Учебник вымогателя, или искусство владения навахой, ножом и цыганскими ножницами

Manual del Baratero: Critical Study and Commentary presents the first Russian translation of the legendary Spanish treatise Manual del Baratero (1849), accompanied by more than 500 pages of scholarly commentary and interdisciplinary analysis. Translated, edited, and critically annotated by Denis Cherevichnik — historian of European martial arts and weapons, HEMA practitioner, and President of the Traditional European Martial Arts Federation (TEMAF) — this volume constitutes the first comprehensive scientific study of Spanish and Hispanic knife culture.

The monograph reconstructs the historical development of popular knife dueling in Spain and its dominions, examining its social roots, legal framework, ritual structures, and honor codes. Drawing on Spanish legal sources from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the study demonstrates when and why the navaja emerged as the “sword of the common people.” The book analyzes eyewitness accounts of duels, traces the evolution of Spanish legislation from the twelfth to the early twentieth century, and explores the transnational export of Spanish knife traditions to colonial and post-colonial contexts.

Through comparative research across multiple countries, the author argues that popular knife fights were not random acts of violence but structured dueling practices embedded in systems of masculine honor and social regulation. Special attention is devoted to the historical fraternity of the baratero, its traditions, customs, and coded language. The volume also includes two previously unpublished early twentieth-century Spanish knife-fighting manuals featuring rare archival photographs.

This peer-reviewed interdisciplinary monograph integrates social history, cultural anthropology, legal history, and the history of weapons. All commentary is based exclusively on verified historical sources, with an extensive bibliography comprising more than 500 references. The edition contains over 600 black-and-white and approximately 60 color illustrations, most published here for the first time.

Scientific reviewer: M. L. Butovskaya, Ph.D. (History), Professor, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences.

608 pages.