Barbasetti

Luigi Barbasetti
Born	21.02.1859 Cividale del Friuli
Died	31.03.1948 Verona
Occupation	Fencing master
Nationality	Italian
Alma mater	Scuola Magistrale di Scherma
Influences	Guiseppe Radaelli Masaniello Parise
Genres	Fencing manual
Language	Italian

Luigi Barbasetti was an Italian fencing master. After his

Barbasetti, was decisively influenced by his first fencing master Guiseppe Radaelli in Milan and completed his training as a fencing master at the Scuola Magistrale Militare di Roma under Masaniello Parise before moving on to Trieste, where contact with Austro-Hungarian officers and especially Erzherzog Franz Salvator von Österreich-Toskana should open the way for him to Vienna. At a fencing tournament in Prague in 1895, Barbasetti's private students immediately performed so well that Barbasetti was subsequently entrusted with restructuring fencing training at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt. Barbasetti's evolution of the Radaellan school of fencing spread rapidly throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire and had a decisive influence on the style of fencing at the beginning of the 20th century, even beyond the borders of Austria-Hungary, which is why he is often referred to as a reformer of fencing.

The treatise discusses the sword alone and the sword and dagger, and appears to develop the ideas presented by Salvator Fabris and Ridolfo Capoferro. Specifically: Ceresa describes a passing play from out of measure, reminiscent of the andare di risolutione from Fabris’ Book II, although Ceresa employs quarta as opposed to the terza preferred by Fabris; and Ceresa nominates a fifth and sixth guard (in addition to the usual four) which appear to correspond to these guards as presented by Capoferro.