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Product Description
Product Description
This scholarly, entertaining guide is the most thorough work on Medieval swordsmanship ever undertaken. It was written for advanced and beginning sword enthusiasts, students of military history and martial artists. To write this book the author combined exhaustive research with hands-on practice in fencing, contact-weapon sparring and training with historically accurate replicas. He then illustrated the text with over 100 original drawings depicting authentic Renaissance sword-fighting techniques and how you can use them today.
From the Author
Our Formidable Western Martial Heritage
When it comes to our Western martial heritage there is a high degree of common myth, misconception, and error. This is the case particularly in reference to Renaissance martial arts and its forms of historical swordsmanship. During the Renaissance there arose in Europe a distinction between those swords intended for war and those for personal self-defense. It is a myth that Renaissance fighting arts used entirely a brutal, artless approach. Examination of the historical texts and artwork of the period clearly dismisses this prejudice. Swordsmanship at the time was a systematic and highly dynamic art, far from being uniform. Understanding the weapons Renaissance fighters were using is key to studying the progression of their concepts and techniques of their fighting skills. Yet, today we are bombarded with inaccurate and silly notions derived from theatrical performances and the near irrelevance of the modern forms of sport fencing. Modern sport fencing is so far removed from its martial origins in the renaissance as to not qualify as a true martial art. The emphasis of my work is therefore necessarily not on rule-bound games or fantasy role-playing or on pretend performance, but on sound hands-on experience with accurate replica weaponry by studying the manuals of the historical masters. This book makes a substantial leap forward in the effort to reconstruct and replicate the formidable fighting arts of our Western martial heritage. It is a must for anyone serious about pursuing skill in historical swordsmanship today.
When it comes to our Western martial heritage there is a high degree of common myth, misconception, and error. This is the case particularly in reference to Renaissance martial arts and its forms of historical swordsmanship. During the Renaissance there arose in Europe a distinction between those swords intended for war and those for personal self-defense. It is a myth that Renaissance fighting arts used entirely a brutal, artless approach. Examination of the historical texts and artwork of the period clearly dismisses this prejudice. Swordsmanship at the time was a systematic and highly dynamic art, far from being uniform. Understanding the weapons Renaissance fighters were using is key to studying the progression of their concepts and techniques of their fighting skills. Yet, today we are bombarded with inaccurate and silly notions derived from theatrical performances and the near irrelevance of the modern forms of sport fencing. Modern sport fencing is so far removed from its martial origins in the renaissance as to not qualify as a true martial art. The emphasis of my work is therefore necessarily not on rule-bound games or fantasy role-playing or on pretend performance, but on sound hands-on experience with accurate replica weaponry by studying the manuals of the historical masters. This book makes a substantial leap forward in the effort to reconstruct and replicate the formidable fighting arts of our Western martial heritage. It is a must for anyone serious about pursuing skill in historical swordsmanship today.
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First Sentence
The rapier sword and its unique method of Renaissance swordsmanship are rarely understood or fully appreciated. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The rapier sword and its unique method of Renaissance swordsmanship are rarely understood or fully appreciated. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The entire informational value of this book can be put in less than 10 pages... pictures included. There are only a few good pages on sword classification, blade profile, hilt grips and parries. The rest of the book is useless. The pictures illustrating any moves look good at first until you try to decipher what they mean and put them together. At that point you find out how much of it is left out. The text descriptions don't help either because they are even less informative than the pictures.
This book is useless and worth less than paper it is printed on.
