Sean Newton Sean Newton

Introduction to Radallian Saber and the Research Project

Welcome to the more eccentric corner of Sword Play’s curriculum. While we teach several different weapons, my (that is, Instructor Sean Newton’s) focus throughout my fencing career has largely been on the saber. As part of that focus, I’ve put a lot of time and energy into researching one of the more prominent saber traditions in European swordsmanship, the Radaellian saber.

Welcome to the more eccentric corner of Sword Play’s curriculum. While we teach several different weapons, my (that is, Instructor Sean Newton’s) focus throughout my fencing career has largely been on the saber. As part of that focus, I’ve put a lot of time and energy into researching one of the more prominent saber traditions in European swordsmanship, the Radaellian saber.

While many modern fencers won’t recognize the name, most modern saber systems owe at least some aspect of their training to the Radaellian tradition. This blog and research project is the result of my efforts to investigate and better understand this historically significant and singularly effective tradition. 

So, what is Radaellian saber and why should anyone care? The tradition is named for its founder, Giuseppe Radaelli. This first post will give an overview of his work, his legacy, and the tradition’s history before we start delving into the specifics of technique and training. 

With any system of martial arts, there’s a context in which it was used, a moment in history, a style of combat, an environment it is specialized for, a cultural practice, etc. When trying to understand a new martial art, understanding its context can be very helpful. As a result, we’re going to start with a look at who Radaelli was and why we’re interested in his tradition.

Maestro Radaelli

Maestro Giuseppe Radaelli lived in northern Italy in the mid-1800s. He was most likely part of the middle class, and professionally he was a military master at arms. In other words, he was a soldier in the Italian army whose duties included teaching other soldiers how to use a sword. Specifically, he was teaching instructors who would then go to other units in the army and teach those soldiers in turn. His job was to produce fencing instructors for the Italian army, primarily for the cavalry. 

His tradition is considered to be part of the Northern Italian tradition, and the technique he taught was Franco-Italian, meaning it combined elements of both French and Italian saber systems. At the time, this type of fencing was called the “scuola mista,” or mixed school.

Radaelli was an innovative dude and he saw some flaws in the saber system that he had been originally taught. To correct those flaws, he began experimenting and fiddling, trying new things. He did not precisely invent a wholly new approach but instead combined existing concepts in a new way. 

While Italian traditions of swordsmanship are generally very academic, he appears to have placed a greater emphasis on practical aspects, neglecting the underlying theory. Later, he was criticized pretty heavily for this approach for a variety of reasons.

However, he did end by producing many very skilled swordsmen. Eventually, the Radaellian system was generally acknowledged to be one of the best saber systems at that time, at least in Western Europe. For example, it was adopted wholesale by the British army.

Unlike many innovative Italian masters, Radaelli never produced a text detailing his system. Instead, his students wrote several texts detailing different iterations of his system, since it appears to have changed in some meaningful ways as he experimented and refined things. Many of them also made changes of their own.

The Radaellian Tradition

The 1860s and ‘70s were busy times for a lot of people around the world. In the United States, we were recovering from the Civil War and undergoing Reconstruction.  In Italy, the modern country was forming, uniting the Italian Peninsula into a single, self-governed country for the first time in over 1000 years. 

One thing you have to do when founding a new country is to create some institutions that sort of help define your national character. In the 1870s, it became a priority to create an academy that taught a standard fencing curriculum for all of the different soldiers in the Italian military. The dudes doing the organizing wanted to find a master to head that institution, as well as a textbook for the students to follow.

The whole story of how that choice was made is very political and complex and I’d be lying if I said I understood it fully. However, to understand the history of the Radaellian tradition, there is one key point that is important.

As part of forming a national identity, the country’s leaders wanted a system of swordsmanship that reflected the national character, that was, in some sense, truly Italian. Radaelli’s system, being both Franco-Italian and sort of this weird thing he came up with on his own, did not fit the bill, despite being hugely effective in practice.

Radaellian Saber after Radaelli

By the time the choice was made, Radaelli, who had been chronically ill for several years, had passed away. A southern Italian master, Maestro Mansiello Parise, and his text were chosen to head things up. The Radaellians were out and their system was technically no longer supposed to be taught to the Italian military.

Parise offered a system for the thrusting sword that was superior in every way to Radaelli’s. Additionally, his text was clearly written, internally consistent, and comprehensive. However, while it was seen as being purely Italian, the saber system in Parise’s textbook needed some work. This was a problem, as the saber was the weapon of choice for the military. If Italian soldiers weren’t learning the best saber system possible, that could have meaningful military implications. Those needs superseded any political considerations of what was “truly Italian.”

