The Art of the Dueling Sabre Hardcover – September 15, 2011

I come from a modern sabre background but have a keen interest in historical sabre usage and this book is probably the clearest text you can find on the Radaelli style of sabre usage. It includes a translation of an Italian military sabre manual along with copious addendums, footnotes, and tables detailing drills and exercises. Top notch stuff.A quick caution for "casual" readers, this book will be quite difficult if you do not already have at least a sport fencing background. If a phrase such as "From the parry of 1st, the student can pass to the parries of 3rd, 3rd low, 5th and 2nd" doesn't mean anything to you, you should probably spend some time reviewing an introductory (modern) sabre text or video. This book assumes you understand basic fencing concepts of distance, tempo, bladework, and the associated terms that come with it.My only criticism for the text is the awkward way plates and figures are handled. I understand that Holzman did this as the original text only had 10 plates and was similarly arranged -- but this leads to some cumbersome reading for the modern reader. All the plates are arranged in foldouts at the very end of the text. The plates are frequently referred to within the text, and I find myself flipping often between the text and the end foldouts to try to decipher the movement.Following the plates is quite important as the Radaelli style of sabre usage is quite different from the modern sport sabre style or even the style of usage advocated by Hutton in "Cold Steel". The parry positions are similar but different enough that one should spend some time in the first reading in this section alone and understanding the differences. Particularly different is the use of the elbow for blows for wide moulinets, something that will be foreign to modern fencers whose cuts are more in the style of push-cuts (referred to as coupe within the text.)This is where the historical plates become difficult. I found myself referring often to these plates for the moulinets and the sforzo instruction, but the plates are a limited number of drawings showing static positions, usually simply beginning and ending position, with the actual action left to the imagination of the reader. Again, this is a reflection of the historical text, but it is somewhat difficult for the modern reader since this text assumes some prior understanding of moulinets already. I ended up referring to Barbasetti's "Art of the Sabre and Epee" and it's photographic series for more detail.In summary, I loved this book. It is an invaluable historical reference that has yet to find peer in the current literature. For future editions, I would recommend that the author break-up the plates from the fold out and place them directly within the text. For his supplement section, it would be nice to include a photographic *series* illustrating step-by-step some of the more foreign concepts to the modern reader.But if you are at all interested in historical sabre, you should get this book.

This work was a labour of love for the author. It is a translation of key Italian military manuals on the use of the sabre which are the foundation of both modern sport fencing and its historical counterpart. It is also the last link in a lineage that goes back to the establishment of the Italians as the masters of the military weapon and its civilian counterpart. Mr Holzman is the student of William Gaugler, who was a student of Giorgio Santelli, whose father, Italo Santelli, was one of the founders of the Hungarian school. The book not only is a translation of Capt Settimo del Frate's manual, but a clearly written step-by-step method of learning the dueling sabre. Included are synoptic tables of exercises which, when learned, will raise one's mastery of the weapon to a new level.

What an excellent book, if you have any intrest in Sabre or Sword this is a must have book. I find myself not able to put it down, the author shines a bright light on an ancient art. As a martial arts instructor i find this book most beneficial for anyone that picks up a sword regardless of what style you practice, i have no doubts in highly recommending this wonderful book

Good book, great amount of work done! A must for all the people interested in dueling sabre fencing ....