Italian Martial Arts

Discussion in 'Western Martial Arts' started by Kemposhot, Jan 22, 2011.

  1. Kemposhot

    Kemposhot Valued Member

    Had this conversation with a friend the other night. Does anyone know of any Italian Martial Arts whether they be armed or unarmed? I used google but really could not find all that much. Thanks!
     
  2. Polar Bear

    Polar Bear Moved on

    Fiore, longsword, dagger and wrestling.
    Vadi Longsword.
    Capo Ferro rapier.

    Medieval and Renaisance starter for 10.

    Older than all that eastern muck :D
    The Bear.
     
  3. emaaoz

    emaaoz Valued Member

    The Bolognese or Dardi school has a large number of sources from Manciolino and Marrozzo through to dall'Agocchie. It is probably fair to say that the system is based around the single handed sword and various secondary weapons.

    There is also Fiore (numerous different manuscripts) covering unarmed through to armoured poleaxe fighting. Some say Vadi's system is based on Fiore, some say he is closer to Dardi, myself I don't know enough about it to comment.

    Then of course there is the Rapier stuff, Saviolo to Fabris and many many others describing a variety of different approaches to combat.

    And this doesn't even begin to discuss Monte's work.

    So in summary there are a lot of different approaches covering a lot of different weapons and even unarmed/dagger.
     
  4. boards

    boards Its all in the reflexes!

    I believe there is still a couple of old great stick fighting methods passed on in small areas, someone on here posted about them last year IIRC. Modern fencing has been heavily influenced by Italians, though I don't know how much difference remains between the Italian stlyle and the French style (they have different grips at least), Mitlov might be able to tell you more on that.
     
  5. Langenschwert

    Langenschwert Molon Labe

    Bastone Genovese: http://bastonegenovese.gipoco.com/index.php?lang=2

    Best regards,

    -Mark
     
  6. Kemposhot

    Kemposhot Valued Member

  7. Devon

    Devon Valued Member

    Travelling in Italy, I've had brief seminar and private training in several styles of traditional Italian stick and knife fighting. It's excellent stuff, but little-known even in Italy and in danger of extinction because most of the practitioners are old men these days - their grandkids are more interested in MTV and Playstations. There are a couple of younger guys who are making a serious effort to travel around and record the old masters on video, etc.
     
  8. Kemposhot

    Kemposhot Valued Member

    Good to hear that some of this stuff is going to be preserved. I'd love to travel and study in arts such as these someday. Sounds like quite the experience.
     
  9. lklawson

    lklawson Valued Member

    This seems to be a common story around the globe.

    Peace favor your sword,
    Kirk
     
  10. Mitlov

    Mitlov Shiny

    I don't know much of the history side, but Italy and France are the dual Meccas of modern fencing. The Italian grip isn't really used by modern competitors anymore, but the first and most popular pistol grip was invented by an Italian (Visconti) and is still named after him. My profile pic has a Visconti-gripped epee.

    France v. Italy for men's epee gold in Beijing 2008:

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpo7O8SVRVQ"]YouTube - Beijing 2008 - MEI - GOLD - Tagliariol ITA v Jeannet F FRA - 1 of 2[/ame]

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoESlHlWxC8"]YouTube - Beijing 2008 - MEI - GOLD - Tagliariol ITA v Jeannet F FRA - 2 of 2[/ame]
     
  11. Kemposhot

    Kemposhot Valued Member

    That's pretty interesting! It's interesting to hear that, especially when France seems to get a lot of the credit with modern Fencing.
     
  12. Mitlov

    Mitlov Shiny

    Anyone who doesn't give Italy heaps of credit for modern fencing is crazy.

    Visconti? Italian. (And most modern fencers use pistol grips, all of which are variations on the original Visconti grip; only about 10-20% of modern competitive epeeists use French grips anymore, and the French grip has all but disappeared from competitive foil).

    Italo Santelli, "the father of modern saber fencing"? Italian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italo_Santelli

    Aldo Nadi, legend among legends? Italian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldo_Nadi

    Valentina Vezzali, most medal-winning Olympic fencer of all time (I think)? Italian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Vezzali

    As to overall Olympic medal counts, for men, Italy and France are neck and neck, and nobody else is close. For women, Italy is in first place.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...(men)#All-time_medal_table_-_Mens_-_1896-2008

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...#All-time_medal_table_-_Women.27s_-_1924-2008
     
  13. boards

    boards Its all in the reflexes!

    I watched Valentina Vezzali fence in Jesi (I lived about an hour away in Italy). She was unbelievable.:cool:
     
  14. Humblebee

    Humblebee PaciFIST's evil twin

    Greco Roman wrestling.
     
  15. boards

    boards Its all in the reflexes!

    Is of French origins if I remember correctly.
     
  16. Mitlov

    Mitlov Shiny

    :eek:

    Had no idea, but you're right:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Roman_wrestling#History
     
  17. Humblebee

    Humblebee PaciFIST's evil twin

    Well-who'd have thought.
     
  18. Humblebee

    Humblebee PaciFIST's evil twin

    Arte Del abbracciare:
    ("art of the embrace") is a medieval Italian form of unarmed combat presented in Fiore dei Liberi's Flos Duellatorum del Armis, published in 1410.

    Arte Della Daga:
    The Italian Arte della Daga is a method of dagger combat which also included unarmed defense against the dagger.

    The art of "bastone" (stick/cane fighting)
    several styles such as
    - bastone pugliese
    - bastone siciliano (or paranza)
    - bastone napoletano (or U taccaro)

    S'istrumpa
    old style of Sardinian wrestling

    Cimento (or steccado)
    old style venetian bare knuckle boxing

    Novascrimia:
    Modern italian martial art based on medieval forms of combat.

    Pugilatus cestis:
    i believe some martial artists are trying to reconstruct what was the ancient roman boxing syle

    Scherma (fencing)
    several styles exist, mostly regional (northern and southern)

    arrivederci
     
  19. Humblebee

    Humblebee PaciFIST's evil twin

  20. invisi

    invisi Valued Member

    Here is a taster of a italian knife combat form:

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT83a9BxDJo"]Italian Knife Combat[/ame]

    Master Angelo Karate/Kali, other very informative videos too.
     

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