Royal Guild of Defence
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Kingdom of Lochac Royal Guild of Defence |
Period Fencing Manuals
Contents
Sources for Period Fencing Manuals
A list of the various sources for obtaining the Period Fencing Manuals.
Note that Period Fencing Manuals are defined as those fencing manuals
that were published before 1620.
Index of Known Period Fencing Manuals
This index is sorted by date. Where an online version of the manual is
known a link to that location is provided. The list is by no means
comprehensive, but based upon the information available at the time of
writing. Please contact the
Site Maintainer for corrections or additions.
Richard distributes the Instant Guild Library CD-ROM as a service to Guild members. The CD-Rom contains most of the documents below. Details on how to order the CD-ROM can be found at members.ozemail.com.au/~rcull/Guild_library.htm. His service is reputed to be prompt and reliable.
Patri Pugilese has been providing a facsimile service for a number of years. The full list of manuals he provides can be found at www.latourdulac.com/fencing/patri.html. His service is reputed to be prompt and reliable.
William Wilson's site is one of the oldest, and more informative on the subject of rapier combat. There is a wealth of information to peruse, as well as pdf facsimile copies of various manuals. He can be found at jan.ucc.nau.edu/~wew/fencing.html.
The School of Defence is a group in the UK that also studies rapier fencing. At present they have facsimile copies of Di Grassi (1594 English version) and Swetnam available for download as pdf files. They also promise to have more available later. You can find them at www.schooleofdefence.fsnet.co.uk/.
The ARMA (previously known as HACA) are probably one of the more dynamic groups around. There is a wealth of information to be found at their site, which is www.thehaca.com. The site contains many links and excerpts from various manuals, and is also kept fairly current. A note of warning, one of HACA's founders, John Clements, is opinionated, and the source of some fairly aggressive debate. (I'm not conversant with his work, I've just seen some of the slanging match on various web sites, I'll leave it to you to decide his merits.) There are also several mistakes in their list of fencing manuals.
AEMMA (Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts) covers the same sort of ground as is covered by HACA. They are at www.aemma.org. AEMMA appears to be just as dynamic, yet more accepted than HACA, and has associations with AFHI.
Association of Historical Fencing Institutes. The association brings together the leading exponents of historical and classical fencing. They've established an accreditation system for fencing masters and instructors, as well as providing useful information regarding historical and classical fencing. Well worth a look to see what's been added.
Maestro Ramon Martinez is the world's leading expert on the Spanish rapier fencing method. As well as some useful links and articles, he also retails a video demonstration of Spanish rapier technique.
The online book retailers such as Amazon, Dymocks etc can be useful sources for modern manuals, and recent reprints or translations of period manuals. One to keep a close eye on is Chivalry Bookshelf who specialise in printing translated versions of the period manuals, and other related works.
This is an international network of secondhand book resellers. Copies of older out of print manuals, and original period manuals can be found in their database from time to time.
This anonymous combat manual is Germanic in origin and dated as either late thirteenth or early fourteenth century. It is expected that Royal Armouries in Leeds, who currently own the manual, will publish a work on the manual, but this has not yet been forthcoming. Images from the manual can be viewed at ARMA's manuals site.
There's two recent facsimile reprints of this manual, which appears to have been reproduced several times. The first is by Hans-Peter Hils, Meister Johan Liectenaurs Kunst des langen Schwertes (Frankfurt-am-Main, Bern, New York, 1985). The second older book is Martin Weirschin's Meister Johann Leichtenaurs Kunst des Fechten (Munich, 1965).
There are two main manuscripts for this manual. The first is the lost Pisani-Dossi manuscript, a copy of which was published and edited by Francesco Novati, Bergamo, 1902. The second is the manuscript held at the Getty Museum, MS Ludwig XV, 13. An English translation can be found at www.vararmouries.com/wildrose/fiore/fiore.html.
