Martial arts manuals are instructions, with or without illustrations, specifically designed to be learnt from a book. Many books detailing specific techniques of

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...

are often erroneously called manuals but were written as treatises. 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 the scope of this article are books on

military strategy Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek word '' strategos'', the term strategy, when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow s ...

such as Sun Tzu's '' The Art of War'' (before 100 BC) or

Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus Publius (or Flavius) Vegetius Renatus, known as Vegetius (), was a writer of the Later Roman Empire (late 4th century). Nothing is known of his life or station beyond what is contained in his two surviving works: ''Epitoma rei militaris'' (also re ...

' ''

De Re Militari ''De re militari'' (Latin "Concerning Military Matters"), also ''Epitoma rei militaris'', is a treatise by the Late Latin writer Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus about Roman warfare and military principles as a presentation of the methods and pr ...

'' (4th century), or military technology, such as '' De rebus bellicis'' (4th to 5th century).

Predecessors

Some early testimonies of

historical martial arts Although the earliest evidence of martial arts goes back millennia, the true roots are difficult to reconstruct. Inherent patterns of human aggression which inspire practice of mock combat (in particular wrestling) and optimization of serious clo ...

consist of series of images only. The earliest example is a

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

in tomb 15 at Beni Hasan, showing illustrations of wrestling techniques dating to the 20th century BCE. Similar depictions of wrestling techniques are found on

Attic vases Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...

dating to

Classical Greece Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece,The "Classical Age" is "the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C." ( Thomas R. Marti ...

. 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 Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...

(c. 100 BCE) documents wrestling, referring to earlier how-to manuals" of 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

Shaolin Monastery Shaolin Monastery (少林寺 ''Shàolínsì''), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a renowned monastic institution recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Shaolin Kung Fu. It is located at the foot of Wuru Peak of the So ...

dates to 728 CE. The earliest text detailing

Indian martial arts Indian martial arts refers to the fighting systems of the Indian subcontinent. A variety of terms are used for the English phrases “Indian martial arts”, deriving from ancient sources. While they may seem to imply specific disciplines (e.g. ...

is the '' Agni Purana'' (c. 8th century), which contains several chapters giving descriptions and instructions on fighting techniques. It described how to improve 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.J. R. Svinth (2002)
A Chronological History of the Martial Arts and Combative Sports.
''Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Sciences''. The former included the bow and

arrow An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers c ...

, 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 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 manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...

Historical European martial arts

German Fechtbücher

(plural ) is

Early New High German Early New High German (ENHG) is a term for the period in the history of the German language generally defined, following Wilhelm Scherer, as the period 1350 to 1650. The term is the standard translation of the German (Fnhd., Frnhd.), introduce ...

for 'combat manual', one of the manuscripts or printed books of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance containing descriptions of a martial art. Usually, the term is 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. A list of include: *Royal Armouries Ms. I.33 ("Walpurgis Manuscript") (c. 1300, predating Johannes Liechtenauer) *

Nürnberger Handschrift GNM 3227a Codex 3227a of the in Nuremberg (also known as ''Hs. 3227a'', ''GNM 3227a'', ) is a manuscript of 169 folia, dated to the close of the 14th century. Its text is written in Latin and German. The German portions have been identified as in East C ...

(c. 1389) *Fechtbuch of Sigmund Ringeck (1440s) *

Codex Vindobonensis B 11093 The Codex Vindobonensis B 11093 (Code of the Austrian National Library at Vienna) is an anonymous fechtbuch of 46 pages of drawn illustrations only, with no text, dating to the mid 15th century, probably created in southern Germany. It has been grou ...

, kept in Vienna, and " Gladiatoria", discovered in Poland, both dating to the mid-15th century and largely uninfluenced by Liechtenauer. * of Hans Talhoffer (several surviving manuscripts dating from 1443–1467). * of Peter von Danzig, Cod. 44 A 8, 1452 *Jud Lew Cod.I.6.4°.3 (1450s), Augsburg * of Paulus Kal (1460s) *

Cgm 558 The Cgm 558, or ''Codex germanicus monacensis'' is a convolution of two 15th-century manuscripts with a total of 176 folia, bound together in the 16th century. It is kept at the Bavarian library in Munich. The first manuscript contains two chroni ...

, a Swiss treatise of the later 15th century only loosely related to the German school. *

Codex Wallerstein The so-called Codex Wallerstein or ''Vonn Baumanns Fechtbuch'' (Oettingen-Wallerstein Cod. I.6.4o.2, Augsburg University library) is a 16th-century convolution of three 15th-century fechtbuch manuscripts, with a total of 221 pages. The inside ...

