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.
Coming soon: Vadi!
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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 snazzy form and fill it out: https://forms.gle/PuvrMuL6ZELrFW3h9 Everyone who contributes a question will get a copy of the ebook free, when it’s ready. Perhaps even more excitingly, I am a few weeks away from shooting the next online course: Vadi! I intend to shoot every play in his De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi, as well as create a training course for actually learning to fence in his style. The current plan includes: 1. Introduction
2. Footwork and mechanics
3. Longsword
4. Pollax plays 5. Sword in Armour plays 6. Spear plays 7. Dagger plays 8. Extra plays Interested? Got any suggestions for things to cover? Reply to this email to let me know. I’ll be opening the course up to early-bird registration (to help cover the costs of creating the course) soon, then launching it probably in late April. Fiore Facsimile UpdateActual progress on the Fiore front! I’ve ordered proofs from two other printers; one of them has arrived and is perfect! So if the issue with the original printer isn’t resolved by Monday, I’ll order a batch from there and ship them out manually. This has been by orders of magnitude the biggest issue I’ve ever had publishing books. But we’re nearly there… Cool stuff from the InternetDo you recall podcast guest Kirk, the Knight of Green? This website basically sums up the details of the project. It is a video game parody series with a helping of choreography based on HMA. I think you need to be a fan of the game Demon’s Soul (which I’ve sadly never heard of, let alone played) to get the most out of it, but it’s definitely a bit of fun. Find it at https://www.demonsslice.com What I’m ReadingRemember last time when I said I’d read The Steel Remains, by Joe Abercrombie? Turns out I hadn’t. The Steel Remains is by Richard K. Morgan! I’m pretty sure I have read it, but the one I was banging on about was, of course, The Blade Itself. I’ve now finished all three volumes of The First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself, Before They are Hanged, and The Last Argument of Kings), and it’s superb in all sorts of ways, and deeply, deeply wrong (the main heroes are a crippled torturer and a beserker who has an unfortunate habit of murdering children). But wrong in just the right way, if you know what I mean. I read Gabrielle Zevin’s Elsewhere as a palate cleanser between volumes two and three. I adored her Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and her Storied Life of A.J. Fikrie. This one was good, but not really my sort of thing. It’s an imagined afterlife of a 15 year old girl who gets killed riding her bike. More of a thought experiment with significant logical gaps than a gripping story, but interesting enough to finish. (I’m not one of those readers who expects every one of an author’s books to work for me; I’ll be reading more of her stuff soon.) I’ve also started another Max Barry book, his first, called Syrup. It’s a cracker so far, all about shenanigans in the marketing industry back in the before-times. (Before the internet, that is.) 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! Swordschool turned 24 years old last week, as you may know if you got the email. It’s a strange feeling looking back at photos from that time- we were all so young, and so keen, and, yes, I had a lot more hair. Maybe as sword-knowledge went in, it pushed the hair out? Hard to say. In the spirit of nostalgia, here’s a photo from before I even started the school, in October 2000. I challenged all comers at the DDS, and fought everyone in the photo at the weapon they are holding. Then got my...
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!Lots going on this week: the new Fiore film is raising funds; the Historical Fencing Research company has released its findings on tip safety; the Fiore facsimile books are printing and shipping as we speak; and I even made it briefly to the Wallace Collection (for the millionth time). The NEW Fiore Movie Have 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...