Montante (Iberian two-handed sword)
Fighting with the Iberian two-handed sword montante by the rules (reglas) of 16th and 17th century Spanish and Portuguese masters, including Diogo Gomes de Figueyredo (1651).
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Training
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
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Catalogs & Databases for Montante (Iberian two-handed sword)
About Montante (Iberian two-handed sword)
Montante is a two-handed sword and also a fencing discipline known from the so-called rules of the montante (reglas del montante). Manuel Valle Ortiz and Mary Dill Curtis (Materiales para la Historia del Deporte, 2009) describe them as a sequence of blows and movements with no explicit mention of an opponent, recorded by several Spanish and Portuguese authors, Paredes, Godinho and Figueiredo. According to them, Carranza cites the master Román, whose book of 1532 contained sixteen rules of the montante. Daniel Jaquet (Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 2020) reports an anonymous Spanish print Las reglas del montante from 1563 held in Toledo.
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The Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal holds the manuscript Arte de esgrima by the master Domingos Luís Godinho of Santarém from 1599. Another source is Memorial da Prattica do Montante, which, according to Leguina's bibliography (1904) and the title page, the master Diogo Gomes de Figueyredo completed on 10 May 1651 in Alcántara and dedicated to Prince Theodosius. It contains sixteen simple and sixteen compound rules and the manuscript is in the Biblioteca da Ajuda in Lisbon. According to the quotation in Valle Ortiz and Curtis, Figueyredo's second rule combines the cuts talho and revez with alternating steps of the left and right foot. Wiktenauer states that the Memorial considers the montante too dangerous for practice with a partner, and so these are solo exercises. According to the HEMA census in Acta Periodica Duellatorum, two-handed swords were practiced in 2021 at 32 of 124 venues in Germany.
History
The rules of the montante according to Manuel Valle Ortiz and Mary Dill Curtis (Materiales para la Historia del Deporte, 2009) are described by several Spanish and Portuguese authors. In the second dialogue of his book of 1582, Carranza cites the master Francisco Román and states that his book of 1532 contains sixteen rules of the montante. Valle Ortiz and Curtis also cite Paredes's rules of the montante, preserved in Jehan Lhermite's El pasatiempos. Daniel Jaquet (Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 2020) reports an anonymous Spanish print Las reglas del montante from 1563 in the state library in Toledo. The Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal holds the manuscript El libro lhamado arte de esgrima, composed by the master Domingo Luís Godino of Santarém, dated 1599, with 137 folios. According to the title page, Diogo Gomes de Figueyredo completed Memorial da Prattica do Montante on 10 May 1651 in Alcántara and dedicated it to Prince Theodosius, whose teacher in the science of arms he was. Leguina (1904) reports the manuscript in the Royal Library (Biblioteca da Ajuda) and its edition by Sousa Viterbo from 1899. Wiktenauer gives approximately 1600 as Figueyredo's year of birth and 30 September 1685 as the day of death.
How it differs
Manuel Valle Ortiz (Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 2018) writes that the principles of La Verdadera Destreza were meant to suit any weapon and he names the montante explicitly. Carranza gives Román's rules of the montante in the second dialogue, which deals with destreza in general. Wiktenauer describes the montante as a central element of an older tradition that Destreza displaced.
Technique
Figueyredo's second rule (Regra II), as quoted by Valle Ortiz and Curtis (2009), combines the cuts talho and revez with alternating steps of the left and right foot. The montante is held point forward, hands high before the eyes, and the sequence ends with a cut to the shoulder and a turn of the montante. According to the Wiktenauer translation, the first simple rule begins with the body upright, left foot forward and the montante's point on the ground, continues with the cut talho from below upward, right foot forward, and the cut revez with the other edge, left foot forward, and the body always turns where the montante cuts. According to Figueyredo, the compound rules are the counterpart of the simple ones, which are their basis. Valle Ortiz and Curtis state that the sequences of cuts in an anonymous Spanish text, probably of the 16th century, resemble the rules of the montante.
Training
According to Wiktenauer, Memorial da Prattica do Montante considers the montante too dangerous for practice with a partner, and so it is a series of solo exercises. Figueyredo distinguishes rules with the montante negro, all of which end with a cut to the left shoulder and a turn of the montante back with the point to the ground.
Today
The HEMA census in Acta Periodica Duellatorum (Fürgut, 2021) includes two-handed swords, including the montante and spadone, as a separate discipline. In 2021 they were practiced at 32 of 124 venues in Germany, in 2019 at 14 venues, and in Austria at 6 of 34 venues. According to the author, two-handed swords recorded the largest increase in teaching venues during the pandemic. Wiktenauer gives a transcription and English translation of Figueyredo's treatise by Eric Myers and Steve Hick from 2009.
Did you know
Leguina (1904), citing Cucala, says masters of arms wore a leather jerkin and boots over black clothing, a white hat with red plumes and a large montante embroidered on the left of the jerkin. He also cites a 17th-century report from Córdoba of a fencing master who, at a public fencing game, swept the onlookers' feet with the montante.
Frequently asked questions
What are the rules of the montante?
According to Valle Ortiz and Curtis, it is a sequence of blows and movements with no explicit mention of an opponent. They were recorded by several Spanish and Portuguese authors, for example Paredes, Godinho and Figueyredo.
Who wrote Memorial da Prattica do Montante?
The master Diogo Gomes de Figueyredo, who according to the title page completed it on 10 May 1651 in Alcántara and dedicated it to Prince Theodosius. It contains sixteen simple and sixteen compound rules.
Is the montante practiced with a partner?
According to Wiktenauer, Figueyredo's Memorial considers the montante too dangerous for practice with a partner, and so it contains only solo exercises.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.