September 11, 2025
Knights! Swords! Fighting!
A medieval fencing manual that is still consulted today.
We have all seen sword fights on film, on TV, in games. But what was medieval fencing really like? Over the last two decades, scholars and practitioners have tried to reconstruct late medieval fencing as it was originally practiced. Their main method has been to study surviving fencing manuals from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. These days you can learn the reconstructed art of the sword at many martial arts clubs around the world, including New Haven Historical Fencing. Occasionally, I have reason to bring medieval fencing manuals into my Yale classes, too.
Read full article in the Yale Alumni Magazine.
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