!!!!!LIBRARIES, LIBRARIES, LIBRARIES!!!!!!
!!!!!LIBRARIES, LIBRARIES, LIBRARIES!!!!!!
Cennedi's
Treatise
on
SCA Fighting
Yusef's
Post and Beam Experience
Here is the great project...where I built a house of beams and timber
and what befell it in the end.
American
Heritage Fighting Arts Association
Flavius
Vegetius Renatus "Military Matters"
Tao
Te Ching - Written by Lao-Tzu A Translation For the PUBLIC
DOMAIN by j.h.mcdonald 1996
The Art of War by Nicollo Machiavelli
Old
Sword Play by Alfred Hutton
(a Victorian master at arms, Mr. Hutton was one of the great three
Victorian masters who did their best to modernize sword fighting.
This translation and commentary is worth the trouble to study and
see the problems he solved in the process of creating a good fighting
manual.)
Joachim
Meyer.
Mark Rector, one of the movers and shakers of Mr. John Clement's Arma
and of HACA is at it again, getting a translation of Meyer's
book. Here is the translation project....HERE
The
pictures
which go with this translation project are found HERE
I urge people to respect their copyrights.
Meyer was a professional master-at-arms of the Strasburg Marxbrueder
fighting guild and he wrote this very influential book, Kunst der
fechtens ("Art of Fighting") and published it in 1570.
Tobias
Stimmer
provided the amazing illustrations. He attempted
to cover every aspect of fighting with weapons, including short sword
and dagger, Dusack, staffs, pole weapons and wrestling. A
worthwhile study book for sure.
Joachim
Meyer.
This is Higgins' Armoury facimili of this very influential book
Hope you can read German...grin! On the other hand, it also seems
to help to be able to see what the original words were....for instance,
he uses an attack called a stier, and it is named after the upward
thrust of a steer's horns. Well, whaddya know!
This is the book I use most in the South Tower Armouring Guild style. I have found that there is nothin in Meyer which is not in Talhoffer, but there is no doubt that Meyer has prettier pictures.
George
Sylver,
Gentleman, Paradoxes of Defence
This is the more famous book which Sylver rants on about the bad
Italian Schools, and dangerous fencing masters. Entertaining,
especially if you actually run a fencing school. But Sylver is
often dismissed out of hand by people who don't realize that this is
not a fight book at all. Even at the time, he bore this critisism
with great stoicism, and published a companion volume. A real
fight book appropriately titled "Brief Instructions"
George Sylver, Brief
Instructions on my Paradoxex of Defence
This the one you want to read to discover techniques. I use many of
these techniques in my class. It was unaccountably lost until
long after the age when fighting with swords was the norm...and
re-discovered in 1898. Probably by Sherlock Holmes. This
book should take its place beside any continental work. I am
indebted to Greg Lindahl for publishing Steve Hick's re-typing of this
remarkable manuscript. A facimile of this manuscript may be
found HERE
Blade
Patterns
Intrisnic to steel edged weapons.
A photo essay on the "Viking
Sword" page. More info here,
regarding
typology
of Viking Swords.
From
Rapier
to
Langsax: Sword Structure in the British Isles in the Bronze
and Iron Ages, by Niko Silvester deals with the development of
swords from their origins in the Bronze Age through the close of the
Viking Age and is a component of the now closed Swordsmithy. Russian Medieval Arms and
Armor is an intriguing subject as there is a blend of both
Eastern and Western influences, varying over time, which are well
covered in this English language summary and illustrated glossary from
the Xenophon
Group. Armour
and Weapons, by Charles Ffoulks This somewhat
dated (1909) book based on Ffoulke's lectures at Oxford is the possibly
one of the best introductory books that answers the question "Just what
exactly IS armour" anyways? It is a bit of a mine field
though....many of his speculations about armour, like, say, "Banded
mail" has since been refuted, but it is a remarkably well written book,
and belongs in any library. The fellow WAS a curator of the
Armoury at the Tower of London after all, so I listen when he talks. Inventory
and Survey of the Armouries of the Tower of London. Charles
Ffoulks, curator of the armouries of the Tower of London. Volume
1. History of the armoury, and its various departments.
Armour Volume
2. Weapons Sword, knives, guns, cannons. The
Wallace Collection Catalogue. As stunning as the collection
is, the catalogue reads like a phone book! Roman Scotland.
A web site devoted to all things speculative and unlikely involving the
Romans in Scotland. A rattling fun read! A Record of
European Armour and Arms, by Sir Guy Francis Laking.
Nobody promoted himself like Guy Laking did! And maybe for
good reason. He was the curator of the Tower of London Armoury
for many years. This is more than just a catalogue of the armour,
it is comfortably written scholarly read. In five volumes! Volume
1 Chapters 1 through 9. Chapter I...general history of
armour, chapter 11...early Norman Period, chapter III...acouterments
and representational armour, chapter IV...armour and arms 1200 to
1290, chapter V..1300 to 1400, chapter VI..1400 to 1500 German, chapter
VII...1400 to 1500 Italian, Chapter VIII...the evolution of the
basinet, Chapter IX, the evolution of the helm. Volume
2 Chapter X to XVIII Chapter X....the Salade Head
Piece, Chapter XI...The Chapelle de Fer. Chapter
XII...The Armet. Chapter XIII....The helm of the 15th
century. Chapter XIV...Chain mail, Chapter XV...the
gauntlet. Chapter XVI...the True Shield of the 15th
century. Chapter XVII...the 15th century sword.
