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Escrita e prática de guerra em Portugal 1573-1612
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Os protagonistas da redescoberta da herança clássica estiveram profundamente comprometidos com a «revolução militar». Desde pelo menos a segunda metade de quatrocentos que muitos dos homens que se dedicaram à pintura ou à actividade edificatória tiveram um papel crucial na evolução da guerra. A invenção do baluarte angular, elemento fundamental da nova maneira de fortificar, resultou do impacto objectivo da artilharia. Todavia, de um ponto de vista conceptual, encontra-se igualmente devedora à mesma base geométrico-matemática que esteve na origem da invenção da perspectiva. A guerra adquiriu o estatuto de «nuova scientia» porque recorreu à Geometria e à Matemática – já consolidadas no «Quadrivium» das Artes Liberais. Para disparar um canhão era necessário calcular ângulos de tiro e estudar linhas de trajectória. Também a condução das batalhas passou a contar com princípios estéticos, formaturas obedecendo a critérios como a simetria, ou esquadrões cuja configuração geométrica se construía em função de uma rigorosa matemática. O desenho de um baluarte angular exigia um pleno domínio da geometria; e para o sargento-mor dispor os soldados em formatura eram necessários minuciosos cálculos aritméticos. Mesmo a esgrima ou a arte da cavalaria não foram excepção, e sofreram a mesma contaminação de métodos e conceitos geométrico-matemáticos. A ligação entre a guerra e a arte foi um dado adquirido. A construção dos esquadrões em batalha, a forma das armas, ou as tendências do vestuário, foram parcelas da equação militar quinhentista. O reinado de D. Sebastião constituiu a confirmação da tendência para uma militarização crescente da sociedade. Tal como as directivas tridentinas o exigiam para a Arquitectura, a guerra foi também objecto de um estreitamento conceptual. Restringiram-se certos formalismos das formaturas militares para focar a atenção do combatente naquilo que se entendia como essencial – combater com o máximo de eficácia. Em plena época sebástica, a desvalorização das formaturas do caracol e da galé como dispositivos de combate, tal como o fez Martim Afonso de Melo, foi disso um sinal inequívoco. Os tratadistas contemporâneos, e muito particularmente os hispânicos, defendiam uma obediência jesuítica aos soldados, quando estes ocupavam o seu lugar no esquadrão. Este era o verdadeiro edifício militar, construído como uma igreja de planta longitudinal, onde se pretendia canalizar a atenção do crente e dirigi-la para o essencial do acto litúrgico. E acolheram-se as inovações militares dos locais onde a guerra florescia, Flandres e Itália, moldando de seguida as novas propostas dentro dos condicionalismos da realidade portuguesa A reestruturação militar sebástica foi profunda, e atravessou o plano operacional, legislativo e teórico, impondo-se também no campo artístico português, cuja face mais visível se encontra na forma militarizada da arquitectura civil. O universo da tratadística portuguesa foi extremamente profícuo durante o reinado de D. Sebastião. Isidoro de Almeida foi uma peça chave, estabelecendo a ponte entre a época joanina e sebástica, e depois com a época filipina. É ele o ícone do conhecimento alargado da guerra, abarcando a fortificação, a arte de «esquadronar», eventualmente a artilharia; e da Arquitectura, tanto no plano prático como no teórico. O seu tratado foi revisitado por Luís Álvaro Seco de uma forma explícita, e por Luís Mendes de Vasconcelos de forma implícita; o primeiro anotou-o, o segundo copiou o âmbito. A vertente institucional também não foi menos marcante, como já se escreveu, constitui um eixo estruturante da organização militar do Antigo Regime. As Ordenanças excederam largamente o período de tempo em que foram instituídas, sobrevivendo à morte prematura do monarca responsável pela sua implementação. O recrutamento suportado pela legislação de 1570 consolidou-se, enquanto no espaço colonial a guerra se manteve quase exclusivamente a cargo dos portugueses. Do ponto de vista operacional continuaram a ocorrer acções militares de carácter irregular nas vastas regiões do império, onde o adversário permitia uma abordagem formalmente menos rígida. Ainda assim, noutras situações, como em Angola ou no Ceilão, os soldados também combatiam em esquadrões se a situação o exigisse. Martim Afonso de Melo refere as trocas de fogo maciças do tipo «salva», cuja invenção normalmente se atribui em época mais tardia aos holandeses. Coexistiram uma guerra de carácter irregular, e a doutrina operacional europeia. E também a «tal» ofensiva à «outrance», com que Boxer pretendeu generalizar o comportamento militar dos portugueses. Mas meio século volvido, foram forças racialmente heterogéneas e militarmente diversificadas no armamento e táctica, o instrumento das vitórias contra os exércitos regulares da W.I.C. Tal como o exército português da Restauração, que bateu decisivamente as forças espanholas no campo de batalha regular da Europa.
