Workshops and Seminars
From Text to Training is the write-up of a seminar given at Festival of the Sword 2017, Melbourne, Australia. which describes the principles behind one way of extracting a functional training from a HEMA source text.
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Training Guides
The Training and Practical Guide series are PDFs which are like Cliff’s Notes for sidesword and rapier treatises and fencing manuals. These guides summarise the key points of each primary source, keeping to the voice of the original author as much as possible, and provide the period fencer or HEMA practitioner easy access to core techniques found in broader texts.
Cavalcabo wrote one of the foundational treatises for French rapier fencing following the Roman or Agrippan school. This guide examines the core techniques of his rapier and dagger play.
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Cavalcabo's rapier alone can be seen as an extension of Patenostrier's "Agrippan" style he taught in Rome. This guide compares and contrasts the single sword techniques of each master.
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Sainct Didier is universally recognised as having written the first native French fencing treatise. His style of swordsmanship comes directly from 25 years experience ion the battlefield.
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Guides in Preparation
There are several guides at a very early stage of preparation. Expect these to come out, one by one, in a few months time.
- Camillo Agrippa's Treatise on the Science of Arms with Philosophical Dialogue (1553), the fundamental philosophical text of the French school
- André Desbordes' Discourse of the Theory and Practice of the Excellence of Arms (1610)
- François Dancie's Discours des armes et methode pour bien tirer de l'espée et poignard (1617) and L'Espee de combat (1623)
- Le Perche du Coudray
- Charles Besnard