Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
What you have seen is Historical Fencing training
also called «Destreza Verdadeira», which was practiced centuries ago in the
iberian kingdoms. A cultural society recovers this martial art
in Galiza, and has spawned a press firm which publishes the classical fencing treatises
to sell them worldwide.
«Verdadeira Destreza» was the school of fencing used to fight in the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula during the Renaissance and Baroque.
Denís Fernández Cabrera (AGEA Editora): «Historical Fencing would be the group of combat techniques used in
europe between the XIII and XIX centuries,
in its broadest scope.»
The AGEA (Associaçom Galega de Esgrima Antiga) struggles to recover this ancient martial art,
and its publishing firm recovers the old treatises and prepares critical editions
to be sold worldwide.
Manuel Valle Ortiz (AGEA Editora): «These editions [of the original books] we have published
are the first ones in 300 - 400 years. Meaning that these books
never got reprinted since their original run, and all this knowledge was being forgotten.»
«Manuel Valle keeps the largest HEMA books collection in the whole country.
Classic authors like Carranza, Pacheco de Narváez or Lorenz de Rada,
who was one of the topmost exponents of Destreza, combining
theoretical work with an eventful life that led him to action in the Battle of Rande.
Manuel Valle: «He was in charge of de Vigo defence,
assuming the city artillery and contributing to the defence of the city.
We must understand they were people with lives beyond fencing,
lives interesting in every aspect.»
This school of fencing reached a significant splendour at the XVII century.
Destreza has its own premises, which provide it with an unique personality.
Denís Fernández Cabrera: «[Destreza] works from a self-defence ground,
the idea that I want to be safe even more than I want to kill my opponent.
It uses a very upright stance, with the arm usually extended horizontally,
ideally at a 90º angle, always trying to control
the opponent's blade before attacking.
Manuel Valle: «It is a very exhaustive system,
a scientifically-based system -they insisted it was a science back then-
based in geometry, in philosophy.»
It had also its own ethical rules, a set of principles fitted to gentlemen.
Denís Fernández Cabrera: «Some masters of old did leave --some didn't-- written instructions on how a gentleman should behave.»
Manuel Valle: «That life is valuable.
That you should not put to risk
firstly, your own life,
and that if you need to defend yourself, you should, but always trying
to cause no harm.»
In Galiza, over a hundred people in seven cities fight with all the weapons they have
so that the memory of iberian Verdadeira Destreza
does not get lost in the mists of time.