Alatriste, Vizcaina and Espada y Dagga...

[slipthejab]

I posted a thread: http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65138
about the film Alatriste (or Capitan Alatriste) that has some seemingly superb scenes of swashbuckling in them. But I got not one response in the movies forum. :(

Maybe I can get more response here....

Anyone seen it? :confused:

Does anyone know if there are any surviving schools of this type of sword work today? :confused:

Or is it like many other forms of western sword arts that rely on a very small group of dedicated historians and practitioners deciphering antique texts and trying to resurect the techniques of these styles? :confused:

Can someone tell me what is similar in style to this sort of sword work? :confused:

The movie and the book of Alatriste both make reference to the 'Vizcaina' somewhere between a dagger and short sword (visible in the picture). I'm curious if one of the possible ways to study similar technique would be the FMA styles that teach Espada y Dagga. :confused:

[Langenschwert]

I'll post on your original thread. :)

-Mark

[Louie]

Hi Slipthejab

This type of fencing relies on groups of dedicated historians, fencing & martial art practitioners studing surviving manuscripts. I know that there were groups in the UK studying this type of fencing back in Victorian times.
As far as I'm aware the only sword-based western arts to have survived into this era are Sport fencing and Singlestick/sabre (UK Military), perhaps Portuguese Jogo de Pau should also be included as it is also a stickfighting art based on sword techniques....

Many FMA instructors will emphatically deny that they use any Spanish sword & dagger techniques and that Espada y Dagga is an indigenous Filipino art so both FMA and WMA community will frown on anyone claiming to have re-created/revived one art from the other.
If possible you should try and access both FMA and the 'Experimental archaeology' method then decide where to go from there!

Louie

[Louie]

Hi Slipthejab

Just saw this "Spanish Martial Arts" Weekend coming up next month in NY

"It will be the most extensive look at Spanish bladed martial culture to date".

At the end of the 16th century, Don Jerónimo de Carranza created a
system of fencing that was to influence the Spanish martial arts
through his lifetime and well into the end of the 19th century.
Carranza's core doctrine of the "True Art and Science of Arms" being
a new and general reformation of fencing, as it existed during his
time, and his new approach to the application of fencing theory was
accepted by generations of Spanish Fencing Masters. This core
doctrine remained nearly unchanged for 300 years. The techniques and
methods for applying this doctrine varied considerably as successive
generations of Spanish "Diestros" adapted the system to suit their
needs, according to the conditions of their time and place. This
seminar will demonstrate a continuum of the theory and how it was
applied or incorporated into the use of other types of weapons. The
main focus will be the technical choices, organization and the
pedagogic rational of how La Verdadera Destreza has been
reconstructed, resurrected and taught at the Martinez Academy of
Arms. To fully explicate how these choices were made we will trace
the tenants of Carranza’s doctrine through an examination of selected
Spanish fencing treatises
http://www.martinez-destreza.com/spanish2007/

[Langenschwert]

Hi Slipthejab

Just saw this "Spanish Martial Arts" Weekend coming up next month in NY

"It will be the most extensive look at Spanish bladed martial culture to date".

Martinez is the real deal. I have his Italian rapier DVDs, and they are top notch. An excellent additon to my studies, and an excellent introduction to the art of rapier fencing. I plan on getting his Spanish rapier tapes soon, assuming there are any left.

To be honest, his DVDs are like crack. You can't stop watching, no matter how dry the subject matter becomes.

Best regards,

-Mark