l'Arte Dell Armi

Listener discretion is advised, this discussion contains accounts of graphic violence, real life trauma situations, and intense detail that might make some feel uncomfortable. The following historical accounts of duels, warfare, and civic violence were used during this podcast. Historical Accounts: Account 1: The siege continuing in this way, all the soldiers remained close together on the outside...

Your Step-by-Step Guide to HEMA Deification   Elite competitor, ardent scholar, artist, and entrepreneur Martin Fabian joined Stephen and Joshua to talk about HEMA. If you’ve ever wondered what the journey to becoming one of the best competitive fencers in HEMA looks like from an aspect of training, preparation, competition and textual interpretation, this is the podcast for you!   https://open.su...

About Aaron:  Aaron was introduced to swords as a participant in the first National Stage Combat Workshop run by Fight Directors Canada in 1993. In 1998, he traded the theatrical for the historical and took up Italian Rapier. In 2002 he began studying the Lichtenhauer tradition as one of the founding members of Anyhau (now Ironwood Sword School in Kingston, ON). In 2005 he also began dabbling in t...

Check out the first installment of Joeli's written research here:    https://open.substack.com/pub/theartofarms/p/studying-the-birth-of-the-liechtenauer?r=1e0ent&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Check out Herbert's Books! The Medieval and Renaissance Buckler Catalogue of European Bucklers   

In this episode of l'Arte Dell Armi, Stephen and Joshua go on a journey across the Alps to visit the Bolognese master Giacomo da Basel--err, Joachim Meyer. We're going to Strasbourg with our brilliant tour guide Liam H. Clark. Have you ever wondered how Fechtshule worked, what other fencing masters were active during Meyer's lifetime or the differences between Marxbruder and Freifechter then this...

Do you like big swords? Yea, we know. We all do! Well, if you do, you're probably familiar with The Spadone Project, it's phenomenal, how could you not be? Now meet the man behind the curtain, Niccolò Menozzi! In this episode Stephen and Joshua sit down with Niccolo to tackle the tropes and the misnomers of the two handed sword. We dive deep into the historical use of the weapon on the battlefield...

Jean Chandler is one of the most dedicated researchers HEMA has to offer. He's absolutely brilliant! He's also a pretty incredible human being. If you want to learn more about guilds, Renaissance commerce, and martial traditions, this is the episode for you! Check out Jean's website here: https://jeanhenrichandler.com/

This episode marks l'Arte dell Armi's 20,000th download!!! We wanted to extend our heartfelt gratitude to you our listeners for engaging with this podcast! We greatly appreciate you, and look forward to bringing you more content in the future! Stay saucy my friends!   We had the honor of sitting down and talking to Dr. Guy Windsor.  This lively discussion highlights teaching, developing teachers,...

Jack Gassmann is both an accomplished academic and historical fencer, a true jack-of-all-trades, he's lived a life full of historical exploration in about every capacity you can possibly imagine, including stunts and film. Stephen and I sat down with Jack and tried to understand what it might've been like to lead crossbowmen on horseback. You won't want to miss this! Stay tuned to the end for a sp...

To attack or not to attack, that is the question!   It would seem there are many different ways to approach the tactics of Bolognese fencing, but is that because of the varied approaches of different authors, or is there a hidden consensus? Martin, Stephen and Joshua discuss measure, tempo, the nature of the guards, provocations, and so much more in this episode of l'Arte Dell Armi!

Pope Julius II has turned his covetous eye toward Ferrara. Meanwhile the French under Bayard and his d'Este allies prepare the way in hope of resisting the Pope's forces and his new league of allies, the Holy League. The French army has a few aces up their sleeves in the Bentivoglio and a young, daring captain, named Gaston di Foix, nicknamed the Thunderbolt.    Part 1: Back in Bologa, 1:22 Part 2...

Put on your blue suede shoes, it's time for some Dardi Dancing!   In this episode of Bolognese Foundations Stephen, Martin, and I discuss footwork! 

En garde!  In the first installment we learned how to travel between point A and point B, in this episode we'll talk about what those points are, what they mean, and what they're good at. The Cuts and thrusts take you between different guards, but all of your actions will begin and end in guards, so let's learn what those guards are all about.  For those following at home, check out this written s...

Bill Grandy has done it all, and been really good at all of it too; he has one of the most complete perspectives of anyone I've had the pleasure of talking to on this podcast. So, what did we talk about? A little bit of everything! Armor, wrestling, messer, sidesword, rapier, push of pike, you name it, we probably covered it in this miraculous episode. 

So, you've heard about the magical powers of the Bolognese Sauce, and you want to get cooking, but when you open up the books all you see is a bunch of really odd Italian words mixed up in sentances with weird grammer and sometime illogical phrasing. You really want to read the text's of Marozzo, Manciolino, dall'Agocchie and the Anonimo, but you don't know how to get started, or maybe you have st...

Kats, poisonous gas, trebuchets, armored vehicles covered in spikes, and magic--lots of magic; Konrad Kyeser's Bellafortis is an imaginative book that inspired the likes of Hans Talhoffer, and perhaps even Leonardo da Vinci. It's full of recreations of some of history's most obscure innovations, but these oddities weren't left to print, they were brought to life on the Renaissance and Medieval bat...

Lucio Malvezzi, Tadeo del Volpe and Fra Leonardo Prato all prefer to go to battle with the Stucco, or the Estoc, or the Tuck. We wanted to learn more about fighting with a sword in armor, so we turned to the expert, Jess Finely!!!   The Book we discuss in the podcast with the wedding throwdown is, On the Practice or Art of Dancing, by Barbara Sparti. Follow Jess on Patreon here: https://www.patreo...

Dr. Patrick Bratton is an accomplished fencer, and a professor at the United States Army War College. Naturally, we discussed fencing, fencing strategy, before digging deep into the battle of Polesella, and the grand strategy of the Venetian Empire. This was an amazing conversation that could've gone on for 3 or 4 more hours, you've gotta check it out, we'll definitely have him back very soon!   C...

Episode III.ii The Siege Guido Rangoni is in Padua surrounded by the largest army assembled in Italy since the Roman Empire. Among the enemy ranks are the crown of German aristocracy, the flower of French Chivalry, an assortment of famed Italian Condottiere, and a core of cutthroat mercenaries comprised of Landsknechts and Gascons; totaling almost 40,000 men. Defending Padua are the remnants of th...

We've reached the year 1509 in our timeline of Maestro Wars, and as a consequence of focus and time we had to mark the battle of Agnadello as a footnote in our story. That said, Agnadello is more than just a significant Venetian defeat to the historical fencing community, it marks the death of one of it's greatest authors, Pietro Monte. Pietro Monte was one of the greatest swordsman of his age, th...

Continuing with our system specific highlights that help us answer questions about the historical narrative we’re researching in the Maestro Wars series, we brought on Jen Landels (the preeminent instructor of mounted combat in North America) and Devon Boorman to talk to us about Cavalry tactics. Ever wondered what it was like to fight from horseback with a lance, sword, mace, or crossbow? This is...

Maestro Puck Curtis joined us to talk about Destreza. We kept running into accounts of Italian troops fighting against their Spanish allies, and we thought it would be fun to get a feel for what that might look like. Who better to ask than Puck Curtis? In this episode of l'Arte dell Armi we compare Italian and Spanish fencing styles, explore the incredibly fascinating life of Caranzza, and ask the...

Episode III.i Revenge of the Pontiff   The Bentivoglio’s plans to take back Bologna have been thwarted. Now with new excommunications orders leveled against them, this time including our hero Guido Rangoni, and fresh bounties on their heads, they have no choice but to lay low, and wait out the coming storm.    All in Italy is not serene; however, the Popes ire has turned from the Bentivoglio and B...

Wrapping up our November deep-dive on Polearms with a pleasant holiday bow is the venerable Devon Boorman. Devon provides us with his perspective on the various Bolognese polearms systems, Partisan, Spiedo, Ronca, Poleaxe in armor. This is a real treat; we hope you enjoy!   For more amazing content from Devon Boorman Checkout:  www.pathofthesword.com   or  https://duello.tv/