Historical Manuals

[Michael Saus Candray]

I have been looking on the internet for any reference to books or any historical manuals that relays the way of fighting with the following weapons: Ax, spear, polearms, mace, morning star, war hammer. But to no avail. Therefore I am seeking you help in finding any texts on the subject of fighting with these weapons medieval-style.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[Will Adamson]

Here's your axe.

http://www.thearma.org/spotlight/lejeudelahache.htm

[Michael Saus Candray]

Here's your axe.

http://www.thearma.org/spotlight/lejeudelahache.htm

Thanks for your help Will.

[Ken Dietiker]

You might also want to check out, in book form;

http://www.revival.us/index.asp?PageAct ... ProdID=268

http://paladinpress.com/detail.aspx?ID=1616

And for another Historical Manual, see Fiore dei Liberi's works. There are a few working translations available, but as far as I've seen nothing comprehensive that covers everything to include his sections on staff and spear and poleaxe. The link below is something you can look at online, but it is only of the Pissani-Dossi Version of his book (the more comprehensive being the Getty version) and the translation of the link below is a bit outdated and should not be taken as perfect.

http://www.aemma.org/onlineResources/li ... fiore.html

There are some books on Fiore's works, but most of them gloss over bits and pieces and unfortunately don't cover the pole arms very much, if at all. There is one translation of the Getty already done, but it's all in modern Italian.

http://www.revival.us/index.asp?PageAct ... ProdID=297

There are other ongoing complete translations being conducted in English in several locations at various schools, so if that one interests you, keep your chin up. They are coming.

Good luck.

Ken

[Michael Saus Candray]

Thanks for you help. I have already ordered the book by Lindholm.

About Master Fiore dei Liberi's work. Maybe I should just learn Italian. Otherwise I'll probably have to wait a while for the ones that are translating to finish translating. Might take a while.

[Britney-Thornton]

The books listed online as scans are actual, physical text, right?

[Ken Dietiker]

The books listed online as scans are actual, physical text, right?

Not sure what books, or those listed as scan of books, you mean Britney, but generally scans are just images of the original manuals. They would show the plates of those ancient manuals and any text would also be the originals in the medieval language written, presented as a picture. A transcription would be the same text from those manuals in document form so you can read them better, but still in the original languages, therefore a translation would still be needed. Some of the links above are to books that contain scans as well as translations, and occasionally some interpretations. None of those links above are to "scans" or to online versions of the books, with the exception of the Pissani-Dossi translation of Fiore (also listed above). There are no others that I am aware of for those specific manuals, but for Master's manuals NOT already listed. there are some online versions available. It depends specifically what you're looking for. ARMA does have a few available in that regard, as do some other sites.

Is this what you meant?

BTW, Matt Easton has some decent (for the most part) translations of Fiore's Getty manuscripts on his web site, but at present they lack any association to the accompanying illustrations (missing/broken images). One would have to have the scans, or images, of the manual on hand for an understanding of what text goes with what illustration. These scans are very hard to come by in any decent resolution, but a small, low-res scan can be found at the Getty Museum's site which may be of help to some who are interested in this. See:

http://www.fioredeiliberi.org/getty/

and

http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/art ... rtobj=1706

Another option is to buy (if you can afford it) the Italian book on this manual by Massimo Malipiero and just use the images of the plates as a visual reference to any accompanying textual translations. The link to Malipiero's book is given above.

Also, as for more poleaxe material, Fillipo Vadi has a few in his manual.
Scans are found here:

http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Vadi.htm

In all cases, it is my opinion (and I'm sure many will agree) that translations require some amount of interpretation and these should never be taken as perfect in their renditions. Always suspect what you read and see if it works according to your own understanding and evaluation. Any book that claims to have a translation or interpretation should be read as suspect for the same reason, meaning don't necessarily take their word for it all and be good scholars. That doesn't mean it's automatically wrong as it could very well be correct, but just proceed with caution as "plausible" does not always mean "usable".

My .02 cents.

Cheers!
Ken

[Britney-Thornton]

Yes, that was what I was referring to. Every book, pretty much, posted on the website, having a textual, physical reference. Thanks for the info!