Dr. Guy Windsor is a world-renowned instructor and a pioneering researcher of medieval and renaissance martial arts. He has been teaching the Art of Arms full-time since founding The School of European Swordsmanship in Helsinki, Finland, in 2001. His day job is finding and analysing historical swordsmanship treatises, figuring out the systems they represent, creating a syllabus from the treatises for his students to train with, and teaching the system to his students all over the world. Guy is the author of numerous classic books about the art of swordsmanship and has consulted on swordfighting game design and stage combat. He developed the card game, Audatia, based on Fiore dei Liberi's Art of Arms, his primary field of study. In 2018 Edinburgh University awarded him a PhD by Research Publications for his work recreating historical combat systems. When not studying medieval and renaissance swordsmanship or writing books Guy can be found in his shed woodworking or spending time with his family.
Books, Movies, Safety Tips, and Paradoxes of Historical Martial Arts!
|
Hi! The NEW Fiore MovieHave you seen the short movie Fiore? It’s a ten minute film with extraordinary historical accuracy and detail, about Fiore dei Liberi. It came out in 2022. I interviewed the film maker Alberto Mattea in episode 145 of The Sword Guy. (There’s a link to the film on youtube in the shownotes.) I reviewed it at the time: “I loved FIORE. It manages the almost impossible feat of being both historically accurate and entertaining, with appeal for anyone who likes sword fights, as well as for Fiore specialists. It is by far the best depiction of the period I have ever seen, with extraordinary attention to detail in the clothing, furniture, food, even the process of making manuscripts. I’ve spent my life studying Fiore’s works, and it was wonderful to see the master’s words come alive on the screen.” Well, they are doing a sequel! And they are raising funds on Indiegogo right now. You can find the project here. They are asking for a tiny amount of money, so every little helps. If you’d like to support the project, please do! Fiore FacsimileIn case you missed the announcement in the last email, our new facsimile of Il Fior di Battaglia, and its companion volume, are now available to buy at swordschool.shop. It’s a thing of beauty! The book reproduces the Getty manuscript in its entirety, in full colour, and as close as possible to the size of the original. The second half of this volume is a second reproduction of the manuscript with the original Italian text replaced by my English translation. This recreates the experience of reading the original Italian as closely as possible. The book also includes an introduction to Fiore and his life and times, the provenance of the manuscript, and suggestions for further study. This way, you get the original, and the translation, in one volume… for the same price as the original facsimile-only edition. If you buy the facsimile you will get a free ebook copy of the companion volume, which includes a complete transcription of the manuscript. Or you can order it as a paperback too (with a discount if you get them both together).
NEW IN: Audatia Print and Play decksWe have finally figured out how to distribute my card game Audatia on the swordschool shop. We haven’t quite cracked the physical deck problem yet, but you can get PDFs to print at home to build your decks. You can also get super-spiffy desktop wallpaper images, like the one you see here: You can get the entire collection (four character decks, plus the armour and Liechtenauer expansion packs and wallpapers) at a hefty discount here: https://swordschool.shop/products/audatia-bundle The Science of Safety in Historical Martial ArtsThe Historical Fencing Research safety project (see The Sword Guy episode 198 with Jamie MacIver) has released its preliminary results. This from Jamie:
As a backer of the project I got early access, and can confirm it’s well worth a read. Plus, it costs you nothing to sign up to their mailing list… Paradoxes of Historical Martial ArtsA paradox is an absurd or contradictory statement that is nonetheless true. At least that what it is now: when George Silver wrote his Paradoxes of Defence, published in 1599, it meant something contrary to popular opinion (which is why we don’t find his opinions paradoxical). The opposite of a true statement is often another true statement, and I've been thinking a lot about the many contradictory but true statements that apply to HMA (such as #2: “Expertise matters. Do not trust experts”). So, I'm writing a series of "paradoxes of historical martial arts", that I'd like your views on. Each paradox in the series is framed as two true statements that contradict each other. You can find them on Swordpeople.com in The Salle space, with the hashtag #paradoxesofhma What I’m ReadingI’m currently re-reading Traitor’s Blade, by Sebastien de Castell. It’s volume 1 in his Greatcoats series, and perhaps my absolute favourite of his many awesome books. Read it if you haven’t already. I picked it up again because Sebastien writes the best sword fights in the business, and I was looking for examples to use in the book I’m working on (the new Swordfighting for Writers). I could have flicked through it, or used the search function on my e-reader, but thought I’d better just read the whole thing. You know, for research. It’s work, honest. I’m near the end of volume 1, and will probably just read through the entire four book series. For research. cheers, Guy |
Guy Windsor's Swordschool
Dr. Guy Windsor is a world-renowned instructor and a pioneering researcher of medieval and renaissance martial arts. He has been teaching the Art of Arms full-time since founding The School of European Swordsmanship in Helsinki, Finland, in 2001. His day job is finding and analysing historical swordsmanship treatises, figuring out the systems they represent, creating a syllabus from the treatises for his students to train with, and teaching the system to his students all over the world. Guy is the author of numerous classic books about the art of swordsmanship and has consulted on swordfighting game design and stage combat. He developed the card game, Audatia, based on Fiore dei Liberi's Art of Arms, his primary field of study. In 2018 Edinburgh University awarded him a PhD by Research Publications for his work recreating historical combat systems. When not studying medieval and renaissance swordsmanship or writing books Guy can be found in his shed woodworking or spending time with his family.
Hi! Time flies... Swordschool turned 24 years old yesterday! March 17th 2001 saw the very first class I taught as a full-time professional instructor, at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. Not the whole Olympic Stadium. A small room somewhere inside it. I was expecting about 6 to 12 people, and something over 70 showed up. Some of them are still training now. I don’t have a photo of that very day, but digging around through the archives I found some golden oldies. Here’s what a rapier class...
Hi! Hallelujah! At last! After three months of back and forth with the printers (and setting up to print with someone else at twice the price), the Fiore Facsimile with translation is now working properly. Everyone who bought it in December has had their order re-run yesterday, so new copies are being printed and shipped. Now that they have been taken care of, we can open it up for new orders! This book reproduces the Getty manuscript in its entirety, in full colour, and as close as possible...
Hi! It’s been an odd couple of weeks since I last emailed. For some reason I’ve completely stalled on the Dagger book (From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice: the dagger techniques of Fiore dei Liberi, to give it its full title). But I am making actual headway on a revised, rewritten, and expanded second edition of Swordfighting for Writers, Game Designers, and Martial Artists. If you have any questions for me to address in the book, or suggestions, or requests for it, please go to this...