This book is useless and worth less than paper it is printed on.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Only one practical, illustrated guide to the lost art of Western swordsmanship exists, and it is John Clements' Renaissance Swordsmanship. Clements, along with several colleagues, has been engaged for several years in the ambitious project of separating the true fighting practices of the Renaissance Masters of Defense from all the nonsense you see in the movies. His approach combines a careful reading of the period manuals with live-steel experimentation and testing. The result is a book that serves as a practical handbook for the student who wants to learn not how to "fence" but how to fight with a sword. Clements' illustrations are ideal -- much better than photographs at communicating the necessary movements. In addition, Clements provides useful commentary on modern abberations such as stage combat, sport fencing, and SCA-style fantasy fighting to set the true art in contrast to false resonances in contemporary culture. At a time when our memory of the Western martial tradition is all but eclipsed by the illusion of Hollywood sport fencing and an inordinant reverence for the martial arts of the East, this book is essential for anyone who wants to understand what Renaissance Swordsmanship was really all about.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
John Clements has done exactly what he appears to have set out to do, create a book that dispels the goony Hollywood sword swinging method while attacking his peers for not being quite the purist that he is. Though Mr. Clements may be an outstanding talent in the arts of defence he lacks the writing skills to hold the readers attention and provide detailed instruction. I will say that, while leaning on the numerous handsome illustrations for support, Clements does provide an outstanding overview of the art of Rennaisance Swordsmanship. The book, measuring in at a mere 3/8" thick with a 8 1/2" x 11" profile, is one whose subject matter could easily justify twice the heft, I felt a bit disappointed in it's instructional value. Clements begins by saying that this book "...is intended primarily to dispel the many myths and misconceptions permeating the field of European swordsmanship and propagated by the media and entertainment." I wish it wou! ! ld have stated that information in Amazon's summary. My feeling about the work overall can be summed up by this exerpt from the book itself, "Of course modern people doing reenactment can only hope to approach, not surpass, those warriors in history who trained practically everyday to fight and kill with real weapons Such men were warriors who passed on their experiences learned in life-threatening war over hundreds and hundreds of years. How can modern practitioners training intermittently or playing on weekends even imagine that they could duplicate this fighting skill? Who would presume to even dare innovate their own fighting techniques?". Though these statements have a believable point one could argue this stuff from so many angles it's practically useless to bring up. There are many such discouraging statements in Renaissance Swordsmanship. Clements lords his knowledge over the reader with the heavy hand of dogma. Guess what? Those unthinkable miscreants who s! ! houldn't even dare to conceive that they might possibly hav! e a notion to pick up a sword and endeavor some form of art and excellence or dare I say...fun, are the people who are buying this book with the hopes that it may be another step on their long road to enjoyable, safe and yes, fun swordplay. Fortunately for the modern seeker of sword knowledge the days of haughty, abrasive teaching masters are a thing of the past. Unfortunately, John Clements is living in that past.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Serious Students - Get it !
For serious students of European Martial Arts ,this manual is a must have.John Clements speaks in a professional , down to earth manner with out egotistical embroidery so endemic... Read more
Published 2 months ago by MickV
Totally misleading and a bad place to start...
Due to the relatively sparce though ever growing number of western martial arts groups around the world, many budding practitioners are simply too far away from a school to be able... Read more
Published on 15 Oct 2007 by Nick Nailer
Oh dear.
I admire Mr. Clements' sincere attempts to further the cause of Western Martial Arts. Unfortunately, enthusiasm is no substitute for knowledge and skill. Read more
Published on 20 Nov 2002 by Windsor Guy
Practical and clear, but a touch too short
I liked this book greatly. Clements explains two distinct sword styles, with enough details to get started in each. Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2002
A poorly written book with some good practical insights
This book is not written by a scholar of fencing, and if I am honest it could have done with a better editor. Read more
Published on 9 Jun 1999
Very possibly the worst fencing book ever written.
This is a poorly-written, unresearched book by a self-styled "expert" who apparently has absolutely no knowledge or experience in the subject matter. Read more
Published on 25 July 1998
Superb introductory manual of Renaissance Sword technique.
John Clements' work is an essential addition to the library of the Arms and Armour Historian, the Historical Reenactor of the 16th and 17th Centuries, the student of Renaissance... Read more
Published on 6 Jun 1998
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