(), 1470s, Augsburg *Solothurner Fechtbuch, no text, dependent on Paulus Kal, 1470s, Solothurn *

Johannes Lecküchner Johannes Lecküchner (c. 1430s – 1482) was a 15th-century priest and fencer of the area of Nuremberg. He was inscribed at the University of Leipzig in 1455 and receives the title of '' bacalaureus'' in 1457. He was ordained acolyte in 1459, and ...

Cod. Pal. Germ. 430, Heidelberg (1478), Cgm. 582, Munich (1482) *Cod. Guelf. 78.2, ''Herzog August Bibliothek'' Wolfenbüttel (late 15th century) * Peter Falkner P 5012, ''Kunsthistorisches Museum'', Vienna *

Hans Folz Hans Folz ( 1437 – January 1513) was a German author of the late medieval or early Renaissance period. Folz was born in Worms. He was made a citizen of the city of Nuremberg, Germany in 1459 and master barber of the city in 1486. Folz was a r ...

Q566 (c. 1480), Weimar * Hans von Speyer (MS M I 29) (1491) *

MS 862 MS 862 is the number in the nineteenth-century Donaueschingen catalogue of a South German fechtbuch dating to ca. 1500. It is influenced by Paulus Kal and Peter Falkner, and was in turn drawn upon by Jorg Wilhalm (1520s). The manuscript was up fo ...

, c. 1500, influenced by Kal and Falkner, drawn upon by Wilhalm. * Glasgow Fechtbuch (1505) *Hans Wurm, grappling, (c. 1505) *"Goliath (manuscript)" (1510s) *

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...

's fechtbuch HS. 26-232 (1512),

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

* Andre Pauernfeindt, , Vienna, 1516 *

Cologne Fechtbuch The Cologne ''Fechtbuch'' (''Kölner Fechtbuch'') is a historical martial arts manual, formerly kept at the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne (Best. 7020, 150; formerly W* 8 150, still earlier W. IX 16, from the collection of Ferdinand Fran ...

, anonymous (early 16th century) * by

Jörg Wilhalm Jörg Wilhalm was an early 16th-century German people, German Historical European martial arts, fencing master, hatmaker, and citizen of Augsburg. There are six fechtbuchs attributed to Wilhalm: * 1522 Cod.I.6.4°.5, 47 folia, Augsburg University ...

(1520s) *Egenolph: , anonymous, printed by

Christian Egenolff Christian Egenolff or Egenolph (26 July 1502 – 9 February 1555), also known as Christian Egenolff, the Elder, was the first important printer and publisher operating from Frankfurt-am-Main, and best known for his ''Kräuterbuch'' and re-iss ...

, 1529, Frankfurt. This is largely derived from Pauernfeindt's 1516 manual. *Hans Czynner MS. 963 (1538),

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

*the compendia of Paulus Hector Mair (1540s). *

(1558) (this is a reprint from the , printed by Egenolph). * Joachim Meyer "" (1570) *Gunterrodt: "" (1579), Wittenberg *Codex Guelf. 83.4 (c. 1591) * Jakob Sutor von Baden (1612) * Hanko Döbringer, Cod.ms.3227a (1389)

Italian treatises

The

Italian school The Italian School refers to several different Italian schools of thought, including: * Italian School (art) * Italian School (philosophy) *Italian school of algebraic geometry *Italian school of swordsmanship *Italian school of criminology The ...

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 Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...

". The heyday of the Italian school comes in the 16th century, with the

Dardi school Bolognese Swordsmanship, also sometimes known as the Dardi school, is a tradition within the Italian school of swordsmanship which is based on the surviving fencing treatises published by several 16th century fencing masters of Bologna, As early as ...

. * Fiore dei Liberi's '' Flos Duellatorum'' (1410) *Filippo Vadi's '' De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi'' (1485) *

Pietro Monte Pietro Monte (''Pietro del Monte, Pietro Monti'', Latinized ''Petrus Montius''; 1457–1509Fontaine 1991.) was a master of arms who lived in Milan in the late 15th century. He may have been either Spanish or Italian by birth. He was acquainted ...

(1509) *Anonimo Bolognese M-345/6 (c. 1510s) * Antonio Manciolino (1531) * Achille Marozzo (1536) *

Camillo Agrippa Camillo Agrippa (died 1 January 1600) was a noted fencer, architect, engineer and mathematician of the Renaissance. He is considered to be one of the greatest fencing theorists of all time. Biography Though born in Milan, Agrippa lived and wor ...

, ''Trattato di Scienza d'Arme'' (1568) *

Giacomo di Grassi Giacomo is an Italian name. It is the Italian version of the Hebrew name Jacob. People * Giacomo (name), including a list of people with the name Other uses * Giacomo (horse) Giacomo (foaled February 16, 2002 in Kentucky) is a champion American ...

