S.10. Barbasetti's Categories of Sabre Parries

Maestro di Scherma Luigi Barbasetti authored two fencing manuals in English, one on Foil and one on the Sabre and the Epee.  The Art of the Sabre and The Epee was published in 1936, but represents a translation of the German text, itself a translation of the Italian original text, prepared as a didactic fencing textbook for the Austro-Hungarian Normal Military Fencing School of Wiener-Neustadt sometime after Barbasetti was appointed director of that school in 1895 (and presumably prior to World War I).  Barbasetti stated that the Sabre and Epee were united in one book specifically because they were the dueling weapons.

For Barbasetti the parry in sabre falls into one of three categories.  It is not actually that simple, because Barbasetti describes subclasses, resulting in seven distinct types of parries:

(1)  Simple Parries

(2)  Yielding Parries

(2.a)  Genuine Yielding Parries

(2.b)  Yielding Parries in Response to Beats

(3)  Counter-Parries

(3.a)  Half-Counter Parries

(3.b)  Counter-Parries Executed While in the Lunge

The Simple Parries are a familiar set of 9 parries, executed as a change from an invitation, engagement, or parry to close another line:

• Prime
• Seconde
• Tierce
• Quarte
• Quinte
• Sixte
• Low Tierce
• Low Quarte
• Septime

Barbasetti describes the primary selection of simple parries as Prime, Seconde, and Quinte, forming one of the two traditional sabre defensive boxes.  He notes that the other parries should be practiced so that they can be used occasionally.

Yielding Parries use the opponent's force to position the parry and are divided into two categories based on the nature of the opponent's blade action and the fencer's response.

Genuine Yielding Parries maintain contact with the opponent's blade while yielding to the pressure of the graze (or glide) and thereby deflecting the blade.  These are:

• Prime in response to the opponent's pressure in tierce.
• Low Quarte in response to the opponent's pressure in seconde.

Yielding Parries in Response to Beats use the impetus of the beat to initiate the movement into the parrying position: 

• Yield into Low Quarte in response to a beat in the inner line and attempted cut to the chest against the fencer's invitation in prime. 
• Yield into Low Tierce in response to a beat in the inner line and attempted cut to the flank against the fencer's invitation in seconde.
• Yield into Septime in response to a beat in the inner line against the fencer's invitation in tierce.
• Yield into Prime in response to a beat in tierce and attempted cut to the inside cheek against the fencer's invitation in quarte.

Counter-Parries are circular parries executed by abandoning an engagement or parry to move the point in a circle returning to the original line:

• Counter-Parries of Tierce and Quarte pass the blade under the opponent's blade.
• Counter-Parries of Prime, Seconde, and Quinte pass the blade over the opponent's blade.
• There is no counter-parry of Sixte.  Barbasetti does not explicitly say so, but the mechanics involved rule out a counter-parry of Septime.

Half-Counter Parries derive from the circular movement patterns of the full counter-parries.  They include:

• Half-Counter from Seconde to parry in Quarte.
• Half-Counter from Seconde to parry in Sixte.
• Half-Counter from Quarte to parry in Sixte.
• Half-Counter from Tierce to parry in Prime.
• Half-Counter from Tierce to parry in Quinte. 
• Half-Counter from Quinte to parry in Prime.

Counter-Parries Executed While in the Lunge include two parries that are intended to be used against an opponent's riposte before the fencer recovers from the lunge:

• Counter-Prime following a parried head cut and an attempt by the opponent to riposte to the abdomen.
• Counter-Quinte following a parried head cut and an attempt by the opponent to riposte to the head.

Understanding how Fencing Masters describe and categorize the actions they teach may seem to be a "so-what" for the average fencer or the coach who simply focuses on how do you do enough to win.  However, understanding these taxonomies are important to understanding the doctrine of a School or an individual Master as well as the general state of the art.  For example, the inclusion of yielding parries in a sabre classification scheme shows how sabre technique retained a shared lineage with foil technique, something not commonly taught to sabre fencers today. 

Copyright 2019 by Walter G. Green III

Barbasetti's Categories of Sabre Parries by Walter G. Green III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.