Arturo Bonafont's "Nuevos Modos De Defenderse En La Calle Con Un Baston"

**TheVigilante** · Posted On: 5/17/2010 7:49am

It's amazing. It's beautiful. It's...mine! And along with it, the secret arcane knowledge it contains. Mwahaha!

Now, if only I could read Spanish...

For those who came in late:

"Nuevos Modos De Defenderse En La Calle Con Un Baston" was published in 1930, written by Arturo Bonafont, an Argentinian fencing master. It is unique among Western self-defense manuals as it contains the only known cane system where the techniques are performed entirely from reverse or "hiking" grip.

It's a pretty rare book, copies of it hardly ever come up for sale and the only other one that I know the whereabouts of is in Ralph Grasso's private collection in NYC. Ralph wrote a review of it here

I haven't had much of a chance to go through it yet but I'll post more details when I do. I would like to eventually bring this to a wider audience and hope to work with people to get a reprint/translation out.

**lklawson** · Posted On: 5/17/2010 7:58am

Awesome man!

This is the fourth copy I know of. Besides Mr. Grasso's, Craig Gemiener in Australia has a copy, a third was auctioned off a few years ago on a spanish language site, and now yours. :)

'Grats man.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

**DdlR** · Posted On: 5/17/2010 11:43am

Rare as hen's teeth, as my aunt used to say. I'm looking forward to the translation/re-publication.

**bbonafont** · Posted On: 12/15/2012 2:56pm

Arturo Bonafont is my great-great Grandfather and features his son (my great grandfather) Roque. I wish it wasn't so rare! I would love to have a copy of it in my library! I hope that you are able to find a way to reprint it!

I would really appreciate contact with you...and not in a creepy way haha.

**wikidbounce** · Posted On: 12/16/2012 8:16pm

I was just last month reading about the Grasso Morale method of Americane that includes Bonafont techniques. I hadn't heard of this style before that.

There's some videos on http://bootfighter.wordpress.com/2012/05/13/americane/

**lklawson** · Posted On: 12/17/2012 12:02pm

Since this thread has been resurrected, let me reiterate that I would love to work with any owners of this book to republish it. You guys know my work. I started something like 10+ years ago with Lang's Walkingstick Method and have somewhere north of 30 republished titles now. :)

I've also worked with Jared Kirby and The Association for Historical Fencing to republish antique books for them.

Gimme a shout and we'll repub this book!

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

**DdlR** · Posted On: 12/17/2012 2:16pm

On the chance the TheVigilante isn't subscribed to this thread and may not notice that it's been revived, you should be able to email him via this page - http://www.bullshido.net/forums/member.php?u=7027 .

**lklawson** · Posted On: 12/18/2012 3:18pm

I've PM'ed with him a few times and it seemed there was some interest. IMS, he wanted to repub himself, which is cool. But I haven't heard from him on the subject in a while. I tried PMing again mid-last year. <shrug>

Offer is still there. :)

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

**TheVigilante** · Posted On: 12/19/2012 7:25am

Hi guys,

Shamefully, I have sat on this for a while and I think it is time to do something about it. Sorry for not replying to your PM, Kirk - I almost never log in to Bullshido and I think this account is registered to an email address that no longer exists. Better to get ahold of me on Facebook!

I still would like to try and do something with this myself, and to eventually publish not just a straight-up repub/translation but also some extra stuff on training and history.

Mr. Bonafont, I would love to correspond with you, I can't seem to send you a private message, however?

I've updated my profile to include my current email address so you should be able to email me using the link that DdlR provided.

**DdlR** · Posted On: 12/19/2012 11:31am

Originally Posted by TheVigilante

Mr. Bonafont, I would love to correspond with you, I can't seem to send you a private message, however?

I've updated my profile to include my current email address so you should be able to email me using the link that DdlR provided.

I think the Bullshido.net private message system is only available to people with a post-count of 50 and over.

Good luck with the project.