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Historical martial arts

From EastKingdomWiki

Photo
EK-Martial-Arts.png
Artwork by Wulfgar Silfrahárr
Groups
Light and Heavy List Fighting, Arts and Sciences
Awards or Ranks
Awards associated with the Above

About Historical Martial Arts Resource

This is a set of resources for anyone looking to get started with historical martial arts in the SCA. This isn't an exhaustive list and should be updated regularly.

For general information on the various styles and masters, as well as facsimiles and translations of many of the fighting manuals, there is a Historical Armed Combat Wiki named Wiktenauer.
This is a good place for more information on the various styles.

Authors & Books

The following are a mix of translators, interpretations and modern instructors with books on various historical fencing topics.

Author(s) Book(s) Description
Robert Charette Fiore Dei Liberis Armizare: The Chivalric Martial Arts System Of Il Fior Di Battaglia "In Armizare: The Chivalric Martial Arts System of il Fior di Battaglia, Robert Charrette brings together his experiences as a martial artist and respected 14th century living historian with his skills as a professional author graphic artist to not only take readers on a walking tour of Master Fiore's manuscripts, but into the mindset behind its creation. More than just an interpretation of an old book's contents, this is a tool-kit that reveals Fiore dei Liberi's brilliance as not just a fighter, but as martial arts teacher."
David & Dori Coblentz Fundamentals of Italian Rapier "Fundamentals of Italian Rapier: A Modern Manual for Teachers and Students of Historical Fencing offers a comprehensive theoretical foundationfor seventeenth-century rapier fencing. This book pairs descriptions of fencing techniques with over a hundred images, explaining the underlying reasoning for each fencing action as well as offering drills and exercises designed to help students internalize the three fundamentals of Italian rapier fencing: modo, misura, and tempo (technique, measure, and timing)."
Puck & Mary Curtis From Page to Practice "Having built an international reputation for translating these complex texts and making them comprehensible to modern audiences, Puck and Mary Curtis have created this first-ever English language guide to training in authentic 16th century Destreza. Fully illustrated, this extended primer provides a student step-by-step instruction in all of the fundamental elements of the Spanish school, in the precise technical language of that school, and is instrumental to anyone with even a passing interest in this famed tradition of swordplay."
Jeffrey Forgeng The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship "Curator of Arms and Armor at the Worchester Art Museum, Forgeng has translated a number of fighting manuals including the I.33 book on sword and buckler and Hans Lecküchner's Messer Treatise. Many of these books are available from commercial vendors."
Christopher Holzman Lulu store "CHRISTOPHER A. HOLZMAN's fencing lineage goes back through Ted Hootman and Giorgio and Italo Santelli to the roots of Hungarian and Italian sabre fencing and indeed to Radaelli himself. He is a practitioner of both historical and modern fencing, and a fencing instructor accredited by the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association."
Jared Kirby Publications page "This is a selection of texts that Jared Kirby has worked on. From oversight over large translations projects, to doing background research and forwards, as well as authoring entire texts himself."
Ken Mondschein The Art of the Rapier "The Art of the Rapier is a comprehensive manual intended to teach modern people how to fence in the style of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Profusely illustrated with both photographs and examples from period treatises, it is written for three main audiences: devotees of the Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) movement; members of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) and other medieval-recreation groups; and coaches of the modern sport of fencing who are looking to expand their competencies."
Reinier van Noort Fallen Rook Publishing "As part of his research, Reinier has produced over 20 translations of fencing texts, has published more than 10 books, and has co-authored several peer-reviewed articles. Examples of translations include the anonymous Vechtboek (UBL BPL 3281), Johannes Georgius Bruchius’s Scherm- ofte Wapen-konste, Johann Georg Pascha’s Kurtze iedoch Deutliche Beschribung handlend von Fechten auff den Stoß und Hieb, Philibert de la Touche’s Vrays Principes de l’Espée seule, and more."
Harry R. Peter von Danzig "This is an extremely readable translation of a fighting manual in the Lichtenaur school, attributed to Peter von Danzig. It has a translation of the Zedel - a poem intended as mnemonic for Lichtenaur's style, and sections on longsword, mounted fighting, and armored fighting."
Kaja Sadowski Fear Is the Mind Killer "Fear is the Mind Killer covers the fundamentals of designing a healthy training culture, from policy-writing and classroom strategies, to building drills and stress testing. You'll get a primer on the science of motor learning and motivation, and learn how to work more effectively with underserved populations, including women and survivors of violence."
Jherek Swanger Lulu store "My goal is to produce translations that are as semantically equivalent as possible to the original texts, as well as being readily understandable, in proper modern English."
Piermarco Terminiello Author page "Among other research, he has published an English translation (co-authored) of Francesco Ferdinando Alfieri’s La Scherma (1640); a transcription and English translation of Giuseppe Colombani’s L’Arte maestra (1711); and a transcription of the Biblioteca Trivulziana Cod.256 (c.1680)."
Christian Tobler Fighting with the German Longsword "Recorded over six centuries ago, the teachings of the 14th-century Master-at-Arms Johannes Liechtenauer have been given new life by a world-wide community of modern swordsmen and women, fascinated by the elegance, efficiency and depth of his unique martial art."
Guy Windsor Publications Page "I am a swordsmanship practitioner, instructor, researcher, writer, and also an entrepreneur. My mission in life is to restore historical martial arts to their rightful place at the heart of our culture."

Publishers & Book Vendors

HEMA/WMA Schools & Online Classes

Maréchal Remy Delamontagne de Gascogne also teaches live online rapier classes. Ping him for more info or recordings of previous classes.

Video Training

Italian Longsword

Italian Rapier

Bolognese

German Messer

German Rapier

German Sword and Buckler

Destreza

Blogs

Misc

  • Wiktenauer (wiki site for historical martial arts)