I have a quick question. Was there a fighting style in late medieval or Renaissance Europe for a short sword and buckler? And if so was it a military style or civilian?

This book covers the subject. I do not yet own a copy so I do not know if it delves into the history of civilian vs military use or just discusses techniques, however many other forum members have highly recomended it.

http://www.myArmoury.com/books/item.php?ASIN=1891448439

Alex

Michael,

The book that Alexander mentions is more early medieval. I belive that there is some stuff by Talhoffer in the period that you are looking for. I'm not positive but I believe most of the fechtbuchs were written for a civilain audience but it wouldn't surprise me to find that there was significant bleed over into the military as well.

Michael,

I think the response to your question also depends, quite significantly, upon what you mean by "short sword". Can you give us more detail to clarify what you mean? For instance, some people use "short sword" simply to refer to any singly handed "knightly" sword. Other people might only use it in the context of a cinquedea, or a gladius. And I'm sure there's other possible things one could be referring to when one says "short sword". As the responses of other forum members have indicated, there are works on the single handed sword and buckler, but these responses are presupposing that you mean an arming or riding, (or in the case of earlier in medieval history, what I call a "knightly"), sword. So what do you mean precisely?

While most period illustrations show the use of the arming sword with buckler I actually WAS thinking short sword or perhaps a falchion. I've even seen period depictions for messer and buckler.

Thank you to Alex for mentioning my book Medieval Sword and Shield. I should add that a translation and facsimile of the original manuscript I.33 was published almost simultaneously with our book under the title The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship. I have also done further work on the system, changing some interpretations and adding new material. Thisadditional work was published as a paper in Spada II.

Just to nitpick, I wouldn't call 1300 early medieval and in the book we make a point of showing that the techniques described in I.33 were still being included in treatises in the 16th century.

I.33 is a beautiful system which I would like to see more people studying. It is also a true manual, which is rare among early fencing works. It's not just a discussion of fencing, but a book designed to teach the reader to fence according to the I.33 system.

Cheers
Stephen

Gentlemen,

Thank you for the replies. I am very new to this area of study. I used the wrong term in my question. I ment a fighting style that used a sword the size of a cinquedea or basilard used with a buckler.

Thank you,

Michael A. White

I'm familiar with most texts using a buckler and I'm not aware of one using such a short sword. One of the keys to combat with two weapons seems to be having weapons of different lengths. Hence sword and dagger and sword and buckler were popular, but two swords wasn't.

Cheers
Stephen