Neapolitan Dueling Epee
The city of Naples in the Southern Italian region of Campania has been one of
the most active centers for Italian swords arts in the last 300 years. Virtually untouched by the
French tradition--which starting in the 18th Century had permeated many of Italy's Northern
schools--fencing in Naples has remained one of the last pockets of the truly Italian arts.
Dueling has also been a deeply-rooted tradition in Naples, with famous
recorded (and often even photographed) deadly encounters taking place well into the 20th Century.
The unbending sense of honor of Neapolitan gentlemen, coupled with the confidence of a fencing
style that ranks among the most effective in the world, had created a fertile ground for the
dueling culture.
Indeed, there are accounts of numerous French Napoleonic officers picking
fights with their Neapolitan colleagues at the beginning of the 19th Century, only to find
themselves outmatched by the Southern Italians' spirited and forceful style. One of the traits
of the Neapolitan tradition is that those who taught it and learned it considered it strictly
a serious and realistic martial art. In this sense, we have even heard reports of students
preferring to practice outdoors (even on sloping and uneven terrain) and under a beating
Mediterranean sun to ensure that no artificial conditions would creep into their fencing.
As far as we have evidence, the Southern Italian tradition came into its
own around the middle of the 17th Century, when authors such as Vallardita and Pallavicini, both
Sicilian, published their treatises. The Neapolitan tradition in particular (again, as far as
the direct evidence we were able to examine), begins to show its influence around the mid-1700s,
with influential masters such as Tommaso Bosco e Fucile as well as Alessio di Trano.
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It is in the 19th-Century, however, that the most valuable Neapolitan
treatises were written, starting with the voluminous tome La Scienza della Scherma by
Giuseppe Rosaroll-Scorza and Pietro Grisetti (1803) and ending with, most notably, Masaniello
Parise's great 1883 work Trattato di Scherma. It was Masaniello Parise's teachings that
were selected by the Italian Ministry of War to become the standard curriculum of the Scuola
Magistrale, the first Italian national school which produced numerous incomparable
fencing champions throughout its existence.
In this sense, Masaniello Parise's instruction has been elevated to the
rank of the Italian Classical style--meaning that it is the pure essence of Italian swordsmanship
both factually and pedagogically. The Classical style differs from both what came before and
what came after. It is different from its 17th-Century counterpart in the sense that it is
organized in a more systematic pedagogical fashion. And it is different from more modern forms
of fencing in the sense that it is still--strictly--a serious and deadly martial art. This is
what we love about the Neapolitan tradition: its pure, effective Italian essence as well as
the absolute pedagogical genius of those like Parise who passed it down in written form.
Suggestions for further reading and discussion:
Our Classical Neapolitan Epee Work
Our primary source for this style is Masaniello Parise's work. In 1883, Parise authored of one
of the most comprehensive swordsmanship curricula of which we have evidence. In the Spring of 2007, Tom Leoni and Steven Reich have enrolled in the San Jose State Military Fencing Program, which is America's premier center for Classical Neapolitan-style fencing pedagogy.
The weapon we use for Masaniello Parise's Neapolitan style is a dish-hilted
epee featuring a ricasso, two arms, a pair of short quillons and blade of approximately 35 inches
in length. We tie this weapon to our wrist by means of a silk or cloth band measuring approximately
5 feet in length, in one of three ways prescribed by Parise himself.
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