Fencing in the Treccani Encyclopedia

In the Italian-speaking world, Treccani's Enciclopedia Italiana is what the Encyclopedia Britannica is, or rather was, to the English speaking world before the Internet Age. Published in 35 volumes between 1929 and 1937, the Treccani Encyclopedia brought together some of the most renowned minds that Italy had to offer. Importantly for this blog, the two authors that were invited to write on the topic of fencing, contained in volume 31, were two people that should be very familiar to readers: Jacopo Gelli and Nedo Nadi.

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Jacopo Gelli (who died the year before this volume's publication) gives his customary historical summary, somewhat glossing over the Neapolitan tradition and curiously ending at Marchionni. Nedo Nadi, on the other hand, describes the sport as it was in the 1930s, giving an overview of technique, terminology, conventions, and Italy's global competitive achievements. Of course Nadi does not miss the opportunity to include some of his own views on the most recent developments in the sport; for example, he states that modern developments in épée fencing, such as the disappearance of single-touch bouts, mean that épée 'as it is practised in sporting competitions betrays the end for which it was created.' He then alludes to a proposal that was apparently being discussed at the time to introduce some form of convention to épée fencing, but this obviously did not come to fruition.

In the discipline of sabre, Nadi admits that the Hungarians had 'sometimes' surpassed the Italians, but asserts the sabre still remains a 'typically Italian weapon', and that around the world it is Italian fencing masters who are most highly prized. As for technique, he shares the Hungarian view that neither the 1st-2nd or the 3rd-4th parrying system is better than the other, and that the best fencers do not rigidly adhere to only one set of parries.

Then as now, Nadi considered sabre fencing to be the most impressive discipline to watch from a layman's perspective, despite the gradual changes in its technique:

The wide and spectacular sabre play which delighted enthusiasts of the past century is by now condemned by modern methods, more adherent to the competitive aim; nevertheless sabre remains the preferred weapon of the layman who, in its wide play and materiality of the blow, has a way to more easily able to follow the happenings of a bout.

This could be read as a somewhat romanticised view of the Radaellian era in Nedo's early youth, with its larger sabres and wide cuts.

The text is complemented with photos demonstrating how all three weapons are gripped as well as the typical parrying positions in foil and sabre. Most of the photos, to my knowledge, are not found outside of this Encyclopedia. The entry on fencing ends with a short, uncredited overview of the history of stick fencing.