{"id":9,"date":"2012-10-26T12:23:19","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T12:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maa.ragnarok.net\/index.php\/jeronimo-de-carranzas-philosophy-arms\/"},"modified":"2012-10-26T12:23:19","modified_gmt":"2012-10-26T12:23:19","slug":"jeronimo-de-carranzas-philosophy-arms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maa.ragnarok.net\/index.php\/jeronimo-de-carranzas-philosophy-arms\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeronimo de Carranza&#8217;s &#8220;Philosophy&#8221; of Arms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This paper was delivered on April 9th, 2005 at Cambridge, UK for the Renaissance Society of America&#8217;s Annual Meeting.<\/em><br \/>\n<em><br \/>\nSynopsis: Although later misunderstood as a ponderous and impractical edifice, the system of fencing developed by the sixteenth-century Spanish nobleman Jeronimo de Carranza was, in fact, a very practical method of personal combat\u2014albeit one he explained using the language of Scholastic intellectual orthodoxy.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"drop-cap\">Don Jeronimo de Carranza was a product of his time. Based on his pupil\u2014and later critic\u2014Don Luis Pacheco de Narvaez\u2019  assertion that Carranza\u2019s 1569 work, <i>de la Filosofia de las Armas y de su Destreza y la Aggression y Defensa Cristiana <\/i>was  completed when Carranza was thirty years old, Carranza was born in Seville in about 1539.<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref1\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[1]<\/span><\/a> His life thus coincided with Spain\u2019s peak as a world power, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the great wars of religion, and the ultra-conservative reign of Phillip II. Though Italian humanism and reverence for classical  antiquity manifest themselves in Carranza\u2019s writing, the influence of the medieval Scholastic tradition is also present in  his work.<\/p>\n<p>\nOne way this conservative spirit manifested itself in the Spain in which Carranza lived and worked was through a glorification of the ethos of chivalry. For instance, Garci Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez de Montalvo\u2019s epic romance <i>Amadis de Gaula<\/i> was published in 1508 and enjoyed great popularity through Carranza\u2019s lifetime. Carranza\u2019s life and career were marked by chivalric ideals as well. He was of sufficient noble rank and fame to be named a knight, and then Commander, of the Order for Christ. In 1605, the same year Cervantes published the first book of his <i>Don Quixote<\/i>, Carranza received an honorary crown from his native city of Seville. Cervantes himself had nothing but praise for Carranza. In his <i>Song of Calliope<\/i>, Cervantes holds Carranza up as a gentleman who has struck an equal balance between Apollo and Mars. Spain also sought to spread its culture  and the one true Catholic faith) as much as it sought to preserve it, and Carranza was very much an active participant in this. In 1589 he was sent to the New World as governor of Honduras, and (according to Leguina\u2019s <i>Bibliograf\u00eda<\/i>), upon his return to Spain, dedicated himself to his studies and religious practice. <\/p>\n<p>\nWhat Carranza is best remembered for today, of course, is his book on fencing, <i>de  la Filosofia de las Armas y de su Destreza y la Aggression y Defensa Cristiana<\/i>  (\u201cOn the Philosophy of Arms and its Skill, and Christian Offense and Defense\u201d).  First published in a small print run in 1569 for the unfortunate Duke of Medina-Sidonia,   later commander of the Spanish Armada, <i>de    la Filosofia de las Armas<\/i> did not receive wide distribution until its  second printing in 1582 in Sanl\u00facar de Barrameda. In any case, its intended    audience, in keeping with Spain\u2019s obsessive concern for rank and blood, was no  doubt limited, as it sets out an art explicitly intended to be learned only by  the highest nobility. Carranza\u2019s work reflected the concerns of his stratum of  society: The \u201cChristian offense and defense\u201d he speaks of is not for soldierly   use on the battlefield in one of St. Augustine\u2019s just conflicts between  nation-states, but rather, for the use of individual\u2019s personal sidearm to  settle private quarrels and for self-defense.<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref2\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[2]<\/span><\/a>  (Note, however, that duels were far less frequent in Spain, and far mor  prosecuted, than they were in France or Italy.) The weapon Carranza was  concerned with was not the knightly sword intended for the battlefield, but the  civilian <i>espada ropera<\/i>, translated as  \u201cdress sword\u201d or \u201csword of the robe\u201d\u2014now termed the rapier\u2014which by the  preponderance of evidence seems to have been developed in Spain in the late fifteenth century. (This type of sword, according to A.V.B. Norman, was first  referred to in the 1468 post-mortem inventory of the goods of Duke Alvaro de Zuniga.)