The men involved in the rediscovery of classical inheritance were also deeply committed to the so called «military revolution». Many artists and architects had a crucial role in the invention of the angled bastion, the key element of the fortification system, so war itself was also changed by artistic concepts. The conduct of battle went on to rely on aesthetic principles, graduations obeying the criteria such as symmetry, or the troop formations – known to the portuguese as «esquadrões» – were built upon a rigorous mathematic and geometric operations. Representing the three-dimensioned reality implied the invention of the linear perspective method. Its roots went far behind to the times of Giotto’s empirical approaches but, nevertheless, the geometricalmathematical conceptual basis in the fourteenth and sixteenth century had a more «scientific» approach. It extended to various activities, and so war was deeply influenced by mathematics and geometry, just as Art and Architecture. Shooting a cannon was no longer possible without calculating angles of fire and trajectory lines; the design of an angular bastion relied on geometric construction; and forming soldiers into battle required intricate arithmetic operations. The war thus earned the status of «nuova scientia» for relying in perspective and mathematics, which were already consolidated in the «Quadrivium» of liberal arts. The reign of D. Sebastião was confirmation of a growing militarization of the Portuguese society. Tridentine directives implied a new plain architecture that later was to became the «estilo chão», and war was also subject to a conceptual narrowing strictly focusing on the fighting effectiveness. The soldiers, no longer individual combatants, were a simple piece of the larger military building, the «esquadrão». Its construction implied mathematical and geometrical principles, the same rules needed for designing the longitudinal plan of a building. The military reforms implemented by D. Sebastião were profound and crossed various areas, such as operational, legislative and theoretical. Nevertheless, they did not appear as an isolated effort. One man palyed a key part in those reforms, Isidoro de Almeida, establishing a bridge between the past Reforms of King D. João III, and the later Filipe I. Almeida had an overall knowledge of the war, including the fortification, the art of «esquadronar», eventually the artillery, and even of architecture. He was a war veteran as well as a military writer, so his understanding was both practical and theoretical. His military treatise was the first published in Portugal during the sixteenth century (1573), and remained so until the book of Luís Mendes de Vasconcelos published in 1612. The institutional aspect was no less important. D. Sebastião’s ordinances exceeded the time period in which they were imposed, surviving the death of the monarch. The 1570 legislation continued to provide the recruitment during Spanish rule, obviously under foreign control the same way as Spanish garrisons occupied the principal Portuguese fortresses. Nevertheless, war remained almost exclusively in the hands of Portuguese nobles in the colonial space. The irregular nature of warfare continued in the vast regions of the Empire. Surely the enemies allowed looser military formations, but that approach was also a military necessity because of the completely different characteristics such as climate, topography, and the forces involved. Still, soldiers also fought in regular formations if the situation required, as we can see in some accounts of the war in Angola or in Ceylon. The irregular warfare and the European doctrine merged, combined with the offensive «à outrance» that Boxer intended to generalize as the sole fighting method of the Portuguese. Half a century later, during the «Guerras da Restauração» in the seventeenth century, the racially heterogeneous Brazilian forces were the victors against the regular armies of W.I.C. Just as the Portuguese armies vanquished the Spanish forces in the regular European battlefield.
The men involved in the rediscovery of classical inheritance were also deeply committed to the so called «military revolution». Many artists and architects had a crucial role in the invention of the angled bastion, the key element of the fortification system, so war itself was also changed by artistic concepts. The conduct of battle went on to rely on aesthetic principles, graduations obeying the criteria such as symmetry, or the troop formations – known to the portuguese as «esquadrões» – were built upon a rigorous mathematic and geometric operations. Representing the three-dimensioned reality implied the invention of the linear perspective method. Its roots went far behind to the times of Giotto’s empirical approaches but, nevertheless, the geometricalmathematical conceptual basis in the fourteenth and sixteenth century had a more «scientific» approach. It extended to various activities, and so war was deeply influenced by mathematics and geometry, just as Art and Architecture. Shooting a cannon was no longer possible without calculating angles of fire and trajectory lines; the design of an angular bastion relied on geometric construction; and forming soldiers into battle required intricate arithmetic operations. The war thus earned the status of «nuova scientia» for relying in perspective and mathematics, which were already consolidated in the «Quadrivium» of liberal arts. The reign of D. Sebastião was confirmation of a growing militarization of the Portuguese society. Tridentine directives implied a new plain architecture that later was to became the «estilo chão», and war was also subject to a conceptual narrowing strictly focusing on the fighting effectiveness. The soldiers, no longer individual combatants, were a simple piece of the larger military building, the «esquadrão». Its construction implied mathematical and geometrical principles, the same rules needed for designing the longitudinal plan of a building. The military reforms implemented by D. Sebastião were profound and crossed various areas, such as operational, legislative and theoretical. Nevertheless, they did not appear as an isolated effort. One man palyed a key part in those reforms, Isidoro de Almeida, establishing a bridge between the past Reforms of King D. João III, and the later Filipe I. Almeida had an overall knowledge of the war, including the fortification, the art of «esquadronar», eventually the artillery, and even of architecture. He was a war veteran as well as a military writer, so his understanding was both practical and theoretical. His military treatise was the first published in Portugal during the sixteenth century (1573), and remained so until the book of Luís Mendes de Vasconcelos published in 1612. The institutional aspect was no less important. D. Sebastião’s ordinances exceeded the time period in which they were imposed, surviving the death of the monarch. The 1570 legislation continued to provide the recruitment during Spanish rule, obviously under foreign control the same way as Spanish garrisons occupied the principal Portuguese fortresses. Nevertheless, war remained almost exclusively in the hands of Portuguese nobles in the colonial space. The irregular nature of warfare continued in the vast regions of the Empire. Surely the enemies allowed looser military formations, but that approach was also a military necessity because of the completely different characteristics such as climate, topography, and the forces involved. Still, soldiers also fought in regular formations if the situation required, as we can see in some accounts of the war in Angola or in Ceylon. The irregular warfare and the European doctrine merged, combined with the offensive «à outrance» that Boxer intended to generalize as the sole fighting method of the Portuguese. Half a century later, during the «Guerras da Restauração» in the seventeenth century, the racially heterogeneous Brazilian forces were the victors against the regular armies of W.I.C. Just as the Portuguese armies vanquished the Spanish forces in the regular European battlefield.
Descrição
Tese de doutoramento, História (História dos Descobrimentos e da Expansão), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, 2013
Palavras-chave
Arte e ciência militares - Portugal - 1573-1612 Portugal - História militar - séc.16-17 Arte e guerra - séc.16-17 Teses de doutoramento - 2013