Jointly Published with the British Royal Armouries. Medieval fighting has long been thought to be "rough and untutored." Visiions of men madly slashing to and fro and hoping for the best still dominate not only popular culture but modern histories of fencing as well.In recent years, the survival of more than 175 fighting treatises from the Middle Ages and Renaissance has provided a whole generation of enthusiasts, scholars, reenactors and stage choreographers with a wealth of new information. This text represents the earliest known text on swordsmanship anywhere in the world. Royal Armouries MS I.33 presents a system of combat that is sophisticated and demonstrates the diffusion of fighting arts beyond the military classes. Within the manuscripts richly illustrated full-color illustrations lie still-potent demonstrates of sword techniques, surprisingly shown by a Priest and Scholar. Most surprisingly, however, is the presence of a woman practcing in the text, the only one illustrated in any European fighting treatise. This full color facsimile & translation has been long-awaited and promises to become an important resource for years to come.
(ISBN-10: 1891448382)

This book is the first English translation of Fiore de' Liberi's "Fior di Battaglia," the 1409 swordsmanship and martial arts text that is the oldest extant in the Italian tradition. The book survives in four known manuscripts. One of them, housed at the Getty museum in Los Angeles, CA, is held to be the most complete, and is the basis of this translation. Writing for an audience of illustrious students including the powerful marquis Nicolo' d' Este, Fiore presents detailed instruction on wrestling as well as the use of several weapons including longsword, axe, dagger, staff, lance and others. Fiore's text has been translated by experienced historical martial artist Tom Leoni of the Order of the Seven Hearts and reviewed by Maestro Sean Hayes of the Northwest Academy of Arms and by Greg Mele of the Chicago Swordplay Guild. Fourth revision.

Massimo Malipiero in cooperation with the Paul Getty Museum has created this excellent resource, containing his interpretations of the text and illustrations, as well as high quality colour images of the Getty's version of Fiore dei Liberi's treatise. Massimo includes his own illustrations in attempting to explain the principles behind some of Fiore's techniques, and provides a comparison analysis between the Getty's version and the Pisani-Dossi and Morgan.
(ISBN: 8879445035-4)

This is the world's first glimpse of the spectacular color and amazingly clear presentation of swordsmanship and martial tradition from 15th century Germany. Christian Henry Tobler, Chivalry Bookshelf, and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, have combined their strengths to produce a limited facsimile translations of one of the most important treatises in the tradition of Master Johannes Liechtenauer.

This is the only edition planned by Munich's Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, leather-bound and complete on the highest grade of permanent art-quality paper slipcased for permanent protection. Each of Kal's close to two hundred full color plates are faithfully produced at full scale in an oversized book, drawn from ultra-high-resolution photographs that capture the minute detail for the myriad examples of armour, arming clothes, and actions associated with various forms of feats of arms, including the judicial duel, jousts, tournaments, in and out of armour, on foot and on horseback.

Included techniques span the range of 15th century weapons, including the lance, messer, sword and buckler, dagger, longsword, and unique presentations of the dueling shield — even a dispute fought between a man and a woman! Kal's treatise is a treasure-trove of detail for students of military or chivalric history, Western martial arts, medieval costume, jousting, reenactment or foot combat.

Royal Armouries MS I.33 Companion Deciphering the martial techniques in RA MS I.33 can be difficult. Paul Wagner & Stephen Hand of the Stoccata School of Defence, Sydney, have studied the manuscript for five years, working to unlock its intriguing secrets. What emerges is a complex system of civilian sword and buckler combat (including wrestling).All of the I.33 techniques are presented here with clear text are presented with more than 400 photographic illustrations, a complet martial arts system useful for historical martial artists, reenactors, SCA combatants, or any student of medieval military history. Alone or as a companion to Dr. Jeffrey Forgeng's Medieval Art of Swordsmanship, this book is sure to become a swordsmanship and martial arts classic.
(ISBN-10: 1891448439)

This beautifully-illustrated and detailed book presents one of the world's most influential fencing treatises. Ridolfo Capo Ferro was a legend in his own lifetime and his intricate and exact instructions were copied and emulated throughout a Europe bewitched by this Ialian's grace and style.

