For those interested this page contains public domain sources that we use for teaching at the club. Our HEMA-1 introductory course uses concepts from many sources (mainly treatises written by fighting masters). Our HEMA-2 course teaches specific techniques from a number of sources. Most of these sources are outlined below.

George Silver

George Silver (ca. 1560s–1620s) was a gentleman of England during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He is famous for writing two books. In the first (called Paradoxes of Defence) he describes why he thought the rapier was an imperfect weapon. In the second (called Brief Instructions on My Paradoxes of Defense) he describes his method for using various weapons.

The club used to use George Silver as the mainstay of its training syllabus but this has changed recently and now the syllabus draws from a number of sources.

Ridolfo Capoferro

Ridolfo Capoferro was an italian rapier master who taught rapier combat in Sienna around the early 1600’s. He wrote a popular fighting manual called The Great Representation of the Art and Use of Fencing. You can download a copy of this treatise here:

The club has developed a fair amount of expertise with Capoferro’s rapier and teaches it’s own interpretation developed over 3 years.

MORE TO COME…