Occasionally, we are confronted with a description in a text that is difficult to understand based on what we know to be true. For example, we know that ceding parries work by using the opponents pressure on the blade to yield to that pressure and thereby move to a new parrying position that defeats the attack. The extensive references to that form of ceding parry will be addressed in a future post in this blog. So what are we to make of the following passage translated from Mangiarotti and Cerchiari's La Vera Scherma (1966, p. 256):
"Ceding Parry
It is performed at near distance measure and on the four lines by transferring the blade from the guard line and yielding the fist so that the iron is located on a diagonal plane with a high tip to parry the attacks directed at the high line targets or fist and tip diametrically opposite (tip down) to parry the low line targets. There are four ceding parries with the point weapons:
(1) the ceded fourth answering the glide to the inner chest;
(2) the third ceding responding to an angulated glide to the back;
(3) the eighth ceding responding to the angulated glide to the abdomen; and
(4) the half-circle ceding responding to reverse coupe (the coupe executed around the tip of the blade in low line) to the high outside target."
None of these look anything like the standard ceding parries that pivot around the blade to form the new parry. For that matter, why are we even interested in this - Mangiarotti and Cerchiari's book is well outside the classical period?
There is a reason. Edoardo Mangiarotti was the son of Maestro di Scherma Giuseppi Mangiarotti - by 1935 his technique was well formed, leading to selection of the Italian Team for the 1936 Olympics and Gold Medals at that Olympics and at successive world events in 1937 and 1938. His competitive record until his retirement from competition in 1960 make him the dominant male fencer of the modern Olympic era. Thus the ceding parry in La Vera Scherma may be something perfected in the 1950s, but equally, if not more, likely a technique reflective of his earlier training. That merited a further search to determine if other sources describe a similar technique closer to the classical period.
A fairly thorough search of the English language sources revealed a number of descriptions of the ceding parry using the opponent's blade to move the defender's blade into a new parrying position. But, finally on pages 108 and 109 of R. A. Lidstone's Fencing (1952), there is a description of a series of parries which may be used to defeat the graze, croise, and bind. Lidstone's book is reflective of technique prior to the Second World War and the slow reemergence of fencing after the war; it is thus a useful marker of technique at the end of the classical period.
The basic technique is similar to that described by Mangiarotti, but Lidstone gives a clearer description. The fundamental action transfers domination and control of the blade from the attacker to the defender by bending, and even withdrawing the arm and raising In the high line) or lowering (in the low line) the point of the weapon. Done quickly and decisively, it shifts the relationship from control of the defender's foible by the attacker's forte to control of the attacker's foible by the defender's forte as the defender's blade slides back along the blade and up (down in the low line) and the arm raises (lowers in the low line) and withdraws. Lidstone's description varies from Mangiarotti's in that Lidstone does not incline the blade away from the guard line.
To summarize Lidstone's applications to defend against the:
(1) Graze - in high line withdraw the hand quickly and be ready to raise it higher than normal. Against the graze in low line the hand may have to be lowered more than normal or withdrawn further.
(2) Croise - the parry in octave or seconde is executed with the hand significantly withdrawn (preferable) or the hand lowered.
(3) Bind - the bind must be stopped before the opponent starts to move the blade across the body and before the blade starts to lower or raise, depending on whether from high to low line or low to high line.
(3a) Bind In Octave - the hand is withdrawn and lowered when the opponent's point has started to descend below the defender's hand level, but before any crosswise movement. Riposte underneath with an upward hand movement or by half-disengage.
(3b) Bind in Sixte from Septime - parry as the opponent's blade starts to raise above the defender's hand, but before the blade starts to progress inward. The hand should be raised backward, upward, and outward into a high sixte to maintain domination. Direct riposte.
(3c) Bind in Septime from Sixte - parry by drawing the hand backward into septime with the point lower than the regular septime position. Riposte high line, covered.
Although both Mangiarotti and Lidstone describe these ceding parries in the context of strong opposition, it seems likely that they may have value against the weaker glide, and even as a parry against a fast, deep, detached attack. In any case, it seems reasonable to add the parry with a blade withdrawal and a change in blade attitude to our understanding of the ceding or yielding parry in the later years of the classical period.
But the story is not yet over. Maestro di Scherma Masaniello Parise in his 1884 Treatise on the Fencing of the Sword and Sabre (Holzman translation) establishes that the ceding parry is in use in the Italian School in the 1880s.
There are two ceding parries, of fourth and of third. The performance of the technique is described as simple. The blade maintains contact with the the gliding action of the opponent's blade without attempting to resist the opposition. The fencer lowers his or her hand, the wrist is relaxed, and the point of the blade raised simultaneously. This frees the blade by opposing the opponent's action with the forte. The immediate riposte is by glide or straight thrust.
Parise proposes the ceding parry against the fianconata in fourth or in second or the glide in second with the hand into the fourth position. Against a false glide in fourth, the ceding parry of third is executed with the hand in the second position. Now we know that the ceding parry with a raise of the point of the blade, a yielding foible to forte transition, and a lowered hand can be found, especially in Italian fencing, throughout the classical period.
Sources:
Mangiarotti, Edoardo and Aldo
Cerchiari; La Vera Scherma; [fencing
manual]; Longanesi & C, Milano,
Italy; 1966.
copyright 2021 by Walter G. Green III
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