The Italian struggle of the 17th century: the art of Posture is reborn

From the lost and fragmented roots of an ancient knowledge, the first sprouts of an Italian fighting system called Postura are born: thanks to the discovery of an anonymous seventeenth-century manuscript, with tables depicted by an artist attributable to the school of Annibale Carracci, Roberto Gotti and the instructors of the Gairethinx study center in Botticino have started a project for the recovery and enhancement of an ancient Italian wrestling system comparable to some types of oriental wrestling. «From the words and paintings collected in this text, it is possible to extrapolate the guidelines of a training system and a combat sport very close to the dynamics of judo – explains Gotti -. We found some rock carvings in Val Camonica where the struggle is already schematized: a knowledge that has settled and stratified up to the engravings and paintings collected in the treatises of the masters. This text comes to us as it is from the seventeenth century, a written tradition that has not been corrupted by a later interpretation ». Everything is based on four main postures: two more static ones that explain how to find balance and two more dynamic ones that represent imbalances on one foot, that is the motor foundation for carrying out the various techniques. «Compared to a fifteenth-century master who explains“ brawl ”techniques, this is a fighting system based on projections – explains Jacopo Credo -. However, it has an armed side, but in fact they are all very airy techniques thanks to which to unbalance the opponent to throw him to the ground safely on a carpet that recalls the oriental tatami ». The analyzed text collects 30 symmetrical-mirror techniques that make up a complete combat system, with imbalances, levers and projections. A fight simeta playable both as a sport and as an entertainment, in which discipline also becomes pleasure. «An example: if you let the opponent do a somersault on the back, depending on how you position your arm you can make him fall to his feet – acrobatics – or injure him by making him fall on his head – offense -. Here we find a small difference with today’s judo – continues I think -: if in judo, which contemplates the fight on the ground, you tend to close yourself to immobilize the opponent, here the master says to look up, because the goal is that I remain standing “throwing” the other to the ground ». A light fight in the feet and strong in the upper part of the body, in search of maximum proportions. «It becomes a game of geometry to prevail over the opponent – continues Gotti in the explanation -, in which the other body that is not ready to follow your maximum proportions is split in its stability». A system in which continuous dynamics wins against static. Research that becomes a unique teaching approach: disarming with daggers, sword, spear are not disciplines so far from posture. «Behind the fencing and the sword there is always a deep knowledge of the fight – explains Gotti -. You cannot understand the broad game of the sword if you do not know the narrow game, because in that you find the sublimation of the wide game. In our research, in addition to the words of the masters, there is a wealth of writings and images with an incredible diversity ». Which must not be flattened on the disciplines known to date, but recreated. «The masters and athletes of the wrestling disciplines are welcome in this research project, to continue this cultural process – concludes Gotti -. We look for the sedimented experiences to decode, understand and recreate together a forgotten discipline ». From the past to the future, through the tools of philology applied to sport and wrestling. A fascinating project that is already bearing its first fruits. •. © REPRODUCTION RESERVED