Italian Fencing Visits London

Left to right: Italo Santelli, Agesilao Greco, Masaniello Parise, Vincenzo Drosi, and Angelo Torricelli.

In 1892, at the invitation of the British government, Masaniello Parise and a delegation of four fencing instructors from the military fencing master's school in Rome were sent to England in order to give demonstrations at London's annual military tournament.

Although it was not strictly Radaellian fencing being showcased at the 1892 military tournament, the demonstration did reflect the growing interest in England and most of Europe around Italian fencing, particularly with regard to sabre, which began in the late 1880s as seen with Francis Vere Wright and his 1889 partial translation of Masiello's sabre treatise¹ and culminated with the publication of the 1895 Infantry Sword Exercise, making Masiello's sabre system regulation for the British army.²

The appearance of Italian fencing masters in England was at the request of the English government themselves, who also covered every expense the Italians would incur in their travels (much to the disgust of some commentators, who believed that such an offer should have been refused on the grounds on national pride).³ The delegates chosen by the Italian Ministry of War were considered by many to be among the finest young graduates of fencing master's school: Agesilao Greco, Italo Santelli, Angelo Torricelli, and Vincenzo Drosi.

These fencers may not have (yet) had the international reputation of masters such as Salvatore Pecoraro and Carlo Pessina, who were under the employ of the master's school, but they did represent the new generation of fencers intended to rival the champions of the old Radaelli school (despite their instructors being those very same Radaellians).

The first exhibition took place on 23 May in the Royal Agricultural Hall, Islington:

Whether in honour of the regular soldiers, who for the first time this year made their appearance in mounted combats and competitions at Islington yesterday, or by way of giving cordial welcome to the Cavaliere Parise and to fencing instructors of the Italian army, some thousands of spectators assembled in the Agricultural Hall yesterday afternoon. Among them were Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, Count and Countess Tornielli, accompanied by members of the Italian Embassy, the Turkish Ambassador, Rustem Pacha, the Greek Minister, the Duke of Westminster, General Hamett, and several colonels commanding regiments whose chosen representatives were to take part in the competition. They watched every event with appreciative interest, and the Duke of Westminster—a celebrated horseman in his day—was especially demonstrative in his admiration of the Musical Ride in which the 17th Lancers display more and more smartness every day. When Lieut.-Colonel Parise—who is the Colonel Onslow of the Italian Army—appeared with Sergeant-Majors Greco, of the Government School at Rome, Santelli of the Grenadiers, Drosi of the 6th Infantry, and Torricelli of the Savoy cavalry regiment, they were heartily cheered, and the dexterity of the four swordsmen with foil and sabre justified all the expectations that had been formed. The prolonged fencing bout between Sergeant-Majors Greco and Santelli was marked by many brilliant passages of arms, and it is a pity that some people among the assembled crowd who could not understand the subtle art of such swordsmen gave expression to a desire for something more exciting.⁴

The main event, however, happened a week later on the 30th:

Then the fencing instructors of the Italian Army, directed by Lieutenant Colonel Parise, gave a special display of fencing and swordsmanship, designed chiefly to show the importance of the foil as a commencement of training in swordsmanship, inasmuch as it is by the use of the foil that a thorough knowledge of distance, time, and speed is acquired. Colonel Parise explained in French, at some length, the modes of training in the Italian Fencing Schools, for which, he contended, that it was both simpler and more scientific than the methods usually approved of in other countries. He subsequently, with Sergeant Major Greco and Sergeant Major Torricelli, gave practical illustrations with foil and sabre of the Italian style. It was seen that they use a convex shell for the hilt, as a means of diverting a thrust, as, because of that form, a very slight movement of the hand or arm turned aside an opponent's point. Another detail was that while 'en garde' the weight of the body should be evenly distributed between the two legs, instead of placing too much weight on either, and that the arm should be slightly bent instead of straight. He said that advances were better made by short steps than by a long stride. Comparing the Italian practice with that of the French school, he explained that whereas the Italians only use four 'parades' the French use eight. In his country the movements were made, not so much by wrist action, as by a turn of the arm. Another point of some interest was that instead of parrying a cut they returned in certain cases a thrust depending upon the element of time to render their opponent's attack valueless. Somewhat similar observations were made by Colonel Parise prior to engaging with Sergeant Greco in a bout of sword v. sword. The exhibition of swordsmanship was concluded by showing the Italian system of cavalry sword exercise, which, however, did not seem to have the same merit as the really excellent system of training for the exercises of the infantry.⁵

Ignoring the journalist's apparent slight confusion between the foil and sabre demonstrations, it would no doubt have given any Radaellian observers back home some smug satisfaction at the comments made regarding Parise's cavalry sabre system (also repeated in several other English newspapers), which had only recently been approved by the Italian Ministry of War after years of modification.

The Italians also took a visit to the fencing club in St. James' later that same day, and took a visit to the Aldershot school on the invitation of General Evelyn Wood three days later, followed by lunch at the house of Colonel Fox. On the following day, Colonel Tully presented the Italians with a silver cup on behalf of Prince Edward, as well as commemorative silver cigarette cases to each of the four young masters.⁶

Despite the warm reception they received throughout all their visits and public appearances, the apathy towards the Italian fencers among a certain percentage of the public during the exhibitions did not go unnoticed by journalists. In a rather scathing indictment of the British public, an Italian magazine stated that the Italian masters chose a bad audience to display their talents to, claiming that 'in England, except for Egerton Castle, Captain Hutton, and the two French masters who teach in London, we believe there are fewer than ten other people capable of distinguishing a disengagement from a direct thrust or a coupé from a feint by glide, or even from a traversone'.⁷

The reaction among the Italians was nevertheless largely positive, even from the factions opposing Parise and his supporters, although there was of course some disappointment that the Ministry of War had not sent some renowned representatives of the Radaellian school such as Pecoraro, Arista or Rossi.

