De la Filosofia de las Armas y de su Destreza y la Aggression y Defensa Cristiana (Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza, 1582)

De la Filosofia de las Armas y de su Destreza y la Aggression y Defensa Cristiana is a printed fencing treatise written by Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza, a native of Seville, governor of Sanlúcar de Barrameda and, from 1589 to 1594, royal governor of Honduras. The text came into being in the 1560s, when Carranza served the Duke of Medina Sidonia, and according to English Wikipedia it was finished in 1569. It was not printed until 1582, in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and is dedicated to Duke Alonso Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno. The treatise takes the form of four dialogues between educated participants in a conversation. In them Carranza combines his exposition of rapier fencing with philosophy, geometry, mathematics and ethics. He sets his true skill against common fencing (esgrima vulgar) and proceeds from the origin and effects of the art, through a critique of false skill and an exposition of strikes, to the question of legitimate defence. According to Wiktenauer, Carranza was influenced by the Italian author Camillo Agrippa, and Carranza's ideas were developed further by Luis Pacheco de Narváez, Octavio Ferrara and Girard Thibault d'Anvers. According to English Wikipedia, Pacheco de Narváez arranged Carranza's principles into a system that became established under the name Verdadera Destreza. Wiktenauer calls Carranza "the first inventor of the science of arms" and the founder of destreza, which according to English Wikipedia Spanish fencers developed for nearly three hundred years. The researcher Mary Dill Curtis devoted herself to the geometric method of the treatise in 2002 and 2010, and Noel Fallows published a comparison of Carranza with Pacheco de Narváez in 2012.

Martial arts in this work

Contents

The core of the treatise is four dialogues. Wiktenauer describes them as follows: the first deals with the invention of the art and general statements about its effects, the second with false skill in general and in particular cases, the third shows the common strikes and the fourth treats natural defence and Christian duty. Spanish Wikipedia divides the matter of the dialogues differently: according to it the first sets out the foundations of the art, the second exposes the deceit of braggarts, the third analyses natural causes and effects and the fourth is devoted to honour and defence. Wiktenauer stresses of the work that it interweaves its technical exposition about the rapier with philosophy, geometry, mathematics and ethics, and that it sets the geometrically founded true skill against common fencing, esgrima vulgar.

Influence

Wiktenauer places Carranza in a chain of rapier fencing authors: he himself drew on the work of the Italian author Camillo Agrippa, and his ideas were taken up by Luis Pacheco de Narváez, Octavio Ferrara and Girard Thibault d'Anvers. English Wikipedia assigns the decisive role to Pacheco de Narváez, who systematised Carranza's principles into the form of Verdadera Destreza. According to the same source, destreza lasted nearly three hundred years. Modern scholarship returns to the treatise mainly because of its geometric method: Mary Dill Curtis analysed it in studies from 2002 and 2010, and in 2012 Noel Fallows compared Carranza's approach with that of Pacheco.

Editions and translations

The book was published in 1582 in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, according to English Wikipedia "en casa del mesmo autor", that is, in the author's house. According to the same source, the title page bears the title Libro de Hieronimo de Carança natural de Sevilla. Que trata de la Philosophia de las Armas, in which the author's name appears in the period form Hieronimo de Carança. English Wikipedia states that it was the only edition in Carranza's lifetime. Thirteen years therefore passed between the completion of the text in 1569 and the printing. Cindy Koepp translated the treatise into English, but her translation is incomplete and was produced within the project Elizabethan Fencing and the Art of Defence. Wiktenauer lists the work under the English title On the Philosophy of Arms and its Skill, and Christian Offense and Defense.

People and martial arts

• Jerónimo Sánchez de CarranzaAuthor
• Cindy KoeppTranslator
• Alonso Pérez de Guzmán el BuenoPatron

Details

Form

Printed book

Editions

• 1582 · ES · Libro de Hieronimo de Carança natural de Sevilla. Que trata de la Philosophia de las Armas · en casa del mesmo autor, Sanlúcar de Barrameda · first edition
• EN · Elizabethan Fencing and the Art of Defence · translation