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.
Finally! Fiore returns, in Italian and English
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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 to the size of the original. But that's not all: 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. The excellent Katie Mackenzie has done a gorgeous job on the cover and layout: The translation section includes tags on the pages so you can find the section you want from the page edges. You can find it here:
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). It has been a long slog to get this to work, for reasons that don't really matter (six defective proofs before we got a good one. The previous record is one). It started with the awful cold-water shock of embarrassment when I realised we had shipped defective books, and ended with an eye-watering bill for reprinting and shipping new ones. But I've done my best to keep everyone informed, and to make good on the trust placed in me by everyone who buys from my store. yours, 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.
BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Hi! I hope the new year is treating you well. I’m jetting off to Potsdam this weekend for the Torneo di Spada: if you see me there, say hello! At the moment I’m working full time on a huge, tedious job: a ground-up reboot of the open-access Swordschool wiki. It has been woefully neglected over the last many years, during which time I’ve produced literally hundreds of videos that really belong on there. So, I’m adding a ton of new content, and reorganising...
BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Happy New Year! I guess I'm supposed to do a review of 2025 and a bunch of resolutions for 2026. I might get round to it, but haven't felt any particular urge to so I haven't yet.Maybe that's my resolution for 2026: Don't do things just because there's a general expectation that I should. Or not. So moving on, let's consider this question: What comes first, the treatise or the tournament? For some historical fencers the answer is obvious- we’re here to...
BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Hi! I know, I know, this was supposed to go out yesterday. But I’m running late for one good reason and one bad one. The good reason: My brother and his family came over from Abu Dhabi last Saturday to stay at my mum’s, so I went up to visit on Sunday. I spent the vast majority of the week getting the shit kicked out of me training martial arts with his two young kids. I brought a big bag of swords for them to have a go with, though we spent most of the...