Translation - Brevi note sulla scherma di sciabola per la cavalleria by Jacopo Gelli

Only a month before the report from the 1889 commission that rejected Masaniello Parise's sabre method for the cavalry headed by Prince Amedeo I, Duke of Aosta, Jacopo Gelli published a booklet addressed to the same man in the hope of having Radaelli's method officially reinstated in the cavalry.

***Click here to read the translation***

Many of Gelli's arguments here we have already seen in his article La scherma italiana nell'esercito which was published a year later, but with less fluff in between the good points. The booklet discusses the current state of fencing in the Italian army in which the Parise method is that officially adopted by the army, yet the Radaelli method is still being taught to all cavalry regiments "unofficially".

Gelli calls on the Duke of Aosta, also Inspector General of the Cavalry, to reinstate the Radaelli method officially and even dissolve the current Scuola Magistrale in Rome, which Gelli argues is too expensive for its own good, comparing its costs to the two schools that preceded it, the schools of Milan and Parma. Gelli proposes that the Rome school be split into two separate schools, a school for the sword and a school for the sabre, which he nominates Ferdinando Masiello to run, presumably leaving Parise to run the sword school.

Whether or not the Duke of Aosta ever read this essay I cannot be sure, however it was only one month later that the aforementioned commission he presided over voted to maintain the teaching of Radaelli's method in the cavalry.

The 1889 Rome Fencing Tournament

Beginning with the 1881 fencing tournament in Milan, fencing tournaments were being held in Italy with ever growing frequency throughout the 1880s. Fencers saw it as a way to prove their abilities and the merits of their particular fencing school, the best example of this being the rivalry between Radaellians and proponents of the Neapolitan school.

In a similar fashion to the aforementioned 1881 tournament, the 1889 International Fencing Tournament in Rome was not short of drama relating to this fierce rivalry. In an 1889 article from the magazine Caccia e Corse (1889/12/05), the pseudonymous writer "Cartoccio" gives their account of this tournament, with all its ups and downs. Below you may find my translation of this article and regulations for the tournament, which were found in the 1889/10/19 and 1889/11/16 issues of the magazine Tiro a Segno. The illustration of the tournament below is by Dante Paolocci, taken from an issue of L'Illustrazione Italiana from 1889/12/08.

Translation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16YMO7SgjWUErpT9-SVuP36BxyUxoMxX5/view?usp=sharing

The scandal at this tournament was due to the fact that the Radaellian faction in the tournament's jury felt that several of the other jurors were giving unjust scores to famous Radaellian fencers such as Salvatore Pecoraro and Carlo Guasti. The dispute boiled over until the Radaellian faction resigned from their positions in the jury, almost causing the end of the tournament. Nonetheless the remaining jurors continued on with the tournament, but certainly not with smooth sailing.

A year later in his article Italian Fencing in the Army, Jacopo Gelli opens with his judgement of 1889 tournament:

"The national fencing tournament of November 1889, in Rome, has proven once more that the teaching of fencing is far from being uniform in Italy. In fact, that tournament has clearly proven that a powerful trend opposes and rejects the official method imparted at the Scuola Magistrale in Rome. It confirms the cry viva Radaelli uttered by the audience during a solemn exhibition at the aforementioned tournament, in front of a jury nominated more to prop up the staggering Scuola Magistrale (with its method), than to judge the skill of the fencers."

It is important to note here that Jacopo Gelli was in the jury for this tournament, and was one of the 10 members that resigned in protest.