<a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref3\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[3]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n <i>De la Filosofia de las Armas<\/i> is a distillation of the spirits running through Carranza\u2019s society and life: chivalric martial culture, Catholicism, courtly  ideals, obsession with rank and purity blood, the will to conquer and exert  power, and a love for classical learning\u2014for the most distinguishing  characteristic of Carranza\u2019s invention (and the one most perplexing to  historians of fencing) is that its principles are explicitly set out in terms derived from Aristotle and Euclid. Rather than following the common methods of  fencing of the time, which he termed \u201c<i>esgrima vulgar<\/i>,<i>\u201d<\/i> meaning \u201cvulgar fencing\u201d and regarded as haphazard collections of tricks, Carranza sought to devise a scientific approach to swordsmanship. This, he termed <i>la verdadera destreza<\/i>, which can be loosely translated as \u201cthe true art and skill.\u201d Carranza states that he has written his book in order to open  the secrets of true swordsmanship, which was, in his opinion, in a poor state  in his time, and very carefully goes on to say that in discovering the errors of the <i>esgrima vulgar<\/i>, what he has accomplished is a <i>reformacion <\/i>(that is a \u201creformation\u201d) of swordsmanship, thus creating a <i>nueva sciencia, <\/i>or  \u201cnew science.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Carranza\u2019s work takes the form of four Socratic dialogues, the contents of which he summarizes thusly:<\/p>\n<p>The first dialogue treats of the invention of the art and itsuniversal propositions, where all doubts against <i>destreza <\/i>are solved and you will see the effects of itsdefinitions.<\/p>\n<p>The second dialogue treats of the false <i>destreza<\/i>, universally and particularly, where it is discovered the deceits of the commonfencers, and other things that are pleasing to this purpose.<\/p>\n<p>The third dialogue deals with the demonstrations of the techniques that in general were proposed in the first dialogue and shows the  universal principles of the dagger against the sword and the judgment of all weapons.<\/p>\n<p>The fourth dialogue treats of natural defense, and how the <i>diestro <\/i>puts into practice what he has learned, without committing aggression nor committing treachery nor surely dying, and the obligations he has to return to himself, his friends, and his enemies by divine positive and natural right.<a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref4\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref4\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[4]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p> While, in reality, diatribes against the errors of the <i>vulgos<\/i>\u2014the \u201cvulgar fencers\u201d\u2014take up a large part of the text, the remainder Carranza\u2019s treatise, when read and understood in the proper light, is perfectly logical. The Scholasticism that Carranza adhered to did not value superficial knowledge or a command of trivia and tricks; rather, principles, like the laws of logic, were to be abstracted and universalized from experience. No knowledge could be true unless it could be abstracted from coarse material reality. By becoming familiar with these universal principles, one could then apply one\u2019s knowledge to specific individual situations. As Carranza himself states, \u201cThe solution to doubt is the invincibility of truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Carranza thus, using Aristotelian and Euclidian analyses of motion, dissects swordsmanship into its component actions, breaking each action one performs in swordsmanship down into its component motions, or <i>movimientos<\/i>:\tThe types of <i>passos<\/i>, or steps one can take (straight, lateral, compass, etc.), the types of motions one can make with the sword (cuts from the wrist, elbow, and shoulders, parries or <i>desvios<\/i>), holding the hand with the fingernails up, down, inside, or outside (<i>u\u00f1as abajo,<\/i> <i>arriba, a dentro, a fuera<\/i>). The actions one performs when in the interplay of combat are often described in terms taken from Aristotle\u2019s <i>Physics<\/i>: Raising the arm is <i>violento<\/i>, for instance, lowering it is <i>natural<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe fact that the sorts of steps Carranza describes were later used by dance masters (for instance in Juan de Esquivel\u2019s 1642 <i>Sobre El Arte del Dancado<\/i>) has given many the false impression that Carranza is describing some sort of choreography; though the aesthetics of motion are similar\u2014human beings seem to find beautiful the sort of balanced, centered, graceful motion that is most efficient for fighting\u2014<i>destreza <\/i>has nothing in common with dance choreography. The actual techniques, or <i>tretas<\/i>, are improvised out of the <i>movimientos <\/i>in real time in response to the situation one finds oneself in. This analysis also provides a method for training the disciple to perform optimally in a real situation. However, Carranza, beyond defining his terms, does not give elaborate instructions. Rather, the student would be trained in person. Once this understanding and theory of motion was internalized (or so Carranza believed), one\u2019s own ingenuity would then apply it in the proper way according to the situation they found themselves in. As he says in his first dialogue, \u201c\u2026know that everyone\u2019s  best master is their own ingenuity, judgment, good diligence and ability\u2026\u201d (\u201c\u2026<i>Sabed que el major Maestro de todos es el ingenio el juyzio la buena diligencia y habilidad de cada uno\u2026\u201d<\/i>)<a href=\"#_ftn5\" name=\"_ftnref5\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref5\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[5]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n To briefly describe <i>la destreza <\/i>in action, picture two swordsmen standing erect opposite each other, their bodies semi-profiled, sword-arms extended, blades parallel to one another. The length of the blades, Carranza stated, forms the  diameter of an imaginary circle.