Studying

Stable, Striking and Mutable: Fighting from the Guards of L’Arte dell’Armizare

By Sean Hayes, Northwest Fencing Academy, Eugene OR USA April 30, 2014 2 Comments

“I am the sword and I am lethal against any weapon; lances, axes and dagger are worthless against me. I can become extended or withdrawn; when I get near the opponent I can enter into close play, perform disarms and abrazare. My art is to turn and to bind; I am expert in defense and […]

Memory and Performance: Visual and Rhetorical Strategies of Il Fior di Battaglia

By Sean Hayes, Northwest Fencing Academy, Eugene OR USA April 19, 2014 1 Comment

(First presented at the Renaissance Society of America’s Venice conference in 2010. Presented also as part of an academic session followed by an armoured combat demonstration, organized by Dr. Regina Pskai, at the American Association for Italian Studies conference at University of Oregon, 2013) This paper is part of a larger study on medieval and Renaissance martial arts manuscripts, […]

The Role of Filippo Vadi in the dei Liberi Tradition, Pt. II

By fortezafitness September 30, 2012 1 Comment

(c) 2010 Greg Mele, Chicago Swordplay Guild While Filippo Vadi’s De arte gladiatoria dimicandi differs in the main very little from the work of Fiore dei Liberi in terms of technique, the assertion that Vadi’s work does not differ in method of communication is simply incorrect. The true originality of the De arte gladiatoria dimicandi stands in the sixteen introductory […]

What is Armizare?

By Sean Hayes, Northwest Fencing Academy, Eugene OR USA September 10, 2012 Leave a comment

L’arte d’Armizare (The Art of Arms) is the medieval Italian term for knightly martial arts that were employed by the aristocratic warrior class of Europe – the knights. During the medieval era, the ruling classes and the upper echelon of the fighting classes were the same people, and they developed sophisticated martial arts systems to […]