Customer Reviews

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

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I'm biased. I got a copy of Jeffrey Forgeng's translation of the I.33 manuscript (the oldest extant work on swordsmanship)about five years ago and have been working with it ever since. Even so, I was astounded at the beauty and clarity of the lovely colour plates, reproduced here at amazing resolution.

I.33 occupies a special place in fencing history, demonstrating the sophistication of swordsmanship at this early date (1300AD). It shows a marvelous system of sword and buckler play, every bit as subtle as any later fencing system (and why wouldn't it? medieval swordsmen's lives depended on their skill with a sword, so of course their skill was highly developed).

This is an excellent translation of a key work in the history of swordsmanship. It is not a how-to book though an accompanying one exists (Written by Paul Wagner and myself). Anyone interested in western swordsmanship, the history of movement or of teaching methodology, or simply interested in a fine piece of artwork from the late 13th century needs this book on their shelves.

Stephen Hand
Author of Medieval Sword and Shield:
The Combat System of Royal Armouries MS I.33

Royal Armouries MS I.33 is the oldest illustrated fencing manual in existence, which makes this book valuable to students of European Medieval martial arts for that reason alone. However, it also has the distinctions of describing an interesting non-military style of fencing, is beautifully illustrated in the style of illuminated religious manuscripts, and depicts priests and women fencers! Because of the 8.5 x 11 glossy, color plates, this book is expensive, but I think it is worth it for the reasons cited above.

The translator, Dr. Jeffrey Forgeng, has been working in the field for decades and his introductory material and footnotes are exhaustive and provide a lot of information on the context of the Medieval German fencing tradition that are not in print anywhere else.

Understand, however, that this is a facsimile and translation of a manuscript, it is not a how-to book on medieval sword fighting. The how-to book on this system is Paul Wagner & Stephen Hand's "Medieval Sword and Shield: The Combat System of Royal Armouries MS I.33" also published by Chivalry Bookshelf.

No serious library of books on European Medieval martial arts is complete without this book.

excellent book magnificient edition !! a must for anyone interested in medieval martial arts !

Well put together explanations, a literal translation and high res scans make this a great buy for anyone who is interested in combat or history.

I've spent the last 5 weeks pouring over this book and I love it. But I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner. You'll have to learn to visualise guards and counters and run all the various permutations through your head (unless you have a sparring partner) from a set of medieval illustrations with all the usual flaws of perspective that you might expect. Once you start to connect the reality of sword & buckler fighting to the unusual stylistic elements of the drawings, a whole world of insight will be opened up to you.

Before tackling this book, I'd suggest you find out about "invitation", "counter-timing" and "inside and outside lines". I'd suggest you read Guy Windsor's "A Swordsman's Companion" as it has some of the most elegant descriptions of fighting principles I've ever read. And perhaps read some DiGrassi to learn about buckler shadows (if my memory serves me right).

I'd also highly recommend you read Wagner & Hand's interpretation of the I.33 manuscript (Medieval Sword & Shield) at the same time.