These pages will be focusing directly at the numerous research aspects of HEMA, both the sources themselves, but also the social and historical contexts, and similar, close subjects.
You are of course all invited to publish your thoughts here!
The whole site is currently undergoing some radical changes aiming to improve how useful it is to the HEMA community. Please be patient while the work is completed.
The work is expected to take at least a week of fulltime work. Please consider supporting HROARR via Patreon.
On the occasion of the International Federation of Historical European Martial Arts’s ninth General Assembly, and to celebrate the cooperation agreement signed between the Museum of Martial Arts (MAM) and IFHEMA, a symposium is organised in Brescia, Italy, 3-4...
Dear fencing friends!, it is our pleasure to announce the "HEMA goes Public" event. Last year, the project "HEMA in the Park" was launched for the first time in Austria and neighbouring countries (e.g. Germany, Hungary and Swizerland) to make our sword fencing...
After a bit of a hiatus, HROARR is back with a new, and quite fantastic article on medieval and Renaissance magic, by renowned HEMA scholar and instructor Jean Chandler! The title of the article is A historical fencer’s primer on late medieval and early modern...
Last summer, a friend asked me a question that I did not know the answer to. A nagging doubt led me down one of those “rabbit holes” all researchers, and most curious people know so well today. In this case, there was quite a payoff. What follows is an account of this...
The use of the striking German battle sword as found in many armories through out Germany still poses many unanswered questions. This article provides an overview over contemporary sources and proposes an approach to combine the information gained from those sources to determine possible techniques and principles for this weapon.
Note to reader: This document complements an essay published on the blog Martial Culture in Medieval town, available here: https://martcult.hypotheses.org/1373?fbclid=IwAR1Mbz2xWmIo66tI8rp9t9k8-SpHwPOXHXgfX4Q1txgn8QknQqQDzG-EroI This document offers transcriptions and...
When you first start reading the medieval fencing manuals, one of the curious things you keep running into is magic. As with so much about these strange and fascinating books, this is hard to know what to do with. Like most people I basically skipped over it. But as...
The procession arrives at the square. Publicans erects their tents and tap their barrels. Musicians collect into bands, and other performers wander the incoming crowd. Dominating the center of the square is a square fence, large enough to host several pairs of fencers...
And the first are those who, as soon as they can reach the opponent in the Onset, at once cut and thrust in with violence. The second are somewhat more moderate, and do not attack too crudely, outward from the centerline on a horizontal plane but when an opponent...
There is a particular tension at play in the modern Historical European Martial Arts community regarding the the early and later period expressions of the German fighting system known as Kunst Des Fechtens or “Art of Fencing.” The former is dominated by the...
“An average, foundational knowledge of the past helps us understand the 14th-16th c. Fechtschulen [...] that’s why we need researchers and people vested in recreating and reconstructing the Art of Fencing with a large view of the period in scope of their (the arts)...
Mark, this is that before all things you shall rightly undertake and understand these two things, which are the Before and the After, and thereafter the Weak and Strong of the sword, and then the word “Meanwhile”, whence comes the entire foundation of all the Art of...
At least as early as in the early 17th cent, fencing masters swore to care in particular for widows and orphans, as can be seen in e.g. the oaths of the fencers of the Company of Maisters of the Noble Science of Defense. And this tradition was maintained in Germany...
Over the years I have spent researching Late Medieval Central Europe, I ran across many unfamiliar words which were either academic terms of art or important jargon from the era. Along the way I composed a glossary for myself to help navigate this strange world,...
This article translates and contextualises the longsword bout detailed in Le tre giornate di Marc'Antonio Pagano gentil'huomo napoletano. Dintorno alla disciplina de l'arme e spetialmente della spada sola,[1] by Marc’Antonio Pagano, the earliest extant Southern...
Giovanni Alberto Cassani published a military treatise in Naples in 1603.1 In this work he indicates that he was born in the town of Frassinello Monferrato in Piedmont, and that he served in the Spanish army, but little more is known about his life. Most military...
