Ancient history The earliest Western book about the fighting arts currently known (c. 2025), , was written into
Latin by a
Roman writer,
Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, who lived in
Rome between the fourth and fifth centuries. There are no other known Western
martial arts manuals predating the
Late Middle Ages (except for fragmentary instructions on
Greek wrestling, see
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 466), although
medieval literature (e.g.,
sagas of Icelanders, Eastern Roman
Acritic songs, the
Digenes Akritas and
Middle High German epics) record specific martial deeds and military knowledge; in addition,
historical artwork depicts combat and weaponry (e.g., the
Bayeux Tapestry, the
Synopsis of Histories by John Skylitzes, the
Morgan Bible). Some researchers have attempted to reconstruct older fighting methods such as
Pankration, Eastern Roman
hoplomachia, Viking swordsmanship and gladiatorial combat by reference to these sources and practical experimentation. The
Royal Armouries Ms. I.33 (pronounced "one thirty-three," also known as the
Walpurgis Fechtbuch or the Tower , and the Walpurgis Manuscript or the Tower manuscript), dated to , is the oldest surviving , teaching
sword and
buckler combat. The Walpurgis manuscript gives instructions on individual combat with the sword and buckler (a small, round shield) featuring the characters of a priest, a scholar, and a female who is named Walpurgis. The system contains seven basic guards and 36 sequences today. There were more but the pages were lost. The priest stands as the lead in most sequences, until the final two sequences where Walpurgis, the female character, stands in as the lead, delivering a shield-strike and a blow to the priest's head. Significantly, the I.33 manuscript illustrates a distinctive method of using the sword and buckler, which is different from the techniques found in most subsequent fight books.
Post-classical history The central figure of late
medieval martial arts, at least in Germany, is . Though no manuscript written by him is known to have survived, his teachings were first recorded in the late 14th-century . From the 15th to the 17th century, numerous (German 'fencing-books') were produced, of which some several hundred are extant; a great many of these describe methods descended from Liechtenauer's. Liechtenauer's (recital) remains one of the most famous — if cryptic — pieces of European martial arts scholarship to this day, with several translations and interpretations of the poem being put into practice by fencers and scholars around the world. guards (1452 manuscript) Normally, several modes of combat were taught alongside one another, typically unarmed
grappling ( or ),
dagger ( or , often of the
rondel dagger), long
knife (), or
Dusack, half- or
quarterstaff,
polearms,
longsword (, , ), and combat in
plate armour ( or ), both on foot and on horseback. Some have sections on dueling shields (), special weapons used only in
trial by combat. Important 15th century German fencing masters include
Sigmund Ringeck, Peter von Danzig (see
Cod. 44 A 8),
Hans Talhoffer and
Paulus Kal, all of whom taught the teachings of Liechtenauer. From the late 15th century, there were "brotherhoods" of fencers (), most notably the
Brotherhood of St. Mark (attested 1474) and the
Federfechter. The Italian school is continued by
Filippo Vadi (1482–1487) and
Pietro Monte (1492, Latin with Italian and Spanish terms). Three early (before
George Silver) natively
English swordplay texts exist, but are all very obscure and from uncertain dates; they are generally thought to belong to the latter half of the 15th century.
Early modern period Renaissance In the 16th century, compendia of older techniques were produced, some of them printed, notably by
Paulus Hector Mair (in the 1540s) and by
Joachim Meyer (in the 1570s). The extent of Mair's writing is unmatched by any other German master, and is considered invaluable by contemporary scholars. In Germany, fencing had developed sportive tendencies during the 16th century. The treatises of Paulus Hector Mair and Joachim Meyer derived from the teachings of the earlier centuries within the Liechtenauer tradition, but with new and distinctive characteristics. The printed of
Jacob Sutor (1612) is one of the last in the German tradition. In Italy, the 16th century was a period of big change. It opened with the two treatises of Bolognese masters
Antonio Manciolino and
Achille Marozzo, who described a variation of the eclectic knightly arts of the previous century. From sword and buckler to sword and dagger, sword alone to two-handed sword, from polearms to wrestling (though absent in Manciolino), early 16th-century Italian fencing reflected the versatility that a martial artist of the time was supposed to have achieved. Towards the mid-16th century, however, polearms and companion weapons besides the dagger and the cape gradually began to fade out of treatises. In 1553,
Camillo Agrippa was the first to define the prima, seconda, terza, and quarta guards (or hand-positions), which would remain the mainstay of Italian fencing into the next century and beyond. From the late 16th century, Italian
rapier fencing attained considerable popularity all over Europe, notably with the treatise by
Salvator Fabris (1606). •
Antonio Manciolino (1531, Italian) •
Achille Marozzo (1536, Italian) •
Angelo Viggiani (1551, Italian) •
Camillo Agrippa (1553, Italian) •
Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza (1569, Spanish) •
Giacomo di Grassi (1570, Italian) •
Giovanni Dall'Agocchie (1572, Italian) •
Henry de Sainct-Didier (1573, French) •
Angelo Viggiani (1575, Italian) •
Frederico Ghisliero (1587, Italian) •
Vincentio Saviolo (1595, Italian) •
Girolamo Cavalcabo (1597, Italian) •
George Silver (1599, English)
Baroque style During the
Baroque period,
wrestling fell from favour among the upper classes, being now seen as unrefined and rustic. The fencing styles practice also needed to conform to the new ideals of elegance and harmony. This ideology was taken to great lengths in Spain in particular, where 'the true art (of swordsmanship)' was now based on
Renaissance humanism and scientific principles, contrasting with the traditional "vulgar" approach to fencing inherited from the medieval period. Significant masters of Destreza included
Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza ("the father of Destreza", d. 1600) and
Luis Pacheco de Narváez (1600, 1632).
