On a recent visit to the Andalusia region of southern Spain, I took with me an English version translation of The Manual of the Baratero. 

 

This almost mythical and legendary book about Spanish knife fighting amongst the criminal class had tweaked my interest many months before. So a quick-fire order to Paladin Press and hey presto, the book arrived the day before my flight departed. Good timing!

 

A book about the knife arts of Spain on a visit to the country of its origin. Well as they say “when in Rome……..

 

The Manual of the Baratero was first published, anonymously, in 1849 in Madrid, and highlighted the various edged weapon skills, tools and tactics that the common man and criminal classes used for means of personal protection. This included the use of small edged weapons such as the Navaja (folding knife), the gypsies scissors and fixed blade weapons.   It should be borne in mind that at this period of history Spanish edged weapon culture was predominately concerned with the more gentlemanly art of the sword. Manual del Baratero chose to redress the balance.

 

 

 

(photo of a modern made Navaja/near malaga - author)

 

For many years rare copies of the manual were stored with various collectors and knife arts enthusiasts. And it probably would have been that they would have stayed that way, out of the preserve of the masses (comparatively speaking). However in the mid 1990’s James Loriega, himself a student of Spanish edged weapon systems decided to endeavour to translate the original manual into English. That started a research project that would last for nearly a decade and throw up a range of technical issues such as language barriers, social environment background knowledge and of course fundamentally being able to de-cipher the nuances of 18^th century knife combat.

 

The book itself is filled with interesting tales, accounts and background as to how the Baratero (criminals) operated and effectively used their Navaja folding knives to extract money by menaces from professional gamblers and to settle blood feuds with others in their profession in the Spanish underworld.

 

However, it is not a book rich in the intricacies of edged weapon techniques, that in my humble opinion is too its credit. The techniques themselves in the original manual are basic. No, this book looks also at the wider aspects of the environment, culture and persona of the Spanish peoples and their attitudes to armas blancas cortas, or small edged weapons.

 

From a historical context it was interesting to note that many of the techniques that we train today in our modern combatives knife combat skills have roots way back to the 1800’s and earlier. However, we can always gain new knowledge and thanks to this book I will be adapting some of the techniques in our MCG syllabus now.

 

For me one of the most effective parts of the book as a whole was not only James Loriega’s translation of the language, but also his clear and concise description of how certain techniques would have been applied (or not in some cases). In short this putting the information into context increases the accuracy of the book tenfold, especially for people (like myself) who have never looked at the Spanish knife arts milieu before. He is to be commended.

 

The Manual of the Bartero is a first rate book for anyone interested in, not only, Spanish knife arts, but also to the wider edged weapon enthusiast community, and I for one look forward to reading Mr. Loriega’s other books and any future works that he his willing to provide.

 

Copyright – MCG – 2009