The book, illustrated with 43 striking plates, gives a very real flavour of the panache of this expert in swordsmanship and mastery of that most lethal of weapons - the rapier. Translated into English, this books is not only attractive to look at, it is also a vital historical record. It is essential reading for any historical swordfighter, student of martial arts and student of military history as it allows the reader to access the knowledge of one of the masters of the art.
(ISBN: 1-853675-80-6)

The earliest known personal combat treatise, the sophisticated swordsmanship of Royal Armouries MS I.33 has long befuddled generations of fencing historians. For the first time, in partnership with the British Royal Armouries, this beautiful work will be available in a quality hardbound, full color facsimile translation.

Dr. Forgeng, Curator for Arms and Armor at the Higgins Armory Museum in Worchester, MA., brings his years of philological experience and his close contact with the Historical Martial Arts community to bear with a translation that is both highly accurate and accessible.

This work promises to become one of the key works and will be a necessary item on the shelf of any aspiring medieval swordsman.
(ISBN: 1-891448-38-2)

Flos Duellatorum, on of the most famous, important and studied other manual of medieval combat. It contains the complete instructions of the knight's fighting skills and techniques, from hand-to-hand (abrazare) to dagger, the longsword, various types of sticks, in armor and without, on foot and to horse. This volume introduces a comparitive analysis between three existing manuscripts of the Flos Duellatorum: Pisani-Dossi, Getty's and Morgan's versions, with integral reproduction of the text of all the versions and numerous images up to now lacking and found in manuscripts conserved in the United States. Suit of transcription, one biography of Master Fiore and a technical appendix, the book filler moreover the study of Pisani-Dossi for the edition of 1902, completed with the information derived from the more recent studies.

The book is written in Italian, but offers an excellent compilation of the three versions indicated earlier.

Originally writtin in Middle High German during the late 14th and early 15th centuries, the Codex Wallerstein has long been available to scholars in microfilm format from Augsburg University. Now for the first time, the text and drawings are available to scholars and martial artists in printed form in the original Middle High German, Modern German and English translations.

The codex offers a series of fundamental counters to common attacks, using the longsword, falchion and dagger, as well as the complete system of wrestling techniques. In this work the reaer will find a great deal of instruction on thrusting at or closing in against an opponent, expanding Master Johannes Liechtenauer's art of longsword combat. This publication is a must for any reference library of historical Europan martial arts practitioner.
(ISBN:1-58160-339-8)

In the early Italian Renaissance, few courts were as renowned for arts and letters as was the Court of Urbino. Here the consumate image of the Renaissance Man was forged under the benevolent patronage of Guidobaldo da Montrefeltro, the same man who was patron for Baldasarre Castiglione.

At the same time, the art of swordsmanship was undergoing systematic exposiition at he hands of swordmasters who had traveled and taught the nobility of Europe. Recorded in books, a select few of these fighting treatises have survived to the present, allowing a glimpse not only of the techniques employed in both civilian and military swordsmanship, but also into the philosophy advocated for the employment of arms.

Filippo Vadi, working in the tradition of earlier swordmasters both in Italy and abroad, created his own treatise around the 3rd quarter of the 15th century. Closely following the renowned Italian master Fiore dei Liberi, his approach added much that was new; an emphasis on a more linear stance, the first description of what could be thought of as the lunge, conections to the sciences of Geometry and Music that presaged printed manuals of the 16th and 17th centuries.
(ISBN:1-89144-816-1)

In the 15th century, Sigmund Ringeck, master-at-arms to Albrecht, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria, and one of the descendants of the Liechtenauer school, broke the secrecy, and sought to explain the mysterious verses. Working through the verses line-by-line, he added explanatory commentary on the tactical and mechanical principles of the system. Ringecks commentaries reveal a sophisticated system of fighting, based on natural, underlying bio-mechanics, and a fighting philosophy built around maintaining control of initiative.

