd in the original post now show the grip too far to the fencer's left. Although this is not a dramatic change, it does feel noticeably easier to perform than my original interpretation. Apologies for this error.