Girard Thibault (1630) was a Dutch master influenced by these ideals. The
French school of fencing also moves away from its Italian roots, developing its own terminology, rules and systems of teaching. French masters of the Baroque period include Le Perche du Coudray (1635, 1676, teacher of
Cyrano de Bergerac), Besnard (1653, teacher of
Descartes),
François Dancie (1623) and Philibert de la Touche (1670). In the 17th century, Italian swordsmanship was dominated by
Salvator Fabris, whose of 1606 exerted great influence not only in Italy, but also in Germany, where it all but extinguished the native German traditions of fencing. Fabris was followed by Italian masters such as
Nicoletto Giganti (1606),
Ridolfo Capo Ferro (1610),
Francesco Alfieri (1640), Francesco Antonio Marcelli (1686) and Bondi' di Mazo (1696). The
Elizabethan and
Jacobean eras produce English fencing writers, such as the Gentleman
George Silver (1599) and the professional fencing master
Joseph Swetnam (1617). The English verb
to fence is first attested in
Shakespeare's
Merry Wives of Windsor (1597). The French school of fencing originated in the 16th century, which is based on the Italian school, and developed into its classical form during the Baroque period.
Rococo style (1725 etching) In the 18th century, during the late Baroque and Rococo period, the French style of fencing with the
small sword and later with the
foil (), originated as a training weapon for small sword fencing. By 1715, the rapier had been largely replaced by the lighter and handier
small sword throughout most of Europe, although treatments of the former continued to be included by authors such as Donald McBane (1728), P. J. F. Girard (1736) and
Domenico Angelo (1763). In this time,
bare-knuckle boxing emerged as a popular sport in England and Ireland. The foremost pioneers of the sport of boxing were Englishmen
James Figg and
Jack Broughton. Throughout the course of the 18th century, the French school became the western European standard to the extent that Angelo, an Italian-born master teaching in England, published his in French in 1763. It was extremely successful and became a standard fencing manual over the following 50 years, throughout the Napoleonic period. Angelo's text was so influential that it was chosen to be included under the heading of in the of Diderot.
Late modern period Development into modern sports In the 19th century, Western martial arts became divided into modern
sports on one-handed fencing and applications that retain military significance on the other. In the latter category are the methods of close-quarter combat with the
bayonet, besides use of the
sabre and the
lance by
cavalrists and of the
cutlass by naval forces. The
English longbow is another European weapon that is still used in the sport of
archery. Apart from the many styles of fencing, European combat sports of the 19th century include
Boxing in
England,
Savate in
France, and regional forms of
wrestling such as Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling, Lancashire Wrestling, and
Cornish Wrestling. Fencing in the 19th century transformed into a pure sport. While
duels remained common among members of the aristocratic classes, they became increasingly frowned upon in society during the course of the century, and such duels as were fought to the death were increasingly fought with pistols, instead of bladed weapons.
Stick fighting Styles of stick fighting include
walking-stick fighting (including Irish or , French and English
singlestick) and
Bartitsu (an early hybrid of Eastern and Western schools popularized at the turn of the 20th century). Some existing forms of European stick fighting can be traced to direct teacher-student lineages from the 19th century. Notable examples include the methods of Scottish and British Armed Services
singlestick, and , Portuguese , Italian or , and some styles of Canarian . In the 19th century and early 20th century, the greatstick (//) was employed by some Portuguese, French, and Italian military academies as a method of exercise, recreation, and as preparation for bayonet training. A third category might be traditional "folk styles", mostly
folk wrestling.
