![]() | English Swordsmanship: The True Fight of George Silver by Stephen Hand
Buy new: $32.97 / Used from: $19.92 This is my latest book, a how-to guide to an English combat system from around 1600. Obviously I'm biased, so I'll leave it at that.
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![]() | Medieval Sword & Shield: The Combat System of Royal Armouries MS I.33 by Paul Wagner
Buy new: $29.95 / Used from: $28.45 OK, this is also my book so I'm also biased. This is a how-to guide to the oldest European combat treatise. My interpretation has progressed (see my paper in Spada II), but the book is still sound.
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![]() | The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship: A Facsimile & Translation of Europe's Oldest Personal Combat Treatise, Ro Yal Armouries MS I.33 (Royal Armouries Monograph)
Buy new: $54.99 / Used from: $330.62 A facsimile and translation of Manuscript I.33, the subject of the book above.
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![]() | The Swordman's Companion: A Manual for Training With the Medieval Longsword by Guy Windsor
Buy new: $21.95 / Used from: $21.93 A splendid how-to guide for beginners and advanced students of the Italian Longsword
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![]() | Fighting with the German Longsword by Christian Henry Tobler
Buy new: $24.95 / Used from: $21.76 Does for the German Longsword what Swordsman's Companion does for the Italian. A great guide to the combat system.
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![]() | Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship: Sigmund Ringeck's Commentaries on Liechtenauer by Christian Tobler
Buy new: $36.46 / Used from: $33.11 A translation and analysis of Ringeck, one of the key German authors. Some of the interpretation has been revised in the author's later work.
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![]() | Sigmund Ringeck's Knightly Art of the Longsword by David Lindholm
Buy used from: $72.45 Another translation and interpretation of Ringeck. If you're interested in German swordsmanship then you need copies of all available interpretations.
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![]() | Spada: An Anthology of Swordsmanship in Memory of Ewart Oakeshott by Ewart Oakeshott
Buy used from: $70.00 Another one of mine. This is a collection of refereed papers on aspects of historical swordsmanship.
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![]() | SPADA II: An Anthology of Swordsmanship (v. 2) by Ed. by Stephen Hand
Buy new: $18.96 / Used from: $12.10 This is the second edition of Spada, with nine excellent papers on subjects as diverse as wounds, rapier fencing and sword and shield.
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![]() | Arte of Defence: An Introduction to the Use of the Rapier by William Wilson
Buy used from: $23.89 This book has rapidly dated. It is useful for the beginner, but you should quickly move on.
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![]() | Italian Rapier Combat: Ridolfo Capo Ferro by Jared Kirby
Buy used from: $996.09 ...to something like this. A translation of one of the key Italian rapier fencing texts, this work is excellent, but requires interpretation on the part of the modern student.
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![]() | The Art of Dueling: 17th Century Rapier as Taught by Salvatore Fabris by Tomasso Leoni
Buy used from: $237.42 ...or this, a translation of one of the other key treatises
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![]() | English Martial Arts by Terry Brown
Buy used from: $44.49 This is an excellent introduction to the English martial arts. The illustrated combat system is an amalgam of styles that in my opinion were probably best left separate, but an important work.
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![]() | Codex Wallerstein: A Medieval Fighting Book from the Fifteenth Century on the Longsword, Falchion, Dagger, and Wrestling by Grzegorz Zabinski
Buy used from: $54.95 An excellent translation of a decidedly non-lavish, but nonetheless very important medieval treatise.
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![]() | Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi: 15th Century Swordsmanship of Master Fillipo Vadi by Fillipo Vadi
Buy new: $40.82 / Used from: $39.04 An excellent translation of a lavish medieval treatise.
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![]() | Medieval Combat: A Fifteenth-Century Illustrated Manual of Swordfighting and Close-Quarter Combat (Greenhill Military Paperbacks) by Hans Talhoffer
Buy used from: $27.00 ...and something in between. Another fine translation, this one being one of the best known medieval treatises.
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![]() | Master of Defense: The Works of George Silver by Paul Wagner
Buy used from: $46.19 I was a minor contributor to this and the author was my student. Some useful stuff, but some overly opinionated material too. Paul and I diverge on how to hold some of the guards that he illustrates.
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![]() | Highland Swordsmanship: Techniques of the Scottish Sword Masters by Sir William Hope
Buy new: $29.95 / Used from: $25.60 This should have been called Lowland Swordsmanship, but hey, that's marketing. Two important treatises by Lowland Scots Fencing Masters
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![]() | Highland Broadsword: Five Manuals of Scottish Regimental Swordsmanship
Buy new: $32.95 / Used from: $23.79 Five more treatises, this time teaching the Highland Broadsword.
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![]() | The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe by Professor Sydney Anglo
Buy new: $46.85 / Used from: $25.95 At last, academia takes martial arts seriously. An excellent and thought provoking work which should be read by every swordsman.
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![]() | The Secret History of the Sword: Adventures in Ancient Martial Arts by J Christopher Amberger
Buy new: $21.95 / Used from: $9.70 A vastly entertaining work by one of the characters of western swordsmanship. If you don't enjoy this collection of essays and anecdotes then you must be dead.
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![]() | Schools and Masters of Fencing: From the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century by Egerton Castle
Buy new: $12.71 / Used from: $10.00 There are a lot of problems with this Victorian era history of fencing (such as its dismissal of the rich and subtle medieval fencing systems), but it's still to be surpassed.
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![]() | The Sword Through the Centuries by Alfred Hutton
Buy new: $18.95 / Used from: $5.00 The best of Hutton's works. This contains a vast number of eyewitness accounts of actual duels, which makes it an invaluable and entertaining read.
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![]() | The School of Fencing: With a General Explanation of the Principal Attitudes and Positions Peculiar to the Art by Domenico Angelo
Buy used from: $61.99 A fine facsimile of one of the core 18th century fencing texts, along with expert commentary from a modern exponent of the smallsword
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