Teoría de la esgrima by Horacio Levene

Although it has been well over two years since I had an opportunity to talk about Italian fencing in Argentina, my silence on the fascinating history of fencing in South America has primarily been caused by the difficulty in obtaining copies of the relevant works from the early 20th century. To address this drought I present today Horacio Levene's Teoría de la esgrima, a foil treatise published in 1929 in Buenos Aires.

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As Levene states in the preface, this book was adopted as the official text of the Argentinian military's fencing and gymnastics school, of which he was the director at the time of publication. Born in 1883, Levene was himself a graduate of the school, first entering its halls in 1901, after which he was posted to several different regiments, military schools, and at one point even a navy frigate, all of which he lists at the beginning of the book along with the civilian clubs he had taught at.¹ His diligent work was rewarded in 1923 when he was appointed as the army's inspector of gymnastics and fencing, and three years later he became director of the fencing and gymnastics school itself. In addition to his work on fencing, Levene made notable contributions to the field of gymnastics in Argentina and also wrote a duelling code that saw several republications during his lifetime.² He died in 1960.

As would be expected, Levene's method inherits much from the father of Italian fencing in Argentina, Eugenio Pini, and it retains a distinctly Italian character.³ Levene mostly repeats much of Pini's particular terminology, such as the term reccoglimento for the envelopment and the distinction between counter and half-counter parries, but includes some of his own modifications, such as the additional parries of 6th (a supinated 2nd) and 5th (equivalent to that used in Italian sabre).

The most unique feature of this treatise is in the second half, which was written almost entirely by Levene's 3rd-year students at the Argentinian military master's school. The first technique is described by Levene, who provides the structure that is then repeated by his students. Each one outlines the tactical applications of a specific technique (or combination thereof) and give notes for the instructor to take into account when teaching it.

The final page of the book refers to synoptic tables of actions that were supposed to follow, but these are missing in my copy. I presume that they were either removed at some point in this book's life, or, alternatively, they were perhaps never present at all. As the title page of the book states, this particular printing was the 'provisional edition', thus there may have been later printings that included the tables, but this is of course mere conjecture. If readers are aware of any other exemplars of this seemingly rather rare book, I would be very interested to know if they differ at all.

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1 Alejo Levoratti and Diego Roldán, "Los batallones escolares de la patria. Estudio comparado de las representaciones sobre el cuerpo y el entrenamiento de los maestros de esgrima del centenario en la República Argentina," Revista História da Educação 23 (2019): 23–4, https://doi.org/10.1590/2236-3459/88977.^↩
2 Some of Levene's other publications: La esgrima y el duelo: espada de combate (Buenos Aires: n. p., 1914); Duelo: manual de procedimiento (Buenos Aires: Fueyo, 1917); Gimnasia metodizada (Orientación integral humana, 1939).^↩
3 See Eugenio Pini, La esgrima de espada (Buenos Aires: Félix Lajouane, 1902). The treatise was subsequently republished in 1905 by Maucci in both Barcelona and Buenos Aires. The Italian version edition is Trattato pratico e teorico sulla scherma di spada (Livorno: Raffaello Giusti, 1904).^↩

Radaellian sabre in Argentina

Among the many corners of the world which felt the influence of Italian fencing at the turn of the 20th century, South America is arguably one that deserves much greater attention in the Anglophone sphere of historical fencing. In my own modest attempt to contribute, today I will be sharing two sabre treatises from Argentina, both published in 1928 and both detailing distinctly Radaellian methods.

Students of the Argentinian military fencing master's school, with its director Eugenio Pini on the far left (1899)

The first of these is entitled Esgrima del sable, written by Italian expat Escipión Ferretto (a Spanishified version of his Italian name, Scipione Ferretto).

Click here to view Ferretto's book.

This book is an updated version of his 1901 treatise Esgrima italiana: primer tratado completo sobre esgrima de sable publicado en castellano ('Italian fencing: first complete treatise on sabre fencing published in Castilian'), referenced in the glowing reviews in the introduction. Despite the title of the 1901 version, it was certainly not the first sabre treatise published in Castilian Spanish, nor was it even the first Italian sabre treatise published in Argentina, as a Spanish translation of Masaniello Parise's Trattato teorico-pratico della scherma di spada e sciabola saw publication in 1896.¹ It does, however, appear to have been the first Radaellian sabre treatise to be published in Spanish.

Parries of 5th, 6th, and 7th

Ferretto reveals his Radaellian influence immediately in the dedication, saying that his material is 'the fruit of a wide and serious evolution of the magnificent works of the unforgettable founder of sabre fencing, Prof. Radaelli, and of the famous master Masiello.' The work of the latter master is very much apparent throughout Ferretto's text in both structure and content, with several sections being merely abbreviated Spanish translations of those in Masiello's book.

Cut to the flank

The earliest mention of Scipione Ferretto I have found so far is his participation at an exhibition in Verona in 1888, then an amateur student of Radaellian master Federico Giroldini in Vicenza. Three years later he is still living in Vicenza, but with Giroldini having since moved to Mantua Ferretto appears to have taken over the role of teaching at the local fencing club, but still as an amateur.² 

By 1896 he had moved to Argentina and found employment there as a fencing master, joining the ranks of other Italian masters that had been immigrating there in the late 19th century. Recognising the need for fencing masters in the army, Ferretto submitted a request to the Argentinian army chief of staff, eventually leading to a fencing and gymnastics master's school being founded in late 1897 under the leadership of Eugenio Pini. Little wonder then that Ferretto was among those Pini chose to be assistant instructors at the school.³ He seems to have continued being employed by the military for several decades, teaching at Argentina's military college and naval school as late as 1932.⁴

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The second treatise featured today is Contribución al estudio del arte de la esgrima: el sable ('Contribution to the study of the art of fencing: the sabre') by Juan Bay.