Greco-Roman wrestling was a discipline at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. Inclusion of
freestyle wrestling followed in 1904.
19th century revival ,
Alfred Hutton and Mouatt Biggs giving a demonstration of "Old English sword-and-buckler play" before the
Prince of Wales at the
Lyceum Theatre in 1891 (
The Graphic). Attempts at reconstructing the discontinued traditions of European systems of combat began in the late 19th century, with a revival of interest from the
Middle Ages. The movement was led in England by the soldier, writer, antiquarian, and swordsman,
Alfred Hutton. Hutton learned fencing at the school founded by
Domenico Angelo. In 1862, he organized in his regiment stationed in
India the Cameron Fencing Club, for which he prepared his first work, a 12-page booklet entitled
Swordsmanship. After returning home from India in 1865, Hutton focused on the study and revival of older fencing systems and schools. He began tutoring groups of students in the art of 'ancient swordplay' at a club attached to the London Rifle Brigade School of Arms in the 1880s. In 1889, Hutton published his most influential work
Cold Steel: A Practical Treatise on the Sabre, which presented the historical method of military sabre use on foot, combining the 18th century English
backsword with the modern Italian duelling
sabre. Hutton's pioneering advocacy and practice of
historical fencing included reconstructions of the fencing systems of several historical masters including
George Silver and
Achille Marozzo. He delivered numerous practical demonstrations with his colleague
Egerton Castle of these systems during the 1890s, both in order to benefit various military charities and to encourage patronage of the contemporary methods of competitive fencing. Exhibitions were held at the
Bath Club and a fund-raising event was arranged at
Guy's Hospital. " which included demonstrations in "swordsmanship, swimming, and
bartitsu" (
London Daily Mail, 13 June 1899). Among his many acolytes were
Egerton Castle, Captain Carl Thimm, Colonel Cyril Matthey, Captain Percy Rolt,
Captain Ernest George Stenson Cooke, Captain Frank Herbert Whittow,
Esme Beringer,
Sir Frederick, and
Walter Herries Pollock. Despite this revival and the interest that was received in late Victorian England, the practice died out soon after the death of Hutton in 1910. Interest in the physical application of historical fencing techniques remained largely dormant during the first half of the 20th century, due to a number of factors. Similar work, although more academic than practical in nature, occurred in other European countries. In Germany, Karl Wassmannsdorf conducted research on the German school and Gustav Hergsell reprinted three of Hans Talhoffer's manuals. In France, there was the work of the Academie D'Armes circa 1880–1914. In Italy, Jacopo Gelli and
Francesco Novati published a facsimile of the "Flos Duellatorum" of
Fiore dei Liberi, and Giuseppe Cerri's book on the Bastone drew inspiration from the two-handed sword of
Achille Marozzo. Baron Leguina's bibliography of Spanish swordsmanship is still a standard reference today.
20th century Starting in 1966, the
Society for Creative Anachronism, an amateur
medieval reenactment organization, renewed public interest in the
practice of historic fighting arts, and has hosted numerous tournaments in which participants compete in simulated medieval and renaissance fighting styles using padded weapons. Dividing their focus between
Heavy Armored Fighting, to simulate early medieval warfare, and adapted sport Rapier fencing, to reenact later renaissance styles, the SCA regularly holds large re-creation scenarios throughout the world. Their styles have been criticized by other groups as lacking historical authenticity, although a number of members of the group regularly engage in scholarship. A number of researchers, principally academics with access to some of the sources, continued exploring the field of historical European martial arts from a largely academic perspective. In 1972, James Jackson published a book called
Three Elizabethan Manuals of Fence. This work reprinted the works of
George Silver,
Giacomo di Grassi, and
Vincentio Saviolo. In 1965, Martin Wierschin published a bibliography of German fencing manuals, along with a transcription of
Codex Ringeck and a glossary of terms. In turn, this led to the publication of Hans-Peter Hils' seminal work on
Johannes Liechtenauer in 1985. During the mid-20th century, a small number of professional fight directors for theatre, film and television – notably including Arthur Wise, William Hobbs and
John Waller, all of them British – studied historical combat treatises as inspiration for their fight choreography. In the 1980s and 1990s,
Patri J. Pugliese began making photocopies of historical treatises available to interested parties, greatly spurring on research. In 1994, with the rise of the Hammerterz Forum, a publication devoted entirely to the history of
swordsmanship. During the late 1990s, translations and interpretations of historical sources began appearing in print as well as online. == The modern HEMA community ==