Dynamic parameters define a rigid body’s reaction to external forces. While their importance for a sword’s behaviour is known since the 19th century, many data sets of original swords, replicas and training weapons include mass and the centre of mass, but lack a third parameter such as moment of inertia, radius of gyration, or corresponding centres of oscillation/percussion. A third parameter, however, is required to calculate a rigid object’s response.
In the mid-19th century, not that long after the Belgian war of independence, an experiment was taking place in fencing in the Netherlands. The main proponent of this experiment was Christiaan Siebenhaar (1824-1885), fencing master in the Dutch army.[1] In his own...
Proposition This article proposes that Francesco Novati’s 1902 facsimile reproduction of Flos Duellatorum contains clear stylistic discrepancies that can both elucidate its connection to the original Pisani-Dossi manuscript, and identify connections between the...
Last week, in the same spirit of information freedom that inspired Wiktenauer's creation, I released a free ebook version of The Recital of the Chivalric Art of Fencing of the Grand Master Johannes Liechtenauer, one of the two books produced as part of the 2015...
Though long delayed, this book represents the most complete picture possible of the Liechtenauer tradition of foot combat as it was recorded in the mid 15th century. It’s the text I wanted for my students when I was leading a study group, and I’m happy to finally offer it in print. I hope it serves in some small way to advance the study of Johannes Liechtenauer’s art.
King and Fool - The Vier Leger of Liechtenauer’s Tradition and their relationship with common medieval German archetypes. Exposition includes three things: The letter, the sense, and the inner meaning. (1) “Vier leger allain da von halt und fleuch dye gemain ochβ...
Part One of this article examined the famous judicial duel between Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris, which was held in Paris in 1386. As it turns out, the description of the event in Eric Jager’s book The Last Duel is rather different from the five surviving...
According to the website Deadline Hollywood, Studio 8 has hired a screenwriter to turn Eric Jager’s book The Last Duel into a script for a Hollywood movie (Fleming, 2015). This tale, published as nonfiction, is an account of the judicial duel in 1386 between Jean de...
Florius de Arte Luctandi is formally designated Ms. Latin 11269 by the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. Based on the content and style of the illustrations, the style of the handwriting, and its probable relation to better-known texts, it was likely created...
The entry on fencing in René François' 1621 encyclopedia is a rich source of terminology and practices common in the fencing salles of this period in which France was developing its own native fencing style as well as trying to rid itself of foreign cultural...
In the introduction to “The Sword and the Centuries” (1901), Alfred Hutton mentions a curious incident. His fencing group in the London Rifle Brigade were invited to Belgium to put on a display of historical fencing. What can we discover about this Belgian event? What follows is an overview some literary detective work that reveals Adolphe Corthey, a man in every way Hutton’s equal and the powerhouse behind late nineteenth century HEMA in France.
Almost exactly a year ago I was lucky enough to be taken on a small journey that has been a long time dream of mine; walking in the footsteps of 16th cent fencing master Joachim Meyer, visiting the city where he spent many years teaching as Fechtmeister;...
This article gathers a series of notes written while studying the sources on the Iberian montante sword of the late XV century and following centuries. The extant sources are listed and analysed. Different approaches to teaching this weapon’s handling are described, stressing those who can provide a context for its use.
This article shall group Joachim Meyer's Ringen into collections of similar throws. Hopefully this will better aid the modern student in learning Meyer's Ringen. All of the throws have been rewritten into a modern step-by-step method from Dr. Forgeng's translation...
“Finding yourself assailed by enemies, and supposing there are many of them, the situation demands nothing less than attacks like those of a desperate man, that is to say you must enter liberally into the fray” Giuseppe Colombani (1711) The scarcity of advice for...
Continuing with his four part series on The use of the saber in the army of Napoleon, Dr. Bert Gevaert now presents the fourth part: Wounds caused by the saber Introduction Soldiers and officers in the army of Napoleon led a life full of risks and sometimes the...
Continuing with his four part series on The use of the saber in the army of Napoleon, Dr. Bert Gevaert now presents the third part: Individual martial prowess on the battlefield Stories about individual swordsmen are the most fascinating ones and in this...
