Consulting Swordsman
Would you like a complete interpretation and training method for Vadi’s Art of Arms, as found in his De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi? Well now you can have it, with the Philippo Vadi courses bundle, which includes my Philippo Vadi Longsword Course, and my Philippo Vadi Dagger Course. The courses also include all of Vadi’s other … Read more
It’s a great week for Vadi fans. My comprehensive new course “The Philippo Vadi Longsword Course” is now live on both Teachable and Swordpeople, and my friend Michael Chidester has also just launched his new crowdfunding campaign for a very high-end and beautiful facsimile of Vadi’s treatise, De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi. This was a coincidence, and not … Read more
Ultra-geeky sword post alert: this is a lengthy and detailed discussion of some really specific terms from Fiore. Expect pedantry and nit-pickery, in the service of a definition of terms which has little bearing on how we actually fight. Read on only if that sort of thing floats your boat. I have written this because … Read more
Many students find the (often) foreign terminology a major barrier to learning swordsmanship. I get it. I really do. In 2006 I even wrote an article explaining why I translate “meza” and “tutta” the way I do. I put a glossary in the back of most of my books, and I created a separate pdf … Read more
It has been a splendid few days in Seattle so far, kicked off by a trapeze lesson with the excellent Milla Marshall at SANCA. The place was pretty empty, so there was no-one to hold the camera (Milla was busy spotting me through the tricky bits), but we did manage to catch this new trick … Read more
My urgent desire to snuggle up to Philippo Vadi has been gratified, and now you can do the same too. This lovely facsimile went live today, and you can get it from Amazon US, Amazon UK, or order it from any bookshop with the ISBN: 978-9527157091 Not every online store stocks it, probably because … Read more
What’s this? A new book? Or an old one? My recent fascination with producing affordable facsimiles of fencing manuscripts began with wanting to curl up in a chair with Vadi. Mission accomplished. The proof copy arrived this week, and I have released it for distribution. It will go on sale on February 28th. I set … Read more
About a month ago I was checking through a pdf of Vadi’s De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi, and thinking how lovely it would be to just pluck the manuscript off a shelf and curl up in an armchair with it. So I looked into getting a copy printed and bound locally. It was going to cost about … Read more
In November 1967, De Arte Gladiatoria was sold to the Biblioteca Nazionale di Roma. It lies there still. In the process of doing research for the second edition of Veni Vadi Vici (which should be out this year), I found the auction catalogue on ebay, and bought it. As you may know, I’m not one to … Read more
Rapier Length: responding to criticism from the internet As you may know, I am in the process of videoing everything we do in the salle, and putting it up online for free. This project is called the “Syllabus Wiki“. One of the many benefits of this is that informed commentators can see what we are … Read more