Tales of the French duels
This post is an introduction for a series of contemporary accounts of late 16th century French duels.
Lovino est en ligne
Le manuscrit de Lovino est disponible en ligne !
Lovino is online
The Lovino manuscript is now online!
S’entraîner avec armes tranchantes, dans le passé et à présent
Ce court article est une discussion des conseils de Viggiani sur l’entraînement avec des armes tranchantes, focalisé sur les différences entre les contextes historiques et modernes.
The Valuable Lovino
The manuscript treatise by Giovan Antonio Lovino does not get the attention that it deserves. The two parts of this richly illuminated 16th century treatise have a number of original features that make it essential for a study of fencing in these times.
A Plan of Thibault’s Académie de l’Espée
In this post, I share a rough plan of Thibault’s huge treatise intended to help navigate it.
Training with sharps, present and past
This small article is a discussion of Viggiani’s advice on training with sharp swords, focusing on the differences between the modern and the historical context.
Feeling and Sight
This post provides contrasting quotes about the two main modes of perception used in a sword fight, their properties and how they should be used. Comparing two historical approaches also gives some perspective on the tactical variety that can be encountered even in relatively close traditions that operated in the same context.
Capoferro weapon length
This post explores Ridolfo Capoferro’s advice about weapon length. Are the text and illustrations consistent? What measurements do they give? Are there original swords of such size?
On Silver’s times
George Silver is the famous author of an early printed work on fencing and martial arts in English, Paradoxes of Defence (1599). He is often quoted for having layed out universal principles in the form of his hierarchy of true and false times. Sadly, the most common interpretation of these does not fit the whole text. This post provides the necessary quotes to understand the causes and key properties of true and false times, which are in my opinion more interesting and less open to interpretation than the hierarchy itself.