Academia da Espada – Iberian Baroque Fencing & Martial Arts

Contextual music: Lully: «Premiere air des Espagnols» from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme – 21st Century Baroque

Life should be kind, and enemies strong. Danger, frequent, and defence, natural. The science to achieve it, infallible. Its study, mandatory, and exercise, a necessity.
Pacheco de Narváez.
Nueva Ciencia Aforismo 1.

What we are & What we do

We are a worldwide network of schools and clubs researching and practicing Verdadera Destreza, the Iberian fencing from the XVI – XVIII centuries, under the direction of Maestro Ton Puey.

We study this lost martial art from historical sources, and put it to work with modern standards of safety and ethics.

Where we are

We have Chapters and Study Groups across the globe.

Chapters

They form the organic structure of Academia da Espada and have as their main objective the integral study of Verdadera Destreza, using the school’s full panoply of arms .

A Coruña

Asturias

Ávila

Burgos

Bruges

Germania

Greece

Hungary

Indonesia

Milano

Ourense

Study Groups

These remain part of associated schools or clubs, which maintain their own objectives in the study of other disciplines, but incorporate at least one weapon from the panoply of Verdadera Destreza and follow Academia da Espada’s method.

Borchen

Bucharest

Compostela

Granada

Houston

Ljubljana

Majorca

Mexico

Osnabruck

Sint Niklaas

Vienna

Zurich

Who we are

Meet the people behind the fencing mask

Ton Puey

Master at Arms

Trained in shotokai karate and olympic fencing, he pivoted in 2003 towards historical martial arts. Since then, Ton has specialized in Verdadera Destreza according to the fencing treatises of the Iberian baroque period.

He is founding member of the Galician Association for Historical Fencing, honorary member of the Spanish Federation of Historical Fencing, and a Historical European Martial Arts Coalition member.

Ton is one of the founders, current vice president and has a seat in the editorial council of AGEA editora. From that publishing house he conducts research and commentary on Destreza sources.

In 2015 Ton was recognized as Mestre de Armas by HEMA Portugal. In 2018 he was received as the first non-Italian Master of Historical Fencing by the Italian Fencing Federation.

He is the current technical director and Mestre de Armas of Academia da Espada, where he develops and teaches the whole panoply of arms according to Destreza.

He also takes care to look into contemporary fencing traditions in the peninsula, recorded by masters such as Domingo Luiz Godinho, in order to have a complete picture of Iberian fencing in the XVI – XVIII centuries.

Ton has taught seminars in France, Austria, Italy, Holland, Ireland, Greece, USA, Mexico, Australia, China, Turkey, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, or Spain, among other places.

You can find articles and specialized information about his Destreza research at:

Ton Puey’s Patreon

Manuel Valle Ortiz

Honorary Master at Arms

Born in Cantabria and settled in Galicia, professional surgeon and vocational fencer. He has spent about three decades researching Iberian fencing in libraries and private collections across the world. For these achievements and his help, he is Academia da Espada’s first Honorary Mestre de Armas.

He founded AGEA Editora to publish these investigations, gathering a team of practitioners and scholars to help. He chairs the editorial board and directs research.

Manuel has edited multiple critical historical treatises of Verdadeira Destreza, both in Spanish and in portuguese. He is also author of the exhaustive bibliography Nueva Bibliografía de la Antigua Esgrima, an unprecedented work since Leguina.

Manuel has given lectures in Europe (Galicia, France, Spain, Scotland) and America for various organizations (AGEA, AEEA, FEEH, HEMAC, WMAW, among others). He is an active member of the international HEMA community, and a reference in the field of literature. He is also a fellow of the Historical European Martial Arts Coalition, honorary member of the Federación Española de Esgrima Histórica and honorary Mestre de Armas by HEMA Portugal.