Renaissance Swordsmanship: The Illustrated Book Of Rapiers And Cut And Thrust Swords And Their Use [Paperback]

John Clements (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1997

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.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Clements has practiced cut-and-thrust swordsmanship for almost 20 years and trains regularly in long-sword, sword and shield, sword and buckler, sword and dagger, Medieval spear, and rapier and dagger methods. He lectures on historical weaponry and is an ardent promoter of contact-weapon sparring with historical replica swords.

Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Paladin Press (March 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873649192
• ISBN-13: 978-0873649193
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #766,166 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly light, given the high flown title, February 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Renaissance Swordsmanship: The Illustrated Book Of Rapiers And Cut And Thrust Swords And Their Use (Paperback)

Mr. Clements' work is an interesting read. It is also a great gift to those interested in Western European historical martial arts, as the library of modern materials dealing with this time period is extremely limited. That is, at root, part of the problem with Clements' work. While he makes an pseudo-scholarly attempt to bolster his work with period sources he is extremely short on citations. Why? Largely, I suppose, because Clements' work is more about the style his group, the HACA, has developed rather than what the period masters have to say.

Ironically, in this sense Clements is guilty of exactly what he accuses the SCA of; making up the techniques to fit his game rather than working to recreate purely historical techniques. (The only difference being that the SCA holds itself out as a spectator sport and makes no pretense of being a pure re-creation of medieval and renaissance combat while Clements and his group do.)

Clements is given to strong opinions, some of which appear to be unfounded, hyperbole, high falootin pretensions, vitrol and some level of personal promotion.

Further, because the field of re-creating medieval martial arts is so new, much of Clements misinformation is accepted by many as valid simply due to the fact that they have few modern works to compare it to. The fact is any serious student of renaissance or medieval martial arts should go "straight to the horse's mouth" and read the period masters.

That being said, Clements work is a boon to modern martial artists simply because it "gets the ball rolling" and adds another work to the scant library available today.

Recommended with reservations.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars There are so much better books available, March 12, 2006

By 

Grimwold Dogge - See all my reviews

This review is from: Renaissance Swordsmanship: The Illustrated Book Of Rapiers And Cut And Thrust Swords And Their Use (Paperback)

It is hard to think that less than a decade ago, such unadulterated tosh could have been seriously presented as the cutting edge of research into historical western swordsmanship. Quite apart from the author's vociferous criticism of anyone with a different opinion to himself (where, oh where was the editor?), there is more misinformation in this book than information.

We are told that the rapier "is incapable of delivering edge blows that cut" despite every original rapier master teaching such cuts. The author writes, "Its ability to riposte (counterattack)", suggesting that he believes the riposte and the counterattack to be one and the same (they are not). We are told that there were three basic rapier stances, Prima, Seconda and Terza, which are "roughly equivalent to a high, middle and low sword position." Then we are shown three guards, one high, one middle and one low, which bear no resemblance to guards shown in surviving rapier manuals and which show that the author doesn't have the first clue what Prima etc. actually mean. We are shown parries that bear no resemblance to the defensive actions shown in rapier manuals. I could go on and on.

Except for a few areas, (where the author gets it wrong) this book contains no discussion of any of the fundamentals of rapier fencing. There is no mention of distance, tempo, stringere etc. It is clear that the author hasn't read any of the major rapier works. The inaccuracy of the illustrations suggests that he didn't even look at the pictures.

Once upon a time, despite this catalogue of errors, this was the best book out there. Thankfully that hasn't been the case for a long time. Arte of Defence is itself dated, but is a better introduction to the rapier. In the last year a couple of very good translations have been produced, Italian Rapier Combat, a translation of Capo Ferro's manual and Art of Duelling, a translation of Fabris. These are two of the most significant works on the rapier, and they show just how far Clements was from reality. Most of the English language rapier manuals, Di Grassi, Saviolo, Swetnam and Pallas Armata are freely available on the net. All are better sources than Renaissance Swordsmanship.

No doubt in the future, more books on the rapier will be produced that will elucidate the works of the masters. Renaissance Swordsmanship should be withdrawn from sale immediately. It was a poor book when it was published. For it to still be available when it has been so comprehensively superseded is disturbing.

52 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What you need to know, September 25, 2000

By 

James T. Crouchet (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Renaissance Swordsmanship: The Illustrated Book Of Rapiers And Cut And Thrust Swords And Their Use (Paperback)

I have spent more than 15 years studying swordplay manuals actually written in the Renaissance and trying out those techniques with my fellow swordplay enthusiasts. While we have written a lot of short papers and booklets on what we have learned, "Renaissance Swordsmanship" is the first real book on this subject. In short, if you are interested in rapier play you need this book in your library.

That said, let me add some cautions:

- This book is only an introduction to the basic concepts and moves so you must realize more advanced techniques exist.

- Mr. Clements has studied several different renaissance masters and borrows freely from all without making it clear what technique come from which master. Instead he gives his own mix of techniques. What may look like a mistake to a student of Di Grassi might actually be correct according to Fabris.

- To master renaissance sword techniques you will eventually have to study the manuals of the period yourself but if you have read this first, that study will be a LOT easier.

- This is NOT a scholarly work, exhaustively researched and accurate in every detail. Use it as a learning resource, not a reference work.

- To really learn some of the material presented here it is necessary to actually pick up the equipment and try the moves described.

- I found "Renaissance Swordsmanship" to be light on the details needed to actually apply the techniques described.

- This is NOT fight choreography which is an entirely different science. It is an attempt to teach you to how real rapier and cut and thrust swordplay works. Real fights are over quickly and seldom entertaining to watch (except to other sword enthusiasts).

- Without the proper safety equipment these techniques are dangerous. Think about it -- with real swords these methods kill.

- These techniques do not work well with modern fencing weapons. If you start with an epee you will quickly find you need to be using reproduction or practice rapiers to do it right. Fortunately, you CAN buy those. (Hey, Amazon -- do you sell swords yet?)

And a few specifics (IMHO):

- Most of the manuals from renaissance masters present very poor, ineffective techniques for the use of two rapiers (i.e. case or brace), probably because actual use of case was rare. The technique presented in "Renaissance Swordsmanship" is similarly weak.

- The footwork and stance portions are particularly light, ignoring or almost ignoring important basics such as slope and circular paces. This is particularly important to the modern fencer who is likely to misapply his modern footwork to renaissance forms.

Finally, I will point out that the renaissance masters themselves disagreed -- hotly -- over the advantages of various techniques and weapons and there are significant disagreements among modern scholars on how to interpret those works. It is therefore not surprising to me that some modern scholars believe what Mr. Clements has presented is just "wrong, wrong, wrong!" In my own review of his book I found very little I did not recognize as coming from one renaissance master or another. Some of those techniques I would present differently, but that does not make them, "wrong, wrong wrong!"