Because Radaelli’s ideas were so effective, the dudes running the Italian military got a few of Radaelli’s students to help rewrite that part of the textbook and head up the saber program at the school. Their modified version of Radaelli’s system was reinstated as the standard for the Italian military and folded into the Italian National system. Parise’s system for the thrusting sword was combined with Radaelli’s saber, forming an Italian tradition that offered the best of both worlds. As a result, Radaellian largely (though not completely) faded away as an independent tradition. 

Modern Radallian Saber

The impressive reputation of Radaelli’s system remained. The Radaellian tradition is still a living one, taught in several places around the world as part of the larger Italian tradition. In the United States, it’s taught through the Fencing Masters’ Certificate Program in Sonoma, California. Because it’s a living tradition, however, it’s undergone 150 years of changes since Radaelli taught his last lesson.

As a result, there are ongoing attempts at reconstruction of the original saber method based on the texts Radaelli’s students left behind. Of which, this research project is one. Why? Well, mostly because it’s cool and fun. It also helps us understand aspects of the modern tradition and potentially offers ways to improve upon it. 

I should mention that reconstruction efforts are part of the HEMA movement and in large part are thanks to Moniteur Chris Holzman. Moniteur Holzman translated into English one of the key texts for the Radaellian tradition, a book by Settimo Del Frate, which is generally understood to have been written at Radaelli’s direction. Holzman is also part of the living lineage of Radaellian students, through a master named Santelli, so he has a lot to offer on the subject.

My particular study has been on another of Radaelli’s students and his text, Maestro Giordano Rossi. Why I chose him may be a question for another blog. But I’ve been working with his text for a while and I’ve actually almost finished a translation. Any decade now, it’ll be available at a website near you.

When Was Radaellian Saber Used?

Radaellian saber would have been used in two primary contexts. First, it is a system of dueling saber. That means, yes, it was used for dueling. Despite many armies passing regulations against dueling, and all sorts of attempts to outlaw it, duels were still fought in the mid and late 1800s, particularly in Europe, and particularly in southern Europe. There are even cases of official duels for the honor of specific military units and that sort of thing.

So, the system would be used in dueling. It was also intended for use on horseback. Radaelli was a cavalryman and actually fought in battle on a horse, and with a few adjustments, his system was very useful for the cavalry. Or, so I am told, as I don’t ride myself.

Finally, as cavalry became anachronistic and dueling died out, it became an effective method for training competitive fencers. It’s in that form that it has survived into the modern day.

Not to say it was never used in other contexts, but those are the big ones.

Characteristics of Radaellian Saber

Rather than a single system, Radaellian saber has descended to us as a family of related traditions that share a few core principles, including (but not limited to):

  • A teaching method founded upon molinelli, or circular movements of the saber centered around the elbow

  • An emphasis on smooth and fluid movements

  • Little or no bending of the wrist, to keep the edge aligned with the forearm

  • A belief that each blow should potentially remove the opponent from combat

Obviously, many of the defining characteristics include technical details. However, note that the tradition also is defined by how those technical aspects are taught to students.

Radaelli was also known for harboring some strong opinions on what made a good fencer. Those views are incorporated into the tradition and help form new Radaellian fencers’ approach to fencing. For example, one of his most well-known sayings is “La parata non esiste,” or, “The parry does not exist.” This could be interpreted in a variety of ways. However, Radaelli was primarily proposing that an attack launched at the right time and from the right measure will always succeed. Parries only work when the attack is less than perfect.

The Project

I’ve been researching and experimenting with Radaellian saber in different forms for around fifteen or twenty years. Up until now, I’ve been able to share it with some fellow instructors and some of my students, but only in pieces. Those pieces have often been rough, incomplete, and haven’t been based on the fuller understanding of the system I now possess.

The goal of this project is to share the results of my efforts more widely, so that more people can benefit from all of my time and effort. And, frankly, I’m a little worried that I could get hit by a bus (or, more likely where I live, combine harvester) tomorrow and it all dies with me. 

As a result, I will be posting videos, essays, and other information on this blog to share with anyone who might be interested. While I may delve more into the history of the tradition, my intent is to follow Radelli’s example and put a greater focus on the practical aspects of training and using the Radaellian system. Frankly, other folks are better placed to offer a historical perspective. I particularly recommend Sebastien Seager’s Radaellian Scholar blog.

The first topic I intend to tackle are the Radaellian molinelli, which are circular movements, centered at the elbow, that serve to move the saber and form the basic cuts. They are the heart of the system and any understanding of how to fence in a Radaellian manner has to start with them. It’s a big topic, so I’ll probably break it up into several smaller blog posts to keep everything more manageable.

I hope you’ll join me in exploring this fascinating tradition and enjoy learning more about it, and the saber in general. Feel free to post questions, requests, or corrections as we go along. Thanks very much for your attention.

  • Instructor Sean Newton

Read More