In Layout...
We have two other titles that will be going to the printers shortly.
Revelations of Rapier, And Their Applications to All Martial Sword Combat
by Robert Childs
We just approved the galleys for this unique look at the art of the sword, by 30+ year fencer and currently top-ranked rapier fencer, Rob Childs. There are a number of “how-to” rapier manuals now available; both those written centuries ago and now presented in modern English translation, or those composed by modern maestri of the sword in emulation of those by-gone works. But there has always been the parallel tradition of the martial treatise, a book that seeks to bestow not just “nuts-and-bolts” mechanical advice, but a philosophy of fencing that shows the swordsman not only the how, but why.
It is this category of work that Childs emulates. After explaining the basics of his own, eclectic system of rapier combat, he walks students through a wide variety of topics: how to choose the proper sword for you; how to fence students of different sizes; physical qualities and emotional temperaments; how to adapt your approach to different contexts (casual matches, competitions and medals matches) while maintaining martial reality; the use of sound, body displacement to deceive the opponent, and the most common tells fencers give and how to train them out of yourself – while using them against your opponent. Interwoven with personal anecdotes, you will gain both a look into the mindset and training paradigm of a world-class competitor, the sort of advice athletes for generations have sought from highly-skilled coaches and be entertained at Childs’ own adventures through the evolving world of historical swordsmanship. Although centered on the rapier, this work is really about fencing writ large and will be of value to anyone who has held a blade and heard the words ‘en garde’!
Flowers of Battle, Vol. 2: The Pisani-Dossi Manuscript
Yes, it lives!
We were preparing the second volume of our Flowers of Battle series when COVID hit, and this triggered a series of problems, not least being that our printer has two locations: one in Hong Kong and the other in…Wuhan. For over a year we could not use our primary printer, nor counterparts in Singapore. In the meantime, supply shortages drove up production times, paper costs and so on…
In short, it’s been brutal trying to bring this project to life. Fortunately, during the long hiatus, we decided this was an opportunity to expand the volume. In this case, an appendix was added that includes a complete translation of Francesco Novati’s original frontmatter and extensive footnotes. You’ll be surprised at how close Novati came to discovering the Parisian manuscript, and leads he was chasing in 1904 that still elude us today. Best of all, this means that Flowers of Battle, Volume 2 will be essentially two books in one: a modern edition and analysis of the Pisani-Dossi manuscript and the first English translation of Novati’s own, seminal work. We are very excited to finally bring this book to market – and to share that Volume 4 is being written right now.
Because this series is offset print and ships by boat, we cannot be certain when it will be available, other than to say likely the “first half of 2022”.
Finally…although delayed a year, please be on the lookout for a new crowd-sourced project this spring:
Ars Athletica: A 16th Century Treatise on the Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe
To those who study the physical culture of arms in medieval Europe, the German Fechtbücher—treatises on combat arts—are among the most important surviving documentary sources: no other region in Europe produced such an extensive body of writings on the techniques of medieval combat.
Born in the year Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, Paulus Hector Mair was a well-to-do civil-servant, martial artist and avid book-collector living in Augsburg, the single liveliest center in Germany for the study and production of martial-arts texts, reflecting the city’s status as one of the Empire’s most important economic and cultural centers. Some ten manuscript Fechtbücher still reside in Augsburg collections (most of these manuscripts were in Mair’s possession at some point), and a number of important sixteenth-century martial-arts authors lived in Augsburg. This creative fomentation culminated in the vast, lavishly-illustrated compendia Mair produced in three different manuscripts, each approximately 1200 pages, and includes about 17 weapon-forms (depending on how one counts them). Each form consists of anywhere from 8 to 136 illustrated techniques, in many cases followed by one or more seminal texts on the form. Together, this vast work gives both 16th-century redactions of much earlier works, and a snapshot of how the art had evolved over the ensuing generations and how they were viewed by a passionate amateur practitioner, detailed with hundreds of beautiful illustrations of Renaissance arms, armour and clothing,
A project nearly two-decades in execution, general editor Jeffrey Forgeng has assembled an international team to bring Meyer’s bi-lingual text to life. The project will include multiple volumes of high-resolution digital books as well as high-quality Print-on-Demand hard copy. Volume I: Longsword and Front Matter is complete and Volume II: Dussack is in development now.
Note that we will be launching the crowd-sourcing after all design is complete, so you will be able to get nearly instant gratification after you pledge!
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I hope your appetites are whetted! Here’s to hoping you keep safe in these (fingers-crossed) waning days of the Great Plague.
