Luis Pacheco de Narváez

Who was Luis Pacheco de Narváez?

Don Luis Pacheco de Narváez was a Spanish writer on fencing. He was don Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza's student and later published a multitude of works based on the Destreza school of fencing. Some of his works were compendiums of Carranza's work while others were less derivative.

He may be the most prolific fencing author in history. He was the fencing master of the King Philip IV of Spain.

In 1608, he held a duel with Francisco de Quevedo as a result of Quevedo criticizing one of his works. Quevedo took off Pacheco's hat in the first encounter. In Quevedo's picaresque novel El Buscón, this duel was parodied with a fencer relying on mathematical calculations having to run away from a duel with an experienced soldier.

His two major original works are The Book of the Greatness of the Sword and The New Science.