The Historical Fighting Treatises
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- Created on Sunday, 16 December 2007 18:43
- Last Updated on Sunday, 05 May 2013 18:47
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The Schola Saint George studies historical martial arts. But what are they?
The Asian Martial Arts
Most people associate historical martial arts with the Eastern or Asian arts exclusively. These arts have a long and distinguished history, a varied collection of arts both noble and common, for war and for civilian defense, both armed and unarmed. But Eastern arts have a largely oral tradition, passed from master to student through many generations, something like a giant game of "telephone." Each master tends to change the art somewhat, and over time, it is a near certainty that orally-transmitted arts will drift considerably from their origins (this is not necessarily a bad thing, as all arts can be improved).It is thus very hard to know how self-defense and military arts were practiced in China, Japan, the Phillipines, Korea, or anywhere else on the globe. One way to look into history and to see the arts is to look for contemporary references, either in illustrations, in literature, or best of all, in a book of fighting techniques. Unfortunately the earliest known book of Asian fighting techniques dates from the 17th century.
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For many years it was fashionable to view medieval and Renaissance conduct of war and of fighting technique as "crude and untutored." Reenactors and tournament societies (such as the SCA) long experiemented with historical styles of arms and armour, using a kind of experimental archaeology to explore the arts from scratch, reinventing them through reproductions of the equipment itself. These experiments were in some cases successful progenitors of a new generation of "medieval" martial arts, practiced either with batons (clubs) or rebated steel weapons.
The Western Martial Arts
But starting in the late 13th centuy, some medieval authors recorded their experiences into books. The German principalities were probably the first place where this was done. Prior to 1389 only a single resource exists, the so-called Tower Fechtbuch, also known as RA I.33 ("one" thirty three). This is a fascinating little sword and buckler treatise featuring a priest and a scholar engaged in what has been shown to be a complex, effective but elegant system of civilian defense. The system has attracted no small attention within the Schola, and we have our own in-house experts who continue to study and reconstruct it, most notably Dr. Robert Holland, Provist of the San Fransisco branch of the Schola.
By 1389 only one other treatise had been written, the hausebuch by the priest Hanko Dobringer. This text-only treatise features the zettel (teaching verse) of the meister Johannes Liechtenauer, founder of a school of German swordsmanship that was to endure with significant variations until the 17th century. Indeed today there are many surviving works written by masters within the Liechtenauer tradition, including Sigmund Ringeck, Peter von Danzig, Paulus Kal, Hans Talhoffer, and Joachim Meyer, amongst others. In the US, the German school has been much advanced and powerfully taught by Christian Tobler of the Selohaar Fechtschule. The Higgens Armory Swordguild under Dr. Jeffrey L. Forgeng also practices in this style. In Europe, this style is far more popular than in the U.S.; the famous Ochs and Freifecther groups are both well-thought of and study the German school intensely.
The Italian magistri also recorded their works in extensively detailed treatises. The Schola follows and has build our core curriculum around the works of the late 14th / early 15th century swordmaster Fiore dei Liberi, in Friulian teacher and author of at least five books, three of which survive. After Fiore dei Liberi, Filippo Vadi seems to have followed his tradition, although by Vadi's time--just forty or fifty years later--the art had changed greatly. Another Italian, the great Dardi school, features Manciolino, Dall'Agochie, and its most famous proponent, Achille Marozzo. The civilian fencing tradition became predominant during the 17th century, with a host of printed fencing books describing the famous "Italian Style" of rapier combat in detail. The Schola makes Fiore our base source because his system is well refined and martially efficient, and it strikes us as very close to a battlefield art, Indeed, Fiore explains that his art was for use a oltranza (without limits), and he taught his art to active condottieri, Italian captains of battle.
Both the German and the Italian schools focus on a variety of weapons, including unarmed grappling, defense against and with a rondel dagger, the sword in one hand and in two (the German also has buckler in some treatises), spear, poleaxe, and equestrian combat. What is copiously absent is the use of the "knightly" shield. But both traditions represent complete, coherent and efficient combat systems. The Schola practices and trains in all of these weapons, although we begin with the sword in two hands. We also have well-developed curricula for many of the above; our advanced students are encouraged to become experts in a form of their own and bring it back to the Schola. In this way our expertise continually grows.
Modern Study of Historical Forms
Although these are "historical" martial arts, their core principles are timeless. Within the Schola some of our students explore modern defense application of the arts, finding that Fiore compares favorably with any other martial art (the German system is similarly effective).
Of course you cannot learn to fight from a book. That is why the Schola emphasizes testing our interpretations under the stress of compeitive combat in both unarmoured and armoured styles.
Our students practice the Art for a wide variety of reasons. Some just for the sake of the Art itself, or as a form of exercise. Many (perhaps most) want to apply the principles learned to other forms of medieval fighting, such as tournament fighting within a reenactment or combat society setting. Some want to cross-train and have found the Schola's approach refreshingly systematic, while at the same time fostering an individual style within the historical framework. The Schola teaches principles rather than techniques, emphasizing judgment and audacity.
We start from books like this:
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