Facsimile copies of some of Talhoffer's work can be found at the HACA site. A long-awaited modern English edition is also finally available! "Medieval Combat: A 15th Century Manual of Swordfighting and Close-Quarter Combat", Translated by Mark Rector. Greenhill Books/Lionel Leventhal; (September 2000) ISBN: 1853674184)
Probably one of the most frustrating manuals known to modern fencing scholars, due to it's exceptionally low availabilty. Tantalising glimpses of Monte's manual can be found in Angelo's "Martial Arts of Rennaisance Europe".
An English translation of this manual by William Jherek Swanger can be found on www.drizzle.com/~celyn/jherek/EngManc.pdf.
A pdf fascimile copy of this manual in the original Italian can be found at jan.ucc.nau.edu/~wew/fencing.html in the manuals section. An explanation on Marozzo's system written by Giovanni Rapisardi can be found at jan.ucc.nau.edu/~wew/other/gr/. William Wilson has an article about Marozzo's Progression at mac9.ucc.nau.edu/~wew/marozzo/, and an English translation at jan.ucc.nau.edu/~wew/fencing/sca/marozzo-sca.pdf. This translation does not include the plates, however these can be found in the Italian language facsimile.
A pdf fascimile copy of this manual can be found at William Wilson's site.There are also an explanation of Agrippa's manual written by Roger Siggs at jan.ucc.nau.edu/~wew/fencing/sca/CamilloAgrippa.pdf.
A pdf facsimile copy of the original Italian language manual can be found at William Wilson's site.
A pdf facsimile copy can be found at www.the-exiles.org/Library.htm.
An English translation is available from Laura Agnotti. Contact her via
mail to determine cost and delivery options. Her address is:
Laura Agnotti, 76 Westmoreland Avenue, Arlington MA 02174 USA (PH:
+1-781-643-6867).
An English translation by Giovanni Rapisardi and William Wilson is available from William Wilson. Contact him via email to determine cost and delivery options. His email address is gwylym@infomagic.net.
Note: Although Viggiani's manual was not published until 1575, it was actually completed prior to his death, and is dedicated by the author on 15 May 1551. An English translation of this manual by William Jherek Swanger can be found on www.drizzle.com/~celyn/jherek/EngManc.pdf. He also has a practical guide to Viggiani's work at www.drizzle.com/~celyn/jherek/practicalviggiani.pdf.
A pdf fascimile copy of this manual can be found at William Wilson's site.
This is the 'Englished' version published by I.G. gentleman. Several versions of this manual are available. A pdf facsimile is available at www.schooleofdefence.fsnet.co.uk/page9.html.
Available in facsimile form in Jackson's book (see References). A transcription is also available online. Book 1 and Book 2. There appear to be some errors in the transcription, so it may pay to get a hold of the fascimile copy.
Available in facsimile form in Jackson's book (see References). There is an online transcription of both Paradoxes of Defence and Bref Instructions. There appear to be some errors in the transcription, so it may pay to get a hold of the fascimile copy.
A pdf fascimile copy of this manual can be found at William Wilson's site.
A pdf fascimile copy of this manual can be found at William Wilson's site.
A pdf fascimile copy of this manual in the original Italian can be found at mac9.ucc.nau.edu/fencing/manuscripts/capoferro.pdf. A practical guide to Capoferro's system written by William Wilson can be found at mac9.ucc.nau.edu/manuscripts/pcapo/, and an English translation by William Wilson and William Jherek Swanger at mac9.ucc.nau.edu/manuscripts/pcapo/EnglishCF.pdf. This translation does not include the plates, however these can be found in the Italian language facsimile or as a stand alone document at mac9.ucc.nau.edu/manuscripts/pcapo/CapoFerro-Plates.pdf.
A pdf fascimile copy of this manual can be found at www.schooleofdefence.fsnet.co.uk/page9.html.
Anglo, Sydney, The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2000).
Jackson, James, Three Elizabethan Fencing Manuals (Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, Delmar, New York, 1972).
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| Created: 13th July 2002 Last Modified: 4th February 2005 |
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