Click here to view Bay's book.

Juan Bay, Jr.

Juan Bay was the son of an Italian veteran of the Risorgimento and fencing master of the same name who immigrated to Argentina in 1870.⁵ Born in 1876, from an early age Juan Jr. was taught fencing by his father and as a young adult was sent to Italy to continue his fencing education under the renowned Radaellians Tito Corsini and Giordano Rossi (or possibly Gaetano Garbagnati) in Milan. On returning to Argentina he continued his training under the various Italian masters then in Bueno Aires such as Ernesto De Marinis and Luigi Scarani. Like Ferretto, the talented young Juan Bay was also hired as an assistant instructor at the new Argentinian military fencing master's school (the only Argentinian-born instructor to be hired initially) when it began its first course at the Buenos Aires Jockey Club in 1898, which also gave him ample opportunity to train with its director, Eugenio Pini.⁶

Exhibition in Buenos Aires, October 1895, organised by Ernesto De Marinis (centre, white clothing). Juan Bay is second from the left and Ferretto is third from the right, front row.

In 1902, Bay accompanied Pini on one of his many fencing tours of Europe. Being a natural showman and already well-known and well-loved by much of Europe's fencing scene, Pini actively sought to prove the skill of his protégé, which included issuing an open challenge on behalf of Bay to all French fencers in anticipation for their visit to Paris.⁷ Bay fenced foil with several amateurs and masters in public exhibitions throughout the city and was admired by the French press for his skill and effective adaptation of some aspects of the French method, thus clearly emulating his master Pini.⁸ He met a similar reception in Vienna, this time being matched against other proponents of the Italian school in both foil and sabre.⁹

Bay (left) fencing Prof. Masselin in Paris, January 1902.

Bay remained at the Jockey Club throughout his career, also teaching at other clubs in the city and eventually succeeding Pini as head fencing master there after the latter retired in the 1920s. At the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics Bay accompanied Argentina's fencing team as a coach and saw them achieve an admirable 3rd place in the team foil event.¹⁰

Thrust to the chest or cut to the outside face — Position of the invitation, engagement or parry of third.

Although distinctly Radaellian in his cutting mechanics, Bay does not include all six of the traditional Radaellian molinelli, choosing to omit the molinello to the head from the right and the rising molinello to the abdomen, but adding in two exercises equivalent to the first and second preparatory exercises seen in Pecoraro and Pessina's sabre treatise.¹¹ He names these six exercises 'passages over the opposing weapon' and all together they constitute the 'exercise of conduction and domination of the sabre'.

Horizontal passage to the inside face or chest

Both Ferretto and Bay's lives and writings deserve a more in-depth treatment than anything I can currently provide, and I hope in future to be able to provide some more context around the publication of these books, such as determining whether one was published in response to the other or if them being published in the same year was merely a coincidence. As always, readers with more knowledge on this subject are highly encouraged to leave a comment or reach out to me.

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1 Masaniello Parise, Tratado de esgrima teórico-praticó, trans. Sócrates Pelanda Ponce (Buenos Aires: Julio Ghio, 1896).^↩
2 John Sportsman, "Accademia a Verona," Lo Sport Illustrato, 11 February 1888, 71; "Notiziario," Baiardo: periodico schermistico bimensile, 8 August 1891, 8.^↩
3 Alejo Levoratti and Diego Roldán, "Los batallones escolares de la patria. Estudio comparado de las representaciones sobre el cuerpo y el entrenamiento de los maestros de esgrima del centenario en la República Argentina," Revista História da Educação 23, no. 1 (2019): 9, http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2236-3459/88977.^↩
4 "Répertoire des Maîtres et Professeurs abonnés," L'Escrime et le Tir, December 1932, 4.^↩
5 "Los "gironi" del Club de Esgrima," Caras y Caretas, 2 November 1902, 26; "La morte del maestro Bay a Buenos Ayres," La Gazzetta dello Sport, 9 February 1903, 2; Juan José de Soiza Reilly, "Cien años de esgrima en la República Argentina: A través de los maestros y de los alumnos," Caras y Caretas, 29 October 1932.^↩
6 D'Artagnan, "Torneo di maestri a Buenos-Ayres," La Gazzetta dello Sport, 22 November 1901, 2; Jean Joseph-Renaud, "Chronique: Les Grandes Semaines. Les Escrimeurs Argentins à Amsterdam avec Juan Bay," L'Escrime et le Tir, July 1928, 9.^↩
7 Eugenio Pini, "Un défi a sensation," L'Auto-Vélo, 18 January 1902, 1.^↩
8 "Les assauts du Journal," L'Escrime Française, 1 February 1902, 7.^↩
9 "Pini-Barbasetti," Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung, 2 March 1902, 214.^↩
10 Pablo Javier Junco, "Los Camet: una historia olimpica," Fotos Viejas de Mar del Plata (blog), 1 December 2018, http://fotosviejasdemardelplata.blogspot.com/2018/12/los-camet-una-historia-olimpica.html.^↩
11 cf. Salvatore Pecoraro and Carlo Pessina, La Scherma di Sciabola (Tipografia G. Agnesotti: Viterbo, 1912), 31–2.^↩