** EDIT: My translation of this treatise may now be found here. **
Below you will find the link to scans of Poggio Vannucchi's 1915 fencing treatise I fondamenti della scherma italiana ("The fundamentals of Italian fencing"). The book is split into two sections, one for sword and the other for sabre. Vannucchi was a Radaellian, and he makes no attempt to hide his loyalty to the great maestro, dedicating the book "To Giuseppe Radaelli, maestro and renewer of the art of fencing, with devoted memory".
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rh21hfu3yd8V-Zo5vHauwgz49w7N9DQQ
In the introduction, Vannucchi states that Radaelli founded his system on the axiom: "the parry does not exist", which Vannucchi then explains as meaning "if the blow is well struck, with all the desired requirements, it is not possible to parry it". He then goes on to decry the "decadent" state of modern fencing, criticising the regulation system of the time (that of Pecoraro and Pessina).
Vannucchi's sabre system does not deviate dramatically from Radaelli's, leaving most of the terminology the same (even continuing to use the word coupé, unlike most of his contemporaries). However his guard position has the arm and sabre (his being straight blade with a Radaelli hilt) in a straight line, extended horizontally at shoulder height with the edge turned diagonally up. He is also unique in that he describes two different types of parry of 1st. One is called "alta angolata", with the arm and sabre at a right angle as described in Del Frate's manuals, the other is "in linea", with the arm extended at shoulder height as described in Masiello's treatise (and many others).
Thanks to Biblioteca Universitaria Bologna for providing me with the scans.
Hello,
ReplyDeletefirst of all: great work! Your page is a really, really big help when doing research. Thanks for all the useful input that I could get so far (and I guess there's more to come).
One question regarding Vannucchis book: You, as well as google/books date "I fondamenti della scherma italiana" to 1915. Why? The book itself, as far as I could see does not give any date of publishing and William Gaugler states that it was written/published at the end of the 19th century (The history of fencing, p. 194 and American Fencing Jan./Feb. 1987, Vol. 38, No. 3, p. 9)...
Would you mind solving this riddle please?
All the best and keep up the good work.
T.
Thank you for the kind words, I certainly don't intend to stop any time soon.
DeleteThe true and simple reason why I gave the date of publication as 1915 is that I trusted the catalogue of the library from which I obtained these scans. The catalogues aren't always 100% reliable, but in this case they are. You can find various records and publication notices of the book from 1915 onwards, such as here in the Gazzetta Ufficiale del Regno d'Italia (you may need to use a VPN to view it), which says the book was published in March 1915:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gazzetta_ufficiale_del_Regno_d_Italia/kk-tVhw_LX0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=vannucchi
Gaugler's historical research, while very good for its time, is becoming more and more dated as time goes by, particularly thanks to the wealth of knowledge made accessible via the internet.
That said, we are given a good hint that a late-19th century dating is too early even within the book, as Vannucchi says in the preface that it was 'about 40 years ago' that Radaelli renewed the art of fencing, and says that he himself had been teaching fencing for 40 years.
A second edition of Vannucchi's book was published in 1920, but it seems to be quite rare, as I've yet to track down a copy. I would be interested to see if anything was changed, but I suspect not.
Hopefully that answers your question satisfactorily!
Thanks for the clarification. They were extremely helpful. And of course you're right.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day and all the best
Tobias