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56-513: HEMA may refer to: Historical European martial arts , martial arts of European origin HEMA (store) , a Dutch department store ICAO code of Marsa Alam International Airport , Egypt Hydroxyethyl methacrylate Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title HEMA . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

112-482: 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

168-468: 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

224-480: 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

280-467: 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

336-480: A warrior's individual prowess and kill enemies using various methods in warfare whether they went to war in chariots, horses, elephants or on foot. Foot methods were subdivided into armed combat and unarmed combat. The former included the bow and arrow , the sword, spear , noose , armour, iron dart, club, battle axe , chakram and trident . The latter included wrestling, knee strikes, punching and kicking methods. The oldest extant European martial arts manual

392-480: Is Royal Armouries Ms. I.33 (c. 1300). "Illustrations only" manuals do not become extinct with the appearance of prose instructions, but rather exist alongside these, e.g. in the form of the Late Medieval German illuminated manuscripts . Fechtbuch (plural Fechtbücher ) is Early New High German for 'combat manual', one of the manuscripts or printed books of the late Middle Ages and

448-612: Is attested in an early manual of 1410, at which time it is not yet clearly separable from the German school. Indeed, the author Fiore dei Liberi states that he has learned much of his art from one "Master Johannes of Swabia ". The heyday of the Italian school comes in the 16th century, with the Dardi school . Similar to the situation in Italy, there is one early manual (c. 1400, dealing with

504-577: 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. 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 ( fleuret ), originated as

560-447: Is limited surviving documentation of the martial arts of classical antiquity (such as Greek wrestling or gladiatorial combat), most of the surviving dedicated technical treatises or martial arts manuals date to the late medieval period and the early modern period . For this reason, the focus of HEMA is de facto on the period of the half-millennium of ca. 1300 to 1800, with a German , Italian , and Spanish school flowering in

616-574: Is still a standard reference today. 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,

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672-656: Is used to refer to swordsmanship techniques specifically. The first book about the fighting arts, Epitoma rei militaris , 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 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 ,

728-787: 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 (also known as

784-535: 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 La Verdadera Destreza 'the true art (of swordsmanship)' was now based on Renaissance humanism and scientific principles, contrasting with

840-494: The Renaissance containing descriptions of a martial art. The term is usually taken to include 15th- and 16th-century German manuals, but the nature of the subject matter does not allow a clear separation of these from treatises from other parts of Europe on one hand (particularly from the Italian and French schools), and from manuals of later centuries on the other hand. Notable Fechtbücher include: The Italian school

896-777: The Western Han (2nd century BCE), which have however not survived. An extant Chinese text on wrestling is "Six Chapters of Hand Fighting" included in the 1st-century CE Book of Han . All other extant manuals date to the Middle Ages or later. The "combat stele" at the Shaolin Monastery dates to 728 CE. The earliest text detailing Indian martial arts is the Agni Purana (c. 8th century), which contains several chapters giving descriptions and instructions on fighting techniques. It described how to improve

952-447: The pollaxe exclusively), and later treatises appear only after a gap of more than a century. Apart from three rather opaque texts of the later 15th century, the native English tradition of fencing manuals begins with George Silver 's Paradoxes of Defense (1599). Scottish manuals detailing the use of the basket-hilted Scottish broadsword , besides other disciplines such as the smallsword and spadroon , were published throughout

1008-560: 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

1064-480: The "Walpurgis" or "Tower Fechtbuch "), dated to c.  1300 , is the oldest surviving Fechtbuch , teaching sword and buckler combat. The central figure of late medieval martial arts, at least in Germany, is Johannes Liechtenauer . Though no manuscript written by him is known to have survived, his teachings were first recorded in the late 14th-century Nürnberger Handschrift GNM 3227a . From

1120-460: The 15th to the 17th century, numerous Fechtbücher (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 Zettel (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

1176-529: 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 Fechtbuch 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

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1232-464: The 17th century. Martial arts manual Prose descriptions of martial arts techniques appear late within the history of literature , due to the inherent difficulties of describing a technique rather than just demonstrating it. The earliest extant manuscript on armed combat (as opposed to unarmed wrestling) is Royal Armouries Ms. I.33 ("I.33"), written in Franconia around 1300. Not within

1288-841: 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 . 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

1344-413: The 18th century, with early and late examples dating to the late 17th and early 19th centuries, respectively: There are some manuals containing training advice for the medieval tournament and jousting , such as the early Portuguese work A ensinança de bem cavalgar em toda a sela by Edward of Portugal (1391–1438), a riding instruction manual that also included martial information. In 1599,

1400-486: The 19th century and early 20th century, the greatstick ( pau / bâton / bastone ) 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. Attempts at reconstructing

1456-551: 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. Styles of stick fighting include walking-stick fighting (including Irish bata or shillelagh , French la canne and English singlestick ) and Bartitsu (an early hybrid of Eastern and Western schools popularized at

1512-737: The 20th century BCE. Similar depictions of wrestling techniques are found on Attic vases dating to Classical Greece . The only known instance of a book from classical antiquity is Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 466 from the 2nd century CE, detailing Greek wrestling techniques. There are some examples in the Chinese classics that may predate the turn of the Common Era : the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian (c. 100 BCE) documents wrestling , referring to earlier how-to manuals of

1568-423: 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 De lo schermo overo scienza d'arme of 1606 exerted great influence not only in Italy, but also in Germany, where it all but extinguished

1624-640: The French styles of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries has been undertaken by Rob Runacres of England 's Renaissance Sword Club . Italian traditions are mainly investigated in Italy by Sala d'Arme Achille Marozzo, where you can find studies dedicated to the Bolognese tradition, to the Italian medieval tradition by Luca Cesari and Marco Rubboli, and to the Florentine tradition by Alessandro Battistini. Central and Southern Italian traditions are also investigated by Accademia Romana d'Armi, through

1680-541: 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

1736-475: The Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance (14th to 16th centuries), followed by French , English , and Scottish schools of fencing in the modern period (17th and 18th centuries). Martial arts of the 19th century such as classical fencing , and even early hybrid styles such as Bartitsu , may also be included in the term HEMA in a wider sense, as may traditional or folkloristic styles attested in

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1792-602: The Marquis di Ferrara . Between 1407 and 1410, he documented comprehensive fighting techniques in a treatise entitled Flos Duellatorum covering grappling, dagger, arming sword, longsword, pole-weapons, armoured combat, and mounted combat. 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

1848-543: The Napoleonic period. Angelo's text was so influential that it was chosen to be included under the heading of Éscrime in the Encyclopédie of Diderot. 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

1904-506: 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

1960-523: 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

2016-435: 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). During

2072-557: 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,

2128-506: The focus generally is on the martial arts of Medieval and Renaissance masters, 19th and early 20th century martial arts teachers are also studied and their systems are reconstructed, including Edward William Barton-Wright , the founder of Bartitsu ; combat savate and stick fighting master Pierre Vigny ; London-based boxer and fencer Rowland George Allanson-Winn ; French journalist and self-defence enthusiast Jean Joseph-Renaud ; and British quarterstaff expert Thomas McCarthy. Research into

2184-441: 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

2240-481: The late 19th and early 20th centuries, including forms of folk wrestling and traditional stick-fighting methods. The term Western martial arts ( WMA ) is sometimes used in the United States and in a wider sense including modern and traditional disciplines. During the Late Middle Ages, the longsword had a position of honour among these disciplines, and sometimes historical European swordsmanship ( HES )

2296-418: The latter half of the 15th century. In the 16th century, compendia of older Fechtbücher 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

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2352-583: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HEMA&oldid=1255316600 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Historical European martial arts Historical European martial arts ( HEMA ) are martial arts of European origin, particularly using arts formerly practised, but having since died out or evolved into very different forms. While there

2408-442: 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

2464-515: 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

2520-547: The rapier style of the innovative Roman, Neapolitan and Sicilian School of Fencing in Italy's 16th and 17th century was pioneered by M° Francesco Lodà, PhD, founder of Accademia Romana d'Armi in Rome, Italy. While research focused on the Marcelli family of fencing masters and their pupils in Rome and abroad (e.g. Mattei, Villardita, Marescalchi, De Greszy, Terracusa), through publication of papers and books on rapier fencing, attention

2576-616: 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. Since the 1980s and 1990s, historical European martial arts communities have emerged in Europe, North America, Australia, and the wider English-speaking world . These groups attempt to reconstruct historical European martial arts using various training methods. Although

2632-472: The scope of this article are books on military strategy such as Sun Tzu 's The Art of War (before 100 BCE) or Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus ' De Re Militari (4th century), or military technology, such as De rebus bellicis (4th to 5th century). Some early testimonies of historical martial arts consist of series of images only. The earliest example is a fresco in tomb 15 at Beni Hasan , showing illustrations of wrestling techniques dating to

2688-403: 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 L'École des Armes in French in 1763. It was extremely successful and became a standard fencing manual over the following 50 years, throughout

2744-465: The studies of Francesco Lodà on Spetioli (Marche) and Pagano (Neaples). Italian rapier instructors Tom Leoni (US) and Piermarco Terminiello (UK) have published annotated English translations of some of the most important rapier treatises of the 17th century, making this fencing style available to a worldwide audience. Leoni has also authored English translations of all of Fiore de' Liberi's Italian-language manuscripts, as well as Manciolino's Opera Nova and

2800-671: The swordmaster Domingo Luis Godinho wrote the Arte de Esgrima , the only fencing manual that preserved the older "Common" or "Vulgar" system of Spanish fencing, which has its traditions in the Middle Ages. 17th-century Spanish destreza is steeped in the Spanish Baroque noblemen mindset, so it does not contain graphical explanations of the fencing techniques so much as explanations based on mathematics and philosophical sciences in general. The subsequent difficulty in interpreting

2856-637: The teachings of Liechtenauer. From the late 15th century, there were "brotherhoods" of fencers ( Fechtbruderschaften ), most notably the Brotherhood of St. Mark (attested 1474) and the Federfechter . An early Burgundian French treatise is Le jeu de la hache ( The Play of the Axe ) of ca. 1400. The earliest master to write in the Italian language was Fiore dei Liberi , commissioned by

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2912-519: The third book of Viggiani's Lo Schermo . Ken Mondschein, one of the few professional academics working in this field, translated Camillo Agrippa 's treatise of 1553 as well as the Paris manuscript of Fiore dei Liberi and written several academic articles. The martial traditions of the Netherlands are researched by Reinier van Noort, who additionally focuses on German and French martial sources of

2968-458: 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

3024-420: 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 , la canne and bâton français , Portuguese jogo do pau , Italian Paranza or Bastone Siciliano , and some styles of Canarian juego del palo . In

3080-755: The world. Normally, several modes of combat were taught alongside one another, typically unarmed grappling ( Kampfringen or abrazare ), dagger ( Degen or daga , often of the rondel dagger ), long knife ( Messer ), or Dusack , half- or quarterstaff , polearms , longsword ( Langesschwert , spada longa , spadone ), and combat in plate armour ( Harnischfechten or armazare ), both on foot and on horseback. Some Fechtbücher have sections on dueling shields ( Stechschild ), 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

3136-607: Was also paid to the influences of 16th century's masters active in Rome, such as Agrippa, Cavalcabò, Paternoster, or of the early 17th like D'Alessandri. Within Accademia Romana d'Armi historical research has continuously been carried out also on Fiore de' Liberi's longsword system, publishing the first Italian analysis and transcription of MS. Par. Lat. 11269, Radaelli's military saber and MS. I.33 sword and buckler, and more recently on Liechtenauer's tradition of fencing. Research into Italian sword forms and their influence on

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