In the article section of Fencing.net you can read a dissertation about the Italian and French fencing terminology by Maestro Alberto Bernacchi http://www.fencing.net/content/view/455/35/ It is interesting from the historical prospective and to explain how each school considers fencing actions. One of our members, Veeco, asked a specific question about fencing terminology concerning saber. From Veeco:
I actually had one question about sabre. In my old club which was mostly sabre, I heard of lot of sabreurs talk about the "italian quinte" and they referred to it as the position where you take a parry quinte with your elbow pointing inside your body, and your forearm pointing up on the left side of your head. Do you have any idea why it was called this way? Maestro Bernacchi
What
Veeco refers to is more a definition of common use than a real technical distinction and it is rather difficult to answer categorically. Some definition come into being spontaneously as for example in Italy, in the case of saber, ever since the French
Christian Bauer was appointed CT of the national saber fencing team, they use a lot the term
"passo francese" (French step). This is a specific type of step forward but nobody can tell it was invented by anyone in particular, nor could say that this step talks "French" or "Italian."
The Italian treatises describe the saber
quinta "quinte" exactly as
Veeco does, i.e., with the elbow of the weapon arm slightly displaced towards the inside of the body and with the blade in a slight ascending diagonal.
The Russians in the 80's were executing the
quinte with the elbow exactly perpendicular to the neck of the forward foot, therefore not shifted to the inside of body, and with the blade exactly parallel to the ground.
Bauer wants it this way also (the Russian way) so I assume that this must be the way they execute the
quinte in France.
The logic behind keeping the blade in a diagonal according to the Italian school is to better let slide the hit by the opponent, to deflect it more efficiently. On the other hand the reason to keep the blade parallel to the ground is in a stronger parry when the two blades collide.
In conclusion it is possible that in
Veeco's old club they were talking about
quinta italiana to distinguish the two ways to execute the parry, underlining that the other way, with the elbow perpendicular to the foot, was the
"French quinte."
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