Chapter XVIII...swords of ceremony in England. Volume
3 Chapter XIX to XXVII Chapter
XIX...daggers. Chapter XX...hafted weapons from the 14th to the
16th century. Chapter XXI...The Cross Bow. Chapter
XXII...Horse armour, bits and spurs. Chapter XXIII...the Dawn of
the 16th century. Chapter XXIV...the "Maximillian
School". Chapter XXV...Landsknecht armour. Chapter
XXVI...Spanish Armour. Chapter XXVII. The school of Lucien
Picanino. Chapter XXVIII Armour termed as "French".
Volume
4. Chapters XXIX to XXXVI Chapter XXIX...English
School...Greenwich Armour. Chapter XXX...Pisan school, decadent
armour. Chapter XXXI....Close helmets of the 16th
century. Chapter XXXII...The Burgonette or Open
Casque. Chapter XXXIII...Morions and Cabassets.
Chapter XXIV...Italian, German and French Pagent Shields. Chapter
XXV...Sword and Rapier of the 16th century. Chapter XXVI...hafted
weapons 16th and 17th century.
Volume 5. Chapters XXXVII to XXXVIII Chapter
XXXVII...The Dawn of the 17th century. Chapter XXXVIII....17th
century swords and rapiers. Appendix 1. Notes on
Forgeries. Appendix 2. On Armour Preserved in English
Churches. Appendix 3. Bibliography. Index to the
complete work.
Observations
on the Tin Trade of the Ancients in Cornwall
Christopher Hawkins, 1811. A remarkable book, more poetry than
science. But still, a valuable item in its own right.
Ancient armour and weapons in Europe John
Hewett. MDCCCLX Well, at least he is an archeologist.
Volume 1. The Iron Period the the end of th 13th century.
John Hewett brings the human aspect in with the technical in the study
of arms and armour. Worth the trouble. Volume
2. The fourteenth century. /Volume
3. Supplement. comprising the 15th, 16th and 17th
centuries.
Foreign
Armour in England. Starkie Gardner's 1898 book. A romp
through the British Museum this is!
Armour in England from the Earliest Times to James 1st.
Starkie Gardner's 1897 book. Pretty much an opinion piece and
worth a perusal in front of the fire. An
Illustrated history of Arms and Armour from the Earliest Period to the
Present Time. August Demmin. 1894. Mr. Black of
the South Kensington Museum has translated a remarkable book
here. The introduction alone is a worthwhile survey of famous
museums (with emphasis on London and Vienna) , and the chapters on
Armourer's marks, air guns (a much overlooked and remarkably useful
weapon!) and advice to collectors of arms and armour are not found in
most books of this type. What is most important, of course, is
that this is a continental survey of armour instead of the English
survey usually seen in books by Gardner, Laking, et al. A
Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons by Francis Grosse,
esq. 1786. Possibly the oldest of the books that study Arms
and Armour, the dedication is to King George 1st! A
treatise on Ordinance and Armour. Alexander Holley
1865. Mostly ships cannons, iron clads, and field
pieces. A scholarly work indeed. Covers Armstrong,
Whitworth, Parrott, and Blakely factories, as well as the merits of
cast iron, hooped iron, and bronze field pieces. Spanish
Arms and Armour, being a historical and descriptive account of the
Royal Armoury of Madrid by Albert F Calbert.
1907 The florid prose gets in the way a bit, but this
is the definitive work on the Royal Armoury of Madrid. One gets
drawn into this almost against one's will! Very well
laid out, considering. Helmets
and body armour in Modern Warfare. by Bashford
Dean. 1920. This post WWI book is an excellent survey
of information collected the hard way from the trenches of the Somme,
Marne, and Ypres Salient. A
descriptive catalogue of the Antiquities of Animal Material and Bronze
in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. W.R.
Wilde. 1861. Celtic swords, daggers, and tools! Some
armour. A
descriptive catalogue of Gold in Royal Irish Academy. W.R. Wilde.
1862 Illustrated with 90 wood engravings. A
Brief Discourse on Hand Weapons other than Firearms by B. E.
Sargeaunt. 1908 Lets see..chapter 1...weapons for
stunning. Chapter 2...weapons for cutting. Chapter
3...weapons for stabbing, Chapter 4, Miscillaneous weapons. Yes,
that about covers the topic. Sargeaunt is famous for
his "Development of the Sword", and his "Progress of the Lance".
Or so he says in his introduction. I'll let you be the judge. The
Ancient Bronze Weapons of Great Britain and Ireland. by
John Evans, 1881 Evans formalized the study of bronze
weapons, the Palstave, the semi-circular winged hand axes, and so
forth. Many of these weapons fit onto the haft sideways to modern
thinking, and should be studied in depth by anyone writing or studying
the bronze age. These weapons are remarkably sophisticated, and
the fact that they are pretty much unknown these days merely adds to
their intense interest. Bill's
Military
Stories
05
Bill's
Military Stories 06
Bill's
Military Stories 07