<a href=\"#_ftn6\" name=\"_ftnref6\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref6\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[6]<\/span><\/a>  Thus each swordsman walks along the circumference of the circle, keeping his  point aimed at his adversary. To attack along the diameter of the circle would be sure death, as the swordsmen would wind up impaling one another. The posture  is thus not only offensive, but also defensive: Because both adversaries\u2019 swords are always pointed at the each other in this manner, neither can make a direct attack. However, by using proper footwork to execute an angular attack off the diameter of the circle\u2014while observing the various other requisites of the art, such as distance, timing, proportion and blade leverage\u2014the <i>diestro <\/i>creates an opening in his adversary\u2019s defense. This strategic positioning, this combative \u201cgeneralship\u201d (to use a boxing term) is the foundation of Carranza\u2019s invention. \u201cInvention,\u201d  indeed, is the proper word, for <i>destreza <\/i>is structured and explained unlike  any other European system of swordsmanship, past or present. This structure derives entirely from the unique intellectual currents that flowed through Carranza\u2019s Spain.<\/p>\n<p>\nRather than illustrations that are, at best, static representations of movements frozen in time, Carranza makes his demonstration by geometric diagrams which represent, in an abstract manner, the placement and movement of the combatants. As in navigation, in which knowledge of geometry is paramount, the relative position and movement of the swordsmen can be demonstrated precisely. Carranza\u2019s task in defining <i>la destreza<\/i> is to show, by geometrical demonstrations, that his method is an exact science; if this can be proven, then the theory, art, and science of his swordsmanship can be shown beyond doubt to be infallible and perfect. As he himself states:<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tYou know that mathematics strips bare the forms and figures and numbers of the material, in which no falsehood is admitted, because it does not dissimulate, either affirming or denying, because it considers things simply and not all together. And it has this privilege more than the other arts in that it declares its intentions with most true demonstrations, for which reason the ancients guided those things they called true and certain arts with this reasoning, and that any truth one has in human affairs lies in mathematics because its teaching is very pointed (that is to say simple); it guides the  sciences, whether moral or natural, by the most direct route. . . as is seen in the beginning of the <i>Sextant of Euclid<\/i>, from whence is born the foundation by which the astronomers verify their calculations which are found most copiously in the <i>Algamest<\/i>, and whose esteem and importance will be seen the inscription that was in the School of Plato, which said that no one who was ignorant of mathematics could enter inside. This is the reason it seems to me a more certain thing to order <i>la destreza<\/i> under mathematics rather than any of the other sciences.<a href=\"#_ftn7\" name=\"_ftnref7\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref7\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[7]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In truth, though, theory does not precede practice. In <i>destreza<\/i>, as for all practical arts, knowledge of what to do precedes theory. Though Carranza states that he developed this method \u201cwithout a teacher,\u201d he was no autodidact. In truth, he was an experienced swordsman, explaining his art in a scholastic manner, not a philosopher pretending to be a swordsman. As a military man and member of the nobility, he would have been trained in arms since birth. Rather, this is a new method for fencing, based, as he says, on \u201cart, knowledge, science, and experience\u201d is guided by his <i>genio<\/i>, or \u201cgenius.\u201d From his experience and observation of the common methods of swordsmanship of his time and by applying his education in science and philosophy Carranza distilled universal techniques, such as the <i>atajo<\/i>, or contact with the opposing blade, which he incorporated into <i>la destreza<\/i>. Demonstrating his knowledge of physics and the concept of leverage, Carranza, as other masters do, divides the sword into degrees from the cross of the hilt to the point of the weapon progressing from the greater numerical value to the lesser. He then goes on to explain that the higher degree must always oppose the lesser degree of the adversary\u2019s sword. Underneath the immense verbiage, the principles Carranza describes are eminently practical and common to all fencing.