Christian Henry Tobler has rendered this key text into English for the first time, and provides photographic interpretation and commentary for each technique of this secret martial art. The result is a must for serious Western martial artists, students of medieval history, hoplologists, and medieval reenactors.
(ISBN: 1-89144-807-2)

Mark Rector has put together an interesting volume that serves both as a historical reference to old Scottish swordplay, and a guide to those individuals interested in the recreation of old styles of sword combat. A re-publication of New Method of Fencing, 1707
Sir William Hope studied swordsmanship for the better part of fifty years, periodically penning influential treatises summarizing his erudite passion. The "New Method of Fencing" represents his penultimate work, an opus that broke with conventional wisdom to present a universal system capable of use by any man, not in the salle darmes but in the street or on the field of battle where a gentleman wielding the small-sword could come face to face with the deadly claymore or poleaxe.

Includes Expert Sword-Man's Companion - 1728 Donald McBane, self-described soldier, gambler and brothel-owner acquired his skills as a swordsman through the rough-and-tumble soldiers life of bloodthirsty combat, duels, drinking, whoring and outright robbery. His account of life as a soldier in Marlboroughs army, preserved and included at the beginning of his manual, reads like an action-adventure ripped from the pages of Defoe. If this werent enough, his instructions on the broadsword, backsword and small sword carry nugget after nugget of golden advice available only through the trials of experience.
(ISBN: 1-89144-815-3)

268 illustrations 6 x 9 This brilliant and attractive new book makes one of the most influential fencing manuals of the middle ages available in English for the first time. The authentic fifteenth-century techniques of master-of-arms Hans Talhoffer are illustrated in detail, presenting not only a unique historic record but also a visual guide for modern practitioners. This unparalleled guide to medieval combat, illustrated with 268 contemporary images, provides a glimpse of real people fighting with skill, sophistication and ruthlessness. Mark Rector, the editor and translator of this work, is an actor, playwright, stage combatant and fight choreographer. He is a founder of the Chicago Swordplay Guild and Associate Director of Swordplay Symposium International.
(ISBN:1-85367-418-4)

The manuscript is a classic collection of illustrations and text that describes several forms of swordplay, sword & shield, pole-arms as well as details on unarmed and knife techniques. Reproductions of the original illustrations in the book are good. Text in Italian.
(ISBN:NA)

An ancient treatise, written by Fiori de' Liberi, in 1410, is composed primarily of illustrations with short rhyming captions in Italian. Sections on wrestling, dagger, sword, spear, two handed sword, armored combat, pole-axe, and mounted combat. Considerable discussion of disarming techniques. Two-handed sword (spadone) has the greatest emphasis. Reproductions of the original illustrations in the book are good. Text in Italian.
(ISBN:NA)

Talhoffer's 'Fechtbuch aus dem Jahre 1467' or 'Fencing Book of the Year 1467' was published in Prague 1887. The work is a catalog of fencing actions and consists of illustrations with short descriptions for the two-handed sword, sword and buckler, sword and shield, dagger, wrestling, pollaxe, judicial combat, and mounted combat. Containing excerpts from the original treatise entitled "Fechtbuch aus dem Jahre 1467". Text in German and available in the USA. (ISBN: 3-932077-03-2)

An English version of this same book will be available later this year published under license by Greenhill Bokks/Lionel Leventhal Ltd. of London, UK.

This original first edition of one of the most elaborate and extensively illustrated Spanish works on the science, art and practice of fencing. The fine engraved plates demonstrate fencing on geometrical principles, providing detailed diagrams of sword positions and arm and leg movements. The work is scarce, the NUC entry describing a microfilmed copy at Brown University (imperfect) and citing only three locations, presumably for complete copies of the original: Harvard, Library of Congress and Boston Public. Lorenz De Rada is described on the title as a Knight of the Order of Santiago and Chancellor-Major and Perpetual Inspector of the Kingdoms of New Spain.

Lorenz de Rada, Fancisco, Marques de los Torres de Rada [d.1713]. Nobleza De La Espada, Cuyo Esplendor Se Expressa En Tres Libros, Seguin Ciencia, Arte, Y Experiencia... 3 Volumes in 2 [title varies]. folio pp. 14, p.l., 204; 6 p.l., 330 [4]; 4 p.;., 622. Titles in red & black within typographical borders. 2 engraved titles & 98 engraved plates. Woodcut ornaments & initials. Contemporary limp vellum (lower margin of 1 engraved title repaired, some minor marginal dampstaining & worming, overeall a very attractive copy). Madrid: Joseph Rodriguez Escobar [Vol III: Diego Martinez Abad], 1705