The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship:
A Facsimile and Translation of Europe's Oldest Personal Combat Treatise, Royal Armouries MS. I.33

Jeffrey L. Forgeng

Visions 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 over 175 fighting treatises from the Middle Ages and Renaissance has provided a whole generation of enthusiasts, scholars, re-enactors 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 practicing in the text, the only one illustrated in any European fighting treatise. This full-color facsimile and translation has been long-awaited and promises to become an important resource for years to come.

2003, The Chivalry Bookshelf and The Royal Armouries

The Art of Combat:
A German Martial Arts Treatise of 1570

Jeffrey L. Forgeng

Among the substantial legacy of martial arts texts left by combat masters working in the medieval German tradition, this book stands out as one of the most remarkable and important, translated for the first time in English by Jeffrey Forgeng. The only major original text in this corpus to be disseminated in print, Meyer's manual is an ambitious comprehensive encyclopedia of traditional German martial arts, covering a range of weapons forms, and offering a rationalized introduction to a complex and organic tradition inherited from the Middle Ages.

2006, Greenhill Books

Viking Weapons and Combat Techniques

William R. Short

A source of enduring fascination, the Vikings are the most famous raiders of medieval Europe. Despite the exciting and compelling descriptions in the Icelandic sagas and other contemporary accounts that have fueled this interest, we know comparatively little about Viking age arms and armor as compared to weapons from other historical periods. We know even less about how the weapons were used. While the sagas provide few specific combat details, the stories are invaluable. They were written by authors familiar with the use of weapons for an audience that, likewise, knew how to use them. Critically, the sagas describe how these weapons were wielded not by kings or gods, but by ordinary men, as part of their everyday lives.

Viking Weapons and Combat Techniques provides an introduction to the arms and armor of the Vikings, the people who lived in Northern Europe during the Viking age, roughly the years 793–1066. In addition, the book provides an overview of Viking history and culture, focusing on the importance of weapons to the society as well as the Vikings’ lasting impact on Europe through their expeditions of trade and exploration.

2009, Westholme Publishing

Fencing: A Renaissance Treatise

Camillo Agrippa
edited by Ken Mondschein

Agrippa's treatise is the fundamental text of Western swordsmanship. Just as earlier swordsmanship can be better understood from Agrippa's critiques, so too was his book the starting point for the rapier era. Every other treatise of the early-modern period had to deal explicitly or implicitly with Agrippa's startling transformation of the art and science of self-defense with the sword. Likewise, all of the fundamental ideas that are still used today - distance, time, line, blade opposition, counterattacks and countertime - are expressed in this paradigm-shifting treatise. His treatise was also a microcosm of sixteenth-century thought. It examines the art, reduces it to its very principles, and reconstructs it according to a way of thinking that incorporated new concepts of art, science and philosophy.

2010, Italica Press