, ''His True Art of Defense'' (1594) * Vincentio Saviolo, ''His Practice'' (1595) * Salvator Fabris (1606) * Ridolfo Capo Ferro (1610) * Francesco Alfieri, ''La Scherma'' (1640) *

Giuseppe Colombani Giuseppe Colombani is known as ''l'Alfier lombardo'' (the Pride of Lombardy. It's unrelated to Francesco Alfieri - the Italian word l'Alfier(e) means "the standard bearer".) He wrote a treatise on martial arts, published in 1711. It is the latest k ...

(1711)

French manuals

Similar to the situation in Italy, there is one early manual (c. 1400, dealing with the pollaxe exclusively), and later treatises set in only after a gap of more than a century. *'' Le jeu de la hache'' (c. 1400) *Andre Pauernfeindt, (1528)—This is a French translation of Pauernfeindt's 1516 work. One notable difference between it and the original is that the "noble science" print has colored images, unlike the German. *

Henry de Sainct-Didier The known history of fencing in France begins in the 16th century, with the adoption of Italian styles of fencing. There are medieval predecessors, such as the Burgundian '' Le jeu de la hache'' ("The Play of the Axe") of ca. 1400, but the hist ...

, (1573) *

Gérard Thibault d'Anvers Gérard (or Girard) Thibault of Antwerp (ca. 1574–1627) was a fencing master and writer of the 1628 rapier manual ''Academie de l'Espée''. Thibault was from the Southern Netherlands which is today Belgium. His manual is one of the most detailed ...

, (1623) *Monsieur L'Abbat, ''The Art of Fencing, or, the Use of the Small Sword'' (1734)

British manuals

;England 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). * Harliean Manuscript 3542 (''The Man Who Wol''), late 14th–early 15th century * Cotton Titus, 15th-century English greatsword and

staff Staff may refer to: Pole * Staff, a weapon used in stick-fighting ** Quarterstaff, a European pole weapon * Staff of office, a pole that indicates a position * Staff (railway signalling), a token authorizing a locomotive driver to use a particula ...

*Additional Manuscript 39564, 15th century * George Silver, '' Paradoxes of Defense'' (1599) * Joseph Swetnam, ''Schoole of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defence'' (1612) *Sir William Johnstone Hope, several books (1690s) *Captain John Godfrey, ''A Treatise Upon the Useful Science of Defence, Connecting the Small and Back-Sword'' (1747) *

John Musgrave Waite John Musgrave Waite (c. 1820 – 13 September 1884) was a Victorian fencing master (sabre, singlestick, small-sword, foil), non-commissioned officer in the 2nd Life Guards. "A master who had a considerable following between about 1865 and 1880 w ...

, ''Lessons in sabre, singlestick, sabre &

bayonet A bayonet (from French ) is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit on the end of the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar firearm, allowing it to be used as a spear-like weapon.Brayley, Martin, ''Bayonets: An Illustr ...

, and sword feats'' (1880) *

Alfred Hutton Alfred Hutton FSA (10 March 1839 – 18 December 1910) was a Victorian officer of the King's Dragoon Guards, writer, antiquarian, and swordsman. He originated the first English revival of historical fencing, together with his colleagues Egerto ...

, ''Cold Steel, A Practical Treatise on the Sabre'' (1889), ''Old Sword-Play'' (1892) ;Scotland Scottish manuals detailing the use of the basket-hilted Scottish broadsword, besides other disciplines such as the smallsword and spadroon, were published throughout the 18th century, with early and late examples dating to the late 17th and early 19th centuries, respectively: * Sir William Hope, ''The Scots Fencing Master (the Complete Smallswordsman)'' (1687) * Sir William Hope, ''Advice to his Scholar from the Fencing Master'' (1692) * Sir William Hope, ''Complete Fencing Master'' (1691–1692) * Sir William Hope, ''The Swordsman's Vade-Mecum'' (1692) * Sir William Hope, ''New Short and Easy Method of Fencing'' (1st edition, 1707)Highland Swordsmanship: Techniques of the Scottish Sword Masters, by Mark Rector (editor) and Paul Wagner (editor), Published by

The Chivalry Bookshelf Brian R. Price is an American university professor, historical fencing instructor, and member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. He taught at Hawai'i Pacific University, (where he offered courses in the history of warfare, in counterinsurgen ...

(Nov 15, 2001) * Sir William Hope, ''New Short and Easy Method of Fencing'' (2nd edition, 1714) * Sir William Hope, ''A Few Observations upon the Fighting for Prizes in the Bear Gardens'' (1715) * Sir William Hope, ''A Vindication of the True Art of Self-Defence'' (1724) * Donald McBane, ''Expert Swords-man's Companion'' (1728) * Captain James Miller, ''A treatise on backsword, sword, buckler, sword and dagger, sword and great gauntlet, falchon, quarterstaff'' (1737) * Thomas Page, ''The Use of the Broad Sword'' (1746) * Captain G. