The Art of Sword Fighting in Earnest: Philippo Vadi's De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi

by Guy Windsor, Philippo Vadi

“Guy has the rare talent of making this material accessible” -Neal Stephenson (from his Foreword to Swordfighting)“Guy Windsor's greatest gift to WMA/HEMA is his marvellous ability to translate period language into a meaningful experience for modern WMA/HEMA practitioners and he has once more shown his ability to do exactly that.” - Adam, reviewing Veni Vadi Vici on Amazon.From the late fifteenth century comes a detailed manuscript on knightly combat, written by Philippo Vadi. Dedicated to one of the most famous Italian condottiere of the age, Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino, this book covers the theory of combat with the longsword, as well as dozens of techniques of the sword, the spear, the pollax, and the dagger. This black and white paperback edition of The Art of Sword Fighting in Earnest includes a detailed introduction, setting Vadi and his combat style in their historical context, a complete translation of the manuscript, and a detailed commentary from the perspective of the practising martial artist. Please note it does not include a facsimile of the manuscript, but that may be downloaded from a link provided in the text.This volume is the second edition of Dr. Windsor’s earlier work, Veni Vadi Vici, updating the translation and the introduction. This is essential reading for any practitioner of knightly combat, academic historian, or enthusiast for the quattrocento period of Italian history.

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 23, 2018

About the author

Dr. Guy Windsor is a world-renowned instructor and a pioneering researcher of medieval and renaissance martial arts. He has been teaching the Art of Arms full-time since founding The School of European Swordsmanship in Helsinki, Finland, in 2001. His day job is finding and analysing historical swordsmanship treatises, figuring out the systems they represent, creating a syllabus from the treatises for his students to train with, and teaching the system to his students all over the world. Guy is the author of numerous classic books about the art of swordsmanship and has consulted on swordfighting game design and stage combat. He developed the card game, Audatia, based on Fiore dei Liberi's Art of Arms, his primary field of study. In 2018 Edinburgh University awarded him a PhD by Research Publications for his work recreating historical combat systems. When not studying medieval and renaissance swordsmanship or writing books Guy can be found in his shed woodworking or spending time with his family.

Reviews

[Ian]

Crisp and detailed

Very informative! It pairs well with the PDF translation of Vadi that Windsor has on his website, breaking down each play, and giving options and best guesses on the more ambiguous sequences. I am looking very much forward performing these drills with clubmates!

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Please note it does not include a facsimile of the manuscript, but that may be downloaded from a link provided in the text..." and that would be fine if not for the fact that the lack of pictures makes for some awkward reading. Such as the dagger section which is simply "This counter I do to you" or something similar over and over with no idea what they're doing. Mostly, the pictures are of the guards and even that is muddled by the immediate inclusion of comparisons to Fiore and Morozzo. It's an interesting comparison, but distracts from Vadi.

What's good? Everything else, especially the author's insights into the techniques suggested by Vadi. This is especially needed because so many of Vadi's suggestions are unique to WMA.

Also interesting is the author's discussion of the materials background. It is all perhaps most similar to Fiore, with some stuff that will eventually appear in later Bolognese fencing, though there is nothing that suggests Vadi was particularly important even in their own era.

All in all, its a crazy grab bag of some musings, lots of grappling, and unique guards. A copy of the pictures included with the techniques would push this book to the "must have" category for me, but it is incredibly interesting nonetheless. And granted, the author provides a lot of supplemental material online, and Wiktenauer of course provides the images too, but I would just like it all together.