10.1.1.7.1.a./10.1.1.8.1. The Old French Parries of Seventh and Eighth

In the early years of the classical period the target at foil extended from the line of the hips to the line of the collar bone (Colmore Dunn 1891).  Various means were used to delineate the lower limit of the target, one, a fencer's belt (Louis Senac is pictured wearing such a belt in his 1904 text), dating back into the 1600s.  The eventual result was the waist length jacket that survived until the introduction of electric sabre.  Having the lower target limit at the waist explains the curious parries of Septime (Seventh) and Octave (Eighth) pictured in a variety of sources ranging from Clarke's The Boys Own Book (1829) through various texts by Benedict (1883), Colmore Dunn (1891), Rondelle (1892), and Grandiere (1906), and including the 1877 French Ministry of War Fencing Manual (Slee's translation). 

If you only have to protect against thrusts to the area below the high line guards (tierce and sixte to the outside, and quarte to the inside), the blade does not have to be able to interpose forte against thrusts to the cuissard (the lower triangle of the modern jacket below the waist).  It becomes possible to defend the low line without moving the arm from its upward orientation found in tierce sixte and quarte.  The parry becomes a combination of changing the angle of the hand at the wrist and semi-circular fingerplay.

This results in the parries depicted in the texts mentioned above.  Although there are minor variations in the illustrations and descriptions, the following is a general model:

… Septime (Seventh).  This parry is also known as Half-Circle, terminology that survives to this day in Italian fencing as mezzocerchio.   The arm is held in a similar position to the parry of fourth (arm bent at the elbow with the forearm raised).  The hand is inclined downward in supination with the blade and point directed toward the opponent's low line.

… Octave (Eighth).   The arm is held in a similar position to the parry of sixth (arm bent at the elbow with the forearm raised).  The hand is inclined downward with the blade and point directed toward the opponent's low line.  There is some variation in the description and pictures of the hand position, with pure supination, the fingers turned somewhat upward, or a pronation that appears to take the pommel outside the hand being mentioned.  However, none of the pictures are of sufficient quality or detail to have confidence in them as being determinative of the best technique.

By the 1908 edition of the French Ministry of War's fencing manual (translation by the Amateur Fencers League of America) the upwardly bent arm parries of Seventh and Eighth appear to have been discarded in favor of a much flatter blade position.

Copyright 2018 by Walter G. Green III
  

The Old French Parries of Seveneth and Eighth by Walter G. Green III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.