Having seen the British perspective on Italian fencing as shown by Parise and his party, the Italian magazine Baiardo soon after received the following letter from a correspondent in London giving an Italian perspective on British fencing:

I hasten to reply to your letter by telling you what you asked for in a few words.

The expectations of seeing four Italian masters fence were immense, so much so that there were no empty seats on that day at the racecourse.

After having done the first demonstrations with the sabre, they received congratulations in abundance, and from what I understood the audience were surprised to see that the Italians acknowledged the blows they received, and surprised to see them fence with only a mask and glove, since the English strike wildly,⁸ being in the habit of covering themselves with huge masks, double-layered protection,⁹ leather jackets, and a cushion fitted to the right leg, since they also strike at the legs.

In bouting, the English take the measure such that the points of the blades touch the guards, then they take a step back and place themselves on guard. To attack, both opponents take a step forward, and without any study they cut at the same time, such that for them a double touch is always the order of the day.

On what basis the jury judges these bouts, embellished with doubles, without ever seeing a clean cut, I just cannot understand; nevertheless, they were quite rightly surprised to see the Italian masters bout without even the slightest double, constantly maintaining measure.

For the sword, I will tell you that what most impressed the English was their fencing in-line,¹⁰ something that the English do not do, using the sword in a similar manner to the sabre.

Greco then also enchanted the audience with his quick and secure parries, his immense attacking speed, and the suddenness in the execution of his actions.

Our fencers also went to test themselves at the Fencing Club and bouted with the amateurs there (partly less incorrect than the fencers seen at the tournament), and even there the English were impressed with the handling of both the sabre and sword through their powerful attacks, the speed of their parries and ripostes, the remises, as well as the continuous inchiodature¹¹ (!), as soon as they moved to attack.

While Santelli of the Grenadiers fenced sabre with one of these amateurs, I heard one of them say a sentence in English which, translated literally into Italian, would be ‘By Jove, I have never seen a fencer of this strength!’ and stated earlier that in 10 minutes Santelli would have dealt about forty cuts over his whole body.

With Greco and Drosi then bouting each other, everyone stood with their noses in the air and mouths wide open on seeing them fence, and for every blow they all exchanged glances in approval of what they saw.

On the penultimate day Cav. Parise and Greco, in the presence of 300 spectators (all invited for this demonstration), presented themselves on the piste to demonstrate the Italian method.

Parise explained the actions in French, and with mathematical precision Greco produced them.

In this demonstration there were the usual compliments and felicitations for their manner of giving lessons, for the precision of their movements, for the speed of their actions and also for their manner of advancing on guard—that is, the step forward and lunge, the pattinando.

On the same day Torricelli of the 3rd Cavalry appeared, doing demonstrations of sabre on horseback according to the Parise method, and I will also say that this bold and powerful young man received the most lively and enthusiastic part of the huge applause.

From exercise to exercise Torricelli came to the charge, in which the vehemence of his cuts aroused another salvo of applause, which was repeated resoundingly for his last exercise in which, with the sabre fixed against the target, the sabre was literally bent in two.

I will now end this letter of mine, in which I was not interested in writing what either the Daily Chronicle or the Standard already told the Italian press, since at this point they are things that everyone knows, assuring you that both Greco and Torricelli were eagerly asked to stay in London to teach Italian fencing, an invitation which Greco declined for various reasons which do him the highest honour; as for Torricelli I do not know the answer, but here in London it is hoped that he will accept and we Italians will then have the pride, as we have in past centuries, to see our masters teach the handling of arms to other nations.¹²

For the partisans of the Neapolitan school of fencing, the Italian demonstrations in London would have served as some amount of vindication for the master's school in Rome, whose image had taken a hit as a result of the reforms to Parise's sabre method forced upon it by the Ministry of War over the previous years.

1 Francis Vere Wright, The broadsword as taught by the celebrated Italian masters, signors Masiello and Ciullini of Florence (London: W. H. Allen, 1889).^↩
2 War Office, Infantry sword exercise 1895 (London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1895).^↩
3 L'Italia del Popolo, 22 May 1892.^↩
4 London Daily News, 24 May 1892, 6.^↩
5 London Evening Standard, 31 May 1892, 3.^↩
6 Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 11 June 1892, 476.^↩
7 Scherma Italiana, 2 July 1892, 52.^↩
8 'da orbi' — Literally 'like blind men'.^↩
9 'corazze doppie' — For the Italians, a corazza was a tough, generally tightly-woven fabric which served as an extra layer of protection and padding for the fencer's dominant side. It served a similar purpose to what a modern under-plastron is used for in fencing today.^↩
10 i.e. the typical Italian guard position of keeping the arm almost fully extended at all times.^↩
11 Literally 'nailings' or 'nailing-downs', this term is likely referring to the Italian preference for counter-attacking, particularly in foil fencing.^↩
12 "Come tirano gl'inglesi," Baiardo: periodico schermistico quindicinale, 8 July 1892, 25–6.^↩