<\/p>\n<p>So, how was Carranza\u2019s \u201cnew science\u201d received? Cervantes, in Chapter 19 of the second part of <i>Don Quixote <\/i>(1614) presents a skilled swordsman skilled in Carranza\u2019s method humiliating a strong, enraged\u2014but unskilled\u2014adversary. Conversely, Don Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas, in his 1627 <i>Historia de la Vida del Busc\u00f3n<\/i>, lambasts what he believes are the absurdities of <i>la destreza<\/i>, presenting us with the picture of a scholar who is so obsessed with geometry that he can not mount his mule without measuring the acute and obtuse angles and is run off by the first cutthroat who challenges him. (There was a certain amount of bad blood between Quevedo and Carranza\u2019s student Don Luis Pacheco de Narvaez. Quevedo knocked Narvaez\u2019 hat off his head in an encounter that took place in 1608 in the house of the President of Castille. Quevedo had impugned Narvaez\u2019 work in his presence, and so the argument was taken outside and put to the test. The two fought a single pass, resulting in the aforesaid removal of headgear, before their host stopped the matter. They thereafter limited themselves to verbal and legal passes.)<\/p>\n<p>Modern authors have been even more critical. The nineteenth-century fencing historian Egerton Castle, for instance, summarized Carranza\u2019s work as \u201cthe first of the long series of ponderous Spanish treatises on the \u2018raison demonstrative,\u2019 in which the ruling principle, after the Aristotelian method, is the <i>\u2018conocimieto de la cosa por su causa,\u2019<\/i> [knowledge of the thing by its cause] and the purpose, to demonstrate that a perfect theoretical knowledge must infallibly lead to victory, notwithstanding grievous physical disadvantage.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn8\" name=\"_ftnref8\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref8\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[8]<\/span><\/a> In such criticisms, Carranza is falsely accused of making three assumptions: The assumption that the analysis of motion preceded, rather than followed, the activity; the assumption that knowledge of the scientific principles underlying any action are necessary to its proper performance, whereas in reality victory falls more often to the swift, strong, and cunning, and not to the slow, weak, and guileless, however educated in theory they might be; and the assumption that fencing masters of the past regarded fencing as a sort of dance, completely misunderstanding the movements they attempted to describe.<\/p>\n<p>\nTo be sure, Carranza\u2019s treatiseis difficult to read. The author often writes around his subject in circles before coming to the point. He uses verbose and highly ornamented language, with purposely-archaic vocabulary and sentence structure, to limit his audience to only the most educated readers (especially those already well-versed in swordsmanship, since the actions described make little sense unless one is already familiar with the principles of the art). Moreover, while it is undoubtedly true that in <i>some<\/i> of the works of Carranza\u2019s successors <i>la destreza <\/i>reached great heights of unnecessary complexity\u2014a tendency taken to its ultimate conclusion by later writers such as Francisco Lorenz de Rada (1705). Indeed, Narvaez\u2019 onetime student Girard Thibault\u2019s luxuriously engraved <i>Academie de la Espee <\/i>(1628), dedicated to Louis XIII, ranks as the most elaborate fencing treatise ever produced. On the other hand, Cristobal de Cala, in his <i>Desenga\u00f1o de la Espada y Norte de Diestros <\/i>(Cadiz, 1648), stated that <i>destreza<\/i> had became overly complicated and sought to return to Carranza\u2019s original methods.<a href=\"#_ftn9\" name=\"_ftnref9\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref9\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[9]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Despite this, far from being a ponderous baroque floating castle sailing on nothing but hot air, there is a core of very real practicality behind <i>la destreza<\/i>\u2014albeit one oftentimes obscured by what seems (to the modern reader) an immense amount of verbiage. It is preposterous to say that fencing masters of the past, in an age when men\u2019s lives depended on their skill with a sword, did not know their business. In fact, what they wrote were <i>treatises<\/i>seeking to explain their practice in rational and understandable ways to experienced swordsmen and other masters. It is not at all the case that practice followed theory; rather, it was theory that followed practice. As he says in the first dialogue of the true art and skill (<i>Dialogo Primero de la Verdadera Destreza) <\/i>of <i>de la Filosophia de Armas<\/i>, \u201cknowledge is acquired from use\u201d (<i>El conoscimiento que se adquiere con el uso<\/i>) and \u201cFrom use, knowledge is born\u201d (<i>Del uso nase el conosimiento<\/i>).