Continuing with his series on The use of the saber in the army of Napoleon, Dr. Bert Gevaert now presents the second part: Antoine Fortuné de Brack: Avant-postes de cavalerie légère (1831) De Brack was a French officer who participated in several military campaigns of...
Here is a rough diagram that tries to explain the core mechanics that go through all of Meyers fencing and which are the foundation for the footwork and weapon mechanics, regardless of weapon. These mechanics apply to pretty much all of Meyer's teachings, with...
“The sword is the weapon in which you should have most confidence, because it rarely fails you by breaking in your hands. Its blows are the more certain, accordingly as you direct them coolly; and hold it properly.” - Antoine Fortuné de Brack ([1831], 1876, p. 51)...
Introduction: So what happened to the Second Estate? Most of my own HEMA-related historical research in the last ten years has been focused on the Free Cities and City States which are the origin of so many of the known fencing manuals. But that...
Our personal goals in studying HEMA are varied, complex and individually quite different. For myself, I try to understand how and why it is designed the way it is as a martial art. That means it is not enough mimicking the movements described in the manuals, since...
There are many reasons why I devote much of my time and my energies on what Joachim Meyer has exhibited in his treatises. But the main reason I decided to get closer to the Freifechter of Basel was the desire to learn his method of two-handed sword, and possibly the...
Below are three versions of the Fencing Ordinance of the Swiss town of Solothurn, first the original, then the English translation, then a German re-statement. All translations are mine. At the time, Solothurn was a full member of the Swiss Confederacy and a very...
We all share the same love for our personal and shared discoveries of a forgotten European martial arts tradition and studying it we all learn to know some important and commonly known names like Liechtenauer, Fiore, Ringeck, Talhoffer, Kal, Vadi, Marozzo,...
Over the last five years, I’ve given several workshops in both South Africa and Europe focused on sequencing the teaching of techniques from Joachim Meyer’s “Gründtliche Beschreibung… der Kunst des Fechtens”[i]. In my view, each section in Meyer’s 1570 text contains...
Note: This is a working document and will continuously be updated as we work with our interpretations of Joachim Meyer's dagger teachings. Similarly to how I worked with his staff teachings I will attempt at systemizing the principles and techniques taught and...
Designing a sword of mid 14th century style using a system of geometric drawing that is inspired by surviving plans of medieval gothic architecture. Please visit my site at peterjohnsson.com for more information about this principle of design and the hypothesis that...
Here is an excellent lecture on Fiore Furlano de Liberi, Ludwig von Eyb and more, by Michael Chidester, held at Fechtschule America 2013. Well worth watching, no matter if you focus more on the "Italian" or "German" aspects of the fighting arts. Great work, Michael!...
This short movie shows a glimpse of the world of the Collegiate Fencing, the still living child of the Fechtschule tradition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLbr0BtfA7s For more reading, look at the excellent article An overview of German collegiate fencing...
On this day, 443 years ago, Fechtmeister Joachim Meyer published his magnificent fencing treatise 'Gründliche Beschreibung der Freyen Ritterlichen und Adeligen Kunst des Fechtens'. Exactly one year later, on February 24th 1571, he died from sudden illness, while...
In my opinion the dussack doesn't quite get the recognition it deserves in the historical fencing community, despite the fact that it was a highly important weapon in the old fencing guilds. It is not really studied properly, probably due to many commonly believing...
This article is written to accompany the recent article about the mysticist, and possibly even fencer and a Freyfechter, Heinrich Agrippa. If you haven't read the article, it is suggested you do so, before reading this article. Die Rose (the...
It has been debated regarding to what extent Meyer was inspired by the Italians, the Napolitans and the Bolognese fighting systems and although there appears to be ties to this, exactly what they are and how they came about is still unclear. However, comparing...
Well there is a right Vom Tag, and a middle one... so there has to be a left Vom Tag as well, hasn't there? We make all master cuts cut from both sides, so it is simple logic, right? Looking through the manuscripts and manuals of the 15th and 16th century, it is...
Fighters Against Racism
Acta Periodica Duellatorum