Take your skills and knowledge from absolute beginner to experienced fencer with the Complete Rapier Workbook, Guy Windsor’s training method based on his interpretation of Ridolfo Capoferro’s 1610 rapier treatise, The Great Representation of the Art and Practice of Fencing. This workbook format includes extracts and images from Capoferro’s book (and others), with clear explanations, step-by-step instructions, and a link to a video clip of every action, technique, and drill. This workbook is in four parts: Part 1: Beginners: how to warm up safely, how to stand and step, how to hold the sword, and the fundamental blade-on-blade actions teaching you how to safely approach your partner, get control of their sword, and hit them: and what to do when they try the same thing on you! Part 2: Completing the Basics: covering all the important actions of the system, from the scannatura (“the slaughtering" to the scanso della vita (“the avoidance of the waist”). Part 3: Developing your Skills: now that you know the techniques and tactics, you can learn to actually apply them at speed. This section lays out a clear and practical way to cross the gap between “I know this” to “I can do this”. Part 4: Sword and Dagger and Sword and Cape adds the most commonly used off-hand weapons, the dagger, and the cape, beginning with basic guards and actions, and including drills to build up your proficiency with them

The Italian school of swordsmanship was highly influential amongst the major courts of Europe and produced scholarly writings that are still reprinted and studied today. The rapier was the weapon of choice in the Renaissance at the peak of the duelling era; heavier than its modern counterparts, capable both of thrusting and cutting, it was often used along with a dagger, shield, or cloak. Devon Boorman sets out the foundation for the art of the rapier through a clear modern approach. Beginning with the basics of body mechanics, through the techniques of movement, and the aspects of timing and blade control that made the Italian school so revered. Guidance on training and development of the techniques presented here are valuable and informative for practitioners of nearly any hand-to-hand weapons tradition.

Long before "fencing" was associate with white jackets, light-weight foils and the Olympic games,the rapier was a tool of life and death. Heavier than its modern counterparts, capable both of thrusting and cutting, it was often used along with a dagger, shield, or cloak. The rapier was the weapon of choice in the Renaissance at the peak of the duelling era. The Italian school of swordsmanship was highly influential amongst the major courts of Europe and produced scholarly writings that are still reprinted and studied today. The system of Italian fencing is efficient, athletic, and strategic. In these pages Devon Boorman lays out the foundation for the art of the rapier through a clear modern approach. Starting first with healthy and powerful body mechanics, you will then progress through the techniques of movement, attack, and defence. From there, you will learn the aspects of timing and blade control that made the Italian school so revered. These skills are then tied together into a clear strategic framework, along with guidance on effectively training and conditioning tactical responses into your body to achieve long-term mastery. Not only is Italian Rapier a beautiful martial art in its own right, but the techniques and theory presented here are valuable and informative for practitioners of nearly any hand-to-hand weapons tradition.

Featuring more than 40 beautiful illustrations, this stunning work presents one of the world’s most influential fencing treatises. Ridolfo Capo Ferro was a legend in his own lifetime. His intricate instructions were emulated throughout a Europe bewitched by this grace and style and are a window into his mastery of swordsmanship. This updated edition includes a new introduction and a revised glossary with many technical terms now translated. Additionally, a modernized translation makes it easier for the reader to understand Capo Ferro's intention. Capo Ferro begins by examining the rapier in detail – its component parts and their suitability – before discussing the actual use. He details the timing and distance needed to control your adversary, while looking at defensive aspects such as the guards, parries and the importance of quick footwork. He also covers using the rapier with auxiliary weapons such as the dagger, cloak and shield. Presented by fencing master Jared Kirby, this handsome volume is a vital historical record and essential reading for any historical swordfighter, student of martial arts or military historian.

"The only attribution I have seen concerning the illustrations ... is to the Bolognese engraver Edoardo Fialet."--Introd.

This short text with beautiful watercolour illustrations dates from 1595, and details fencing with the single sword, rapier and dagger, rapier and buckler, halberd, and full pike. Schermkunst is one of the oldest known martial arts treatises from the Low Countries and provides a glimpse into the `Art of Defence' as it was practiced during a particularly volatile time in Netherlands history. Rebellion against Philip II of Spain led to independence of the Calvinist Northern provinces from Catholic Spain. In the same year, the spice trade expedition set into motion events culminating in the formation of the Dutch East India Company, and a golden age of Dutch history that spanned the 17th century. The original anonymous manuscript is held in the special collections of the Newberry Library of Chicago. - Verlagstext.

This is the most thorough work ever about historical swordsmanship. It is both a general reference and an instructional guide for advanced and beginning sword enthusiasts, students of military history and martial artists. Includes rare historical info and 100 original drawings.

This sixteenth-century German guide to sword fighting and combat training is a crucial source for understanding medieval swordplay techniques. Following his translation of Joachim Meyer’s The Art of Combat, Jeffrey L. Forgeng was alerted to an earlier version of Meyer’s text, discovered in Lund University Library in Sweden. The manuscript, produced in Strasbourg around 1568, is illustrated with thirty watercolor images and seven ink diagrams. The text covers combat with the longsword (hand-and-a-half sword), dusack (a one-handed practice weapon comparable to a sabre), and rapier. The manuscript’s theoretical discussion of guards sheds significant light on this key feature of the historical practice, not just in relation to Meyer but in relation to medieval combat systems in general. The Art of Sword Combat also offers an extensive repertoire of training drills for both the dusack and the rapier, a feature largely lacking in treatises of the period and critical to modern reconstructions of the practice. Forgeng’s translation also includes a biography of Meyer, much of which has only recently come to light, as well as technical terminology and other essential information for understanding and contextualizing the work.

A modern training manual for the 17th century rapier, lavishly illustrated with over 400 photographs, the Duellist's Companion is a complete training system for rapier, the Queen of Weapons. Guy Windsor, author of the popular longsword text The Swordsmans' Companion, has triumphed in this work, which guides the beginner through the rapier, based on the world of Capo Ferro's 1610 masterpiece, Gran Simulacro.Italian rapier dominated Europe from the 17th - 19th centuries. This book demonstrates convincingly why it was so successful.

The most detailed and comprehensive treatise on swordsmanship ever written, Gerard Thibault's Academy of the Sword offers an extraordinary glimpse into a forgotten landscape of ideas, in which Pythagorean sacred geometry illuminated the lethal realities of rapier combat to create one of the Western world's only thoroughly documented esoteric martial arts. Translated by the widely respected occultist and scholar John Michael Greer, this stunningly illustrated and precisely detailed manual of Renaissance swordsmanship is a triumphant document of Renaissance culture-as well as a practical manual of a martial art that can still be studied and practiced today.