<a href=\"#_ftn10\" name=\"_ftnref10\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref10\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[10]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Such treatises, therefore, are elucidations on the art and science of fencing: By analyzing and understanding the dynamic action of the body in motion and then conditioning the student to perform the optimal action at any given time\u2014which was the basis of fencing pedagogy then as it is now\u2014one magnifies natural ability of the student manifold. Logically if this were <i>not<\/i> so, then it begs the question: If all that is required of the swordsman is to be swift, strong, and cunning, then why study and train in swordsmanship at all? The purpose of these texts was for the reader to perfect his comprehension of fencing technique and theory; this book-knowledge, however, was combined with actual lessons with a master-at-arms. Narvaez describes in his <i>Modo Facil y Nuevo para Examinarse los Maestros en la Destreza de las Armas<\/i> a method of teaching in which theoretical lessons are combined with practical lessons with a <i>maestro batallador<\/i>.<a href=\"#_ftn11\" name=\"_ftnref11\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref11\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[11]<\/span><\/a> <i>La destreza<\/i> is thus a perfect example of the emerging scientific mindset: in his pedagogical method, the theoretical, geometrical side of the art was combined with direct, practical experience with a weapon in hand. When one is learning a system of swordsmanship\u2014or any other martial art\u2014it must be done in a logical progression and practiced by the numbers, as it were. With this type of training, the mind and body become focused and attuned, so as to be able to apply the method to whatever circumstances that might occur. Since every circumstance that might arise cannot be foreseen, being able to size up the situation and proceed in a cool and logical manner increases one\u2019s chances of victory and survival many times over. Finally, there has never existed a school of swordsmanship, or martial art in general, that was <i>not <\/i>artificial in some sense. No one assumes a fencing stance (or a boxer\u2019s guard) naturally. All actions must be taught, as they have been designed and invented for a specific purpose. Moreover, no one fights naturally; our ideas of <i>how <\/i>to fight are shaped by our culture.<\/p>\n<p>The geometry used by Carranza and subsequent theorists of <i>la destreza<\/i>, while a useful conceptual tool, were thus not meant to be taken as literally as in Quevedo\u2019s burlesque. Carranza could not have expected his disciples to learn swordsmanship from a book: His treatise was not widely published until decades after it was written, when <i>destreza <\/i>was already well established. This can only mean that practical knowledge of actually handling the sword was imparted by hands-on instruction by a teacher.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the greatest proof of the efficacy of <i>destreza<\/i>, besides the esteem it was held in by contemporaries, is the longevity of this school of fence. Domenico Angelo in his book <i>The School of Fencing, <\/i>which was published several times during the 18<sup>th<\/sup> century, shows techniques vs. <i>diestro<\/i>. The last known treatise on <i>destreza, Principios Universales y Regalas Generales De La Verdadera Destreza: Destreza Del Espadin <\/i>(\u201cUniversal Principles and Generals Rules of the True Art and Skill: The True Art and Skill of the Smallsword\u201d), was written by Don Manuel Antonio De Brea in 1805. Although the text describes a mixed system of Spanish, Italian and French doctrine, Brea\u2019s system is solidly based on the foundations set by Carranza over two hundred years earlier, resulting in a treatise that is predominantly Spanish theory. Also of interest is the <i>Manual de esgrima en que se trata de la esgrima de la espada, espada y daga, del sable, y del florete, <\/i>(\u201cManual of Fencing that Treats on the Fencing of Sword, Sword and Dagger, Saber and Foil\u201d) by Don Antonio Heraud y Clavijo De Soria, first published in 1864 in Paris and reprinted in Paris and Mexico in an expanded form in 1877, 1892, and 1905. Although this work is also of a mixed system\u2014showing the Bourbon influence in Spain\u2014the foundations of <i>destreza<\/i> are clearly strongly based on Carranza\u2019s theories. Of even greater importance is that this work shows that <i>la destreza<\/i>, and systems derived from it, continued to be taught and practiced, surviving through the 19<sup>th<\/sup> and into the 20<sup>th<\/sup> centuries. <i>La verdadera destreza <\/i>is a fascinating and long-lived cultural artifact, reflecting not only the mindset and concerns of early modern Spain, but also the intellectual currents of the time\u2014besides being a work of interest to historians of fencing.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ftn1\">\n<p class=\"MsoFootnoteText\"><a href=\"#_ftnref1\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t    name=&#8221;_ftn1&#8243; title=&#8221;&#8221;&gt;<span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[1]<\/span> <i>Nueva Ciencia y Filosofia de la Destreza<\/i>,<br \/>\n\t    p. \u00b6  \u00b6  3 (verso)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn2\">\n<p class=\"MsoFootnoteText\"><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn2\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[2]<\/span><\/a> On p. 267, Carranza defines the duel: \u201c\u0085que en Espa\u00f1a se dize Desafio, \u00f2 Campo cerrado,  aqui\u00e8 llam\u00e0 Duelo in Italia, que es Batalla Singular entre dos hombres, por la quale uno pretende probar y substenrar al otro per Armas en espacio y termino  de un dia, como es hombre de honora y verdadero, y no mercedor de ser  injuriado, ni menospreciado, y el otro pretende probar lo contrario\u0085\u201d (Which  in Spain is called <i>desafio<\/i>, or the closed field, also called the duel in Italy, which is single combat between two men, by which one seeks to prove and substantiate to the other by arms in the space and bounds of one day that he is a man of honor and truth, and not worthy  to be injured, nor denigrated, and the other seeks to prove the contrary.\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn3\">\n<p class=\"MsoFootnoteText\"><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn3\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[3]<\/span><\/a> Norman also states that \u201cThe phrase <i>espada ropera <\/i>is presumably the origin of the French <i>epee rapiere <\/i>which first appeared in 1474.\u201d Norman further says;   \u201cThere is, in fact some evidence in paintings that the wearing of the sword in  civilian dress was more common in the late Middle ages in the Iberian  Peninsular than elsewhere in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn4\">\n<p class=\"MsoFootnoteText\"><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn4\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn4\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[4]<\/span><\/a> Carranza, <i>Filosofia<\/i>, p. 9<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn5\">\n<p class=\"MsoFootnoteText\"><a href=\"#_ftnref5\" name=\"_ftn5\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn5\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[5]<\/span><\/a> ibid, p. 24.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn6\">\n<p class=\"MsoFootnoteText\"><a href=\"#_ftnref6\" name=\"_ftn6\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn6\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[6]<\/span><\/a> As an aside regarding the belief that has been perpetuated to this very day about the excessive length of the Spanish rapier: Whereas some authors of the past have asserted that the Spanish sword was sometimes over five feet in length, King   Phillip II issued a law in 1564 that ordered that the sword\u2019s length was to be  determined by placing the pommel of the weapon in line with the left shoulder  and extending the blade across the chest to the end of the middle finger of the  laterally extended right arm. This length should not exceed five fourths of a <i>vara. <\/i>A <i>vara <\/i>is a unit of measurement that was used in Castile of the time, which is approximately thirty-three inches. Thus if a rapier is five-fourths of a <i>vara<\/i>, the total length of the sword would be  approximately 41.25 inches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn7\">\n<p class=\"MsoFootnoteText\"><a href=\"#_ftnref7\" name=\"_ftn7\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn7\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[7]<\/span><\/a> Carranza, <i>Filosofia<\/i>, p. 152<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn8\">\n<p class=\"MsoFootnoteText\"><a href=\"#_ftnref8\" name=\"_ftn8\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn8\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[8]<\/span><\/a> Castle, <i>Schools and Masters<\/i>, p. 96.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn9\">\n<p class=\"MsoFootnoteText\"><a href=\"#_ftnref9\" name=\"_ftn9\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn9\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[9]<\/span><\/a> P. 7: \u201c.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn10\">\n<p class=\"MsoFootnoteText\"><a href=\"#_ftnref10\" name=\"_ftn10\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn10\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[10]<\/span><\/a> <i>de la Filosophia de Armas<\/i> pp. 25, 26.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn11\">\n<p class=\"MsoFootnoteText\"><a href=\"#_ftnref11\" name=\"_ftn11\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn11\"><span class=\"MsoFootnoteReference\">[11]<\/span><\/a> Narvaez, <i>Modo Facil y Nuevo para Examinarse los Maestros en la Destreza de las Armas <\/i>pp. 115\u2013116.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This paper was delivered on April 9th, 2005 at Cambridge, UK for the Renaissance Society of America&#8217;s Annual Meeting. Synopsis: Although later misunderstood as a ponderous and impractical edifice, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maa.ragnarok.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maa.ragnarok.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maa.ragnarok.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maa.ragnarok.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maa.ragnarok.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maa.ragnarok.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maa.ragnarok.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maa.ragnarok.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maa.ragnarok.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}