Something old leading to something new
Greetings and welcome!
First, a little intro
I have spent a lot of time over the past two decades studying several Italian swordplay manuals that were published between 1500 and 1620 CE, trying to understand what the authors were attempting to get across, how their martial arts worked in practice, and the fundamental reasons they worked. For more than 20 years I have created classes and taught what I’ve figured out about these fight systems to any and all who are interested, both ad-hoc and through the Tattershall School of Defense, where I’ve been an instructor since 2003.
I also created and run, with my amazing team, Lord Baltimore’s Challenge - an independent swordplay event meant to promote this type of swordplay on the East coast of the United States. I bring in several of the top instructors of these arts from Europe and North America to teach at one location, and we work with students through not only what to do, but how to do it in a fight.Â
Studying and teaching swordplay is not my day job, but I’ve been doing it for long enough, focusing on one specific set of manuals for about 23 years, that I’ve been able to apply what I’ve learned successfully in hundreds of tournaments and thousands of matches. So I have developed a solid interpretation of these systems that has been formed through research and practice, and then revised and stress-tested through actions in tournaments under adrenaline-filled exchanges against people who did not want my interpretations to work. Â
My very own fencing manual
In 2019 I invited my friend Guy Windsor across the pond as one of my guest instructors for Lord Baltimore’s Challenge. During that visit, Guy convinced me for the first time that I had developed a unique approach to teaching the material, even if my interpretation is very similar to several friends’ interpretations.  He suggested that my approach is worth getting down in writing.
So I’m now writing a series of fencing manuals documenting my particular approach and interpretation of the northern Italian rapier system - a system of swordplay popular in northern Italy starting in the last years of the 16th century, and lasting in some form throughout the 17th century.
Putting my thoughts online
I also found during the pandemic that reaching individuals and groups online that I would never otherwise be able to reach was something I really want to continue to do, especially acting as a virtual teacher for people who aren’t close to any in-person instruction themselves. Designing and creating virtual classes and lectures is the perfect answer to my sometimes chaotic schedule.
So I’m starting up this Substack blog/newsletter, where I’ll publish content and maybe teach lessons pertaining to the northern Italian system, and maybe eventually I’ll even write a little bit on the Dardi tradition as well (aka the Bolognese school).Â
Here, I want to create a place where I can help people learn swordplay as I teach it, and where I can answer questions and interact with others interested in historical fencing, while also keeping people informed about the progress of my manual(s). This newsletter will serve as a companion to my manuals, in fact - a place where I will go into more detail about my approach and the research supporting it, and where I can preview sections and artwork as they are developed.
I am offering a free subscription, with content available to and sharable by all who subscribe and all who visit this page. I will lay out here how I teach techniques like gaining the blade, the lunge, and where and how I developed my theories (e.g. there will likely be footnotes). I plan to discuss my views on equipment and competition mindset - such as what makes a good practice sword work for you, what design considerations go into the best practice blades, how shoes and clothes impact your fencing technique, what equipment I use and why, and how I approach a tournament when I want to get focused and excel. I’ll discuss what considerations go into the design of my tournaments and events, and I’ll write about how to improve your own practice (and by that I mean both your personal skills, and the practice you attend with other people). Among many other things, of course.
I am also offering more in-depth content for paid subscribers. I’ll write at length about the postures found in the northern Italian manuals - how they relate to one another, and my thoughts on how they developed over time. I’ll dive down the rabbit hole and discuss some concepts found in the northern Italian system - such as stringere and how it may not mean what you think it means. (There will definitely be footnotes!) I plan to pick out a few plates from the manuals and deconstruct what’s happening, going from the first engagement to the hit and recovery. (Clearly, I’ll need more graphics…) And I hope to host video bourbon …er… discussion nights on topics chosen by you, the readers.
I intend to publish every issue as an easily digestible read. I hope to keep them all at around a 5-7 minute read with a number of illustrations for ease of understanding. I found that some of the newsletters I subscribe to publish issues that take 15 or 20 minutes to read, and I often set them aside until I have more time, but then don’t go back to find them. I want you readers to be able to dig in on a coffee break and be done before the coffee’s gone. This means that I’ll also break issues into multi-part series as I dig into the subject matter, but hopefully that will just leave you all looking forward to the next issue even more!
Know that any money I earn through this newsletter will go toward bringing my manuals to publication - hiring an editor, a layout artist, and taking care of all other production costs. So the newsletter and my fencing manual(s) will be connected in a number of ways.
These are scheduled to publish on Tuesdays. The free subscribers can expect to see a new issue every other week. Subscribers looking for a deeper dive into these issues will receive those releases, plus much more sword-geek oriented issues on the off-weeks. In other words if you’re a paid subscriber, you’ll have a new release in your inbox each week for as long as I can find new things to geek out about, and the time to write it down.
Oh - also… this is a blog as well. So you can also just surf over to my Substack page (and bookmark it!) and find all the issues after they’ve been released. And leave comments, if you want! The things I write about can become dialogs!
To sum up
What I am presenting here in this newsletter, and in my upcoming manuals, is an approach to learning the northern Italian rapier system that I have developed over a couple decades of study, training, and sparring, and that has helped thousands of students understand what these masters were getting at in their manuals. This series I’m creating, alongside any one of the manuals written by Ridolfo Capoferro, Nicoletto Giganti, Salvatore Fabris, and/or the Vienna Anonymous (or possibly even Francesco Fernando Alfieri) should be all you need to successfully understand, practice, and employ the techniques recorded by these authors. Â
I hope what you find in these posts helps you become a better historical fencer, or more informed about the late renaissance sword arts of northern Italy. And really, I hope we have a lot of fun and good conversations along the way!
Coming up:Â
What is a rapier, anyway? (All subscribers)
Northern Italian Postures, Part 1: The primary postures of Salvatore Fabris (Paid subscribers)
How to hold a rapier (All subscribers)
Northern Italian Postures, Part 2: The primary postures of Salvatore Fabris - continued (Paid subscribers)
A status report on my fencing manual, with some test images (All subscribers)
Northern Italian Postures, Part 3: The primary postures of Ridolfo Capoferro (Paid subscribers)
Gaining the opponent’s blade - part 1 (All subscribers)
Northern Italian Postures, Part 4: The postures of Nicoletto Giganti (Paid subscribers)
Gaining the opponent’s blade - part 2 (All subscribers)
Northern Italian Postures, Part 5: The postures of Nicoletto Giganti - continued (Paid subscribers)
Gaining the opponent’s blade - part 3 (All subscribers)
Northern Italian Postures, Part 6: The postures of the Vienna Anonymous manuscript (Paid subscribers)