Direct cuts in Radaellian sabre

Depending on your definition of a direct cut, your view on how prevalent such cuts are in Radaellian sabre fencing may lie anywhere on a spectrum between 'common' and 'non-existent'.

Although the characteristic cuts in Radaelli sabre are generally considered to be molinelli and coupés, in addition to these the Radaellian authors Masiello, Barbasetti, and Pecoraro and Pessina all describe a another kind of cut they call 'direct cuts'. Masiello defines them thus:

A direct cut is said to be that which is given by making one's own weapon travel the shortest path while it is clear of the opponent's blade.¹

Barbasetti:

When the sabre follows the shortest way—the straight line—to strike your adversary, the blow is called "direct cut."²

Pecoraro and Pessina:

A direct cut is that which, without a circular movement of the point, arrives at the target through the shortest path, when it is not precluded by the opponent's blade.³

These similar definitions on their own would not be at odds with most modern fencing texts; where the differences arise from, however, is in the practical application from some Radaellians. For example, take Masiello's direct cut to the head from the invitation or parry of 3rd:

The hand is turned into third without lowering the elbow, the arm is bent slightly to give greater violence to the blow, and by forcefully extending it again the cut is given in a vertical direction to the opponent's head, and the arm and sabre take the position of the second tempo of the molinello to the head.⁴

The slight bend which precedes the actual cut is also described in Barbasetti's treatise, including in the direct ripostes. In the eyes of some modern readers, this preparatory movement precludes it from being a true direct cut, requiring a continuous forward movement of the hand from the start to the end of the action. Pecoraro and Pessina, on the other hand, do not mention this kind of preparatory movement:

The direct cut to the head is done in a vertical direction, performing it from the guard of second or third, or from one's own invitation, in a single movement, turning the hand into third position and with speed and elasticity extending the arm, which together with the sabre should end up in the same position as the second tempo of the molinello to the head from the left.⁵

While this movement is closer to the modern idea of a direct cut, not all agreed that this action alone was satisfactory as a cut. Masiello in particular decried this type of direct cut, saying that since the arm was already extended in the guard, the prescription to extend the arm in the cut was meaningless, and that the arm should be bent first as is commonly done in order to increase the 'useful effect' of the cut.⁶

One might conclude from all this that direct cuts are a later addition to Radaellian sabre, but on close examination of other treatises in the tradition, we find significant evidence of direct cuts being done since the beginning, even if not explicitly called as such.

One example of this can be seen in the riposte to the flank from parry of 5th. This riposte is included in all the Radaellian treatises, with Masiello, Barbasetti, and Pecoraro/Pessina all listing it as a direct cut, but neither Del Frate nor Bruno specifying what type of cut it is.⁷ Rossi calls it a riposte by coupé, however, his definition of a coupé merely involving the sabre being brought back before the cut (not necessarily changing lines relative to the opponent's blade) would largely agree with how Masiello and Barbasetti describe direct cuts.⁸

Similar examples are also found for the riposte to the outside face from parry of 2nd, riposte to the flank from parry of 1st, riposte to the chest from parry of 6th, and the riposte to the head from parry of low 3rd or low 4th, although the Radaellians do not all always agree on what ripostes can be done from each parry.

One reason for direct cuts not being defined in explicit terms may be due to whether the individual author preferred the arm to be bent or extended in the parries.

As previously stated, neither Del Frate, Rossi nor Bruno define direct cuts, yet all three authors prefer bent-arm parries, whilst the other authors who explicitly define direct cuts all prefer more extended parries. If Masiello's aim with bending the arm slightly before giving the direct cut was to 'give greater violence to the blow', such a prescription would perhaps seem unnecessary if the original parry position was sufficiently bent already.

Both illustrations are depicting the same parry, that being parry of 1st, with Rossi's illustration on the left having a fully bent arm, and Masiello's on the right with the arm fully extended.

This does not explain why some did not describe direct cuts from the guard positions, and so it remains a good reminder that although the Radaellians agreed on a greater number of fundamental principles, they nevertheless all had their own preferences and divergences.

To see an example of what these forearm-driven direct cuts may have looked like, one need look no further than Italo Santelli's star pupil, Attila Petschauer, seen here at the start of the video giving a direct cut to the head from guard of 3rd at 0:20, followed by a direct cut to the outside face at 0:24. Many direct cuts as ripostes may be found throughout the video.

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1 Ferdinando Masiello, La scherma italiana di spada e di sciabola (Florence: Stabilimento Tipografico G. Civelli, 1887), 408.^↩
2 Luigi Barbasetti, The art of the sabre and the épée (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1936), 29.^↩
3 Salvatore Pecoraro & Carlo Pessina, La Scherma di Sciabola: Trattato Teorico-Pratico (Viterbo: Tipografia G. Agnesotti, 1912), 61.^↩
4 Masiello, Scherma italiana, 409. The 'second tempo of the molinello to the head' is merely saying that the arm is fully extended forward, edge down, hand at head height.^↩
5 Pecoraro and Pessina, Scherma di Sciabola, 64.^↩
6 Ferdinando Masiello, La Scherma di Sciabola: Osservazioni sul Trattato dei Maestri Pecoraro e Pessina, Vice-Direttori della Scuola Magistrale militare di Scherma (Florence: G. Ramella, 1910), 75.^↩
7 See the synoptic tables in Settimo Del Frate, Istruzione per maneggio e scherma della sciabola (Florence: Tipografia, lit. e calc. la Venezia, 1868), 58; Nicolò Bruno, Risorgimento della vera scherma di sciabola italiana basata sull'oscillazione del Pendolo (Novara: Tipografia Novarese, 1891), 238.^↩
8 Giordano Rossi, Manuale teorico-pratico per la scherma di spada e sciabola con cenni storici sulle armi e sulla scherma e principali norme pel duello (Milan: Fratelli Dumolard Editori, 1885), 168.^↩