Gente

Vademecum of General Destreza,
An educational system to teach at the AEHCM the fencing system of the Spanish gold centuries.




Dedicated the work of don Alberto Bomprezzi, Maestro de Armas, working in Madrid, and to the dear memory of don Esteban Jimenez Resendis, also a Maestro de Armas which worked in México.
They are two teachers to whom we owe so much.

© 2010 Asociación de EsgrimaHistórica de la Ciudad de México, Hábito de Santiago de la Espada.


Images by De Brea, Pacheco, Thibault, De Rada y Capoferro.
Photos and schemas by Jordi Muriá and Manuel Esquivel.

ISBN: 978-607-001322-5

FIRST EDITION:
All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, or recorded in or transmitted by an information retrieval system in any form or byany means, mechanical, photo chemical, electronic, magnetic, electro-optical, photocopying or otherwise, without prior permission or written, the corresponding author.

IMPRESO EN MÉXICO
PRINTED IN MEXICO

Student Philoxyphos: ―What is the priority in the combat?
Master Macologos: ―Stay defended all the time.
S. Philoxyphos: ― And how is this done?
M. Macologos: ―Choosing medio deproporción.
S. Philoxyphos: ―And how to choose the medio de proporción?
M. Macologos: ―Being both afirmados in the ángulo recto, so that the tip of the opposite sword does not exceed our guard.
S. Philoxyphos: ―But What if one is not in the ángulo recto?
M. Macologos: ―Estimating the distance as correspond to the defined concept if both were affirmed in the ángulo recto.
S. Philoxyphos: ―and why themedio de proporción keeps the defense?
M. Macologos: ―Because it forces the opponent to take a compás to reach the distance where he can cause wound, allowing the diestro take compás in order to regain medio de proporción or acquire new medio de proporción appropriated or transferred.
Luis Miguel Palacio

Index

Introduction 6
Notes 9
Individual Lessons 10
First knowledge: the sword, thespace and how to move in it 10
The instrument: the sword. 10
The instrument: The blade and its associated elements 11
The tool: The guard 12
The diestro in space: the field at ground level. 15
The diestro in space: The ways to hold the sword 18
The diestro in space: The position of the body, the plantas. 19
The diestro in space: vertical planes 21
The diestro in space: the ways to afirmar 24The diestro in space: The compases. 26
Lessons in pairs 29
The diestro in space: diámetro común and diámetro particular. 29
The diestro in space: The distance of combat in destreza and the medios. 31
Medio de proporción 31
Medio proporcional 34
Medio proporcionado 34
Llave y Gobierno 37
Species of contact between the swords in the destreza 39
Movements of incremento and disminución. 42The attacks on the destreza: The thrust. 43
The attacks on the destreza: the cuts. 46
Defenses in the destreza, the bassament of the system. 51
The conclusión. 56
The atajo (core of the destreza).59
Shortcuts atajos: línea en cruz and estrechar. 63
Ways to get out of the atajo. 66
Theory of the bow and string. 71
Precepts of destreza in combat. 74
As the patient must maintain the sameprecepts. 76
Bibliography. 78


Introduction to the spanish golden centuries fencing:
The adjective golden is used in literary and historical terms to designate the cultural expressions on the golden age of Spanish culture. These correspond, depending on the author, to the time between the discovery of new world and the independence of the mainland Spanish colonies in America, that means, theXV, XVI, XVII, XVIII and XIX centuries. Although these centuries, artistically, are for both the end of the Renaissance and the Baroque style in all its manifestations and even the beginning of neoclassicism, when we speak about the expressions of this period, we are talking about a golden literature, a golden architecture, a golden paint and of course, a golden lifestyle in which the everyday is...