Despite their distinct dislike for things Catholic and South European, Elizabethans were suckers for Italian fencing techniques and concepts of honor and dueling.
Some of the most prominent figures of the cultural elite of the period engaged in Italian-style swordplay. Among them was the poet Christopher Marlowe, whom we’re catching on an Indian summer afternoon on the outskirts of London, sword in hand, and ready to engage in moderate mayhem… Continue reading
Posted in 16th Century, 17th Century, Duel, fencing, Library, rapier
Tagged christopher marlowe, Elizabethan duel, rapier duel, secret history of the sword
A few weeks ago, we examined Eight Dueling Épées.
Today, we noticed a variant of one of the older specimens up for auction: A cousin of “The Transitional”… Continue reading
Who’d have thought that university archives would ever change their time-honored policy of keeping non-academic riffraff out of their collections—and even throwing their rara open to the Great Unwashed?
The Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, where I spent many a semester doing things other than visiting libraries, has recently put a copy of Salvatore Fabris’ “Italiänische Fechtkunst” online… Continue reading
Despite the occasional death on the fencing strip, modern competitive fencing is a safe sport. Heck, more kids have died taking a Little League baseball on the chest than have even been nicked by a blade!
Despite a higher degree and frequency of serious injury or even fatality, it looks that 16th-century fencing practice (as opposed to the duel, we suppose) was a civilized affair compared to archery. But the most deadly of pastimes in Tudor England apparently was football…
Posted in 15th century, 16th Century, fencing, rapier, Swords in the News
Tagged fencing in Tudor england, tudor soccer
The old Hammerterz Forum approach to filling quarterly issues with rare and novel accounts of historical swordplay can be compared to a drag net:
We’d read hundreds of books we suspected of containing worthwhile material, often coming up with a pertinent sentence or a paragraph for every 300 pages perused. Some snippets were academic and boring, others boring and academic, but all seemed catalytical to the progress of research. There also were some that were downright entertaining.
Among the material we mined was this story of a young Highland Scot making a nuisance of himself in Elizabethan London… Continue reading
Don’t you hate when that happens? Your opponent suddenly turns Luke Skywalker and starts using his foil with two hands…
No worries! Nuremberg’s Exercitienmeister Schmidt knows exactly what to do! Continue reading
How much did Shakespeare know about contemporary Italian rapier fencing?
William Gaugler follows the clues from his plays into the Italian fencing literature of the 16th and 17th century. Continue reading
Not sure why, but we’ve been getting a ton of requests to provide English translations of our German-language contributions.
(What’s wrong with you people?)
We’re reluctantly happy to comply, starting with the shorter ones… Continue reading
Posted in 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, smallsword, Foil, Epee, fencing, rapier
Tagged comenius, fencing, orbis pictus
Plenty of action
Talk about a three-ring circus! Continue reading
Posted in 18th Century, Dussack, fencing, Foil, quarterstaff, rapier
Tagged degen, dusak, dusägge, dussack, escrime, fechten, fechtschule, federfechter, fencing, marxbrüder, staff, stange
Stammbuchblatt: Stoßfechten among German students
Images of German students engaging in thrust fencing are rare…
Posted in 19th Century, fencing, Foil, Images, rapier
Tagged burschenschaft, fechten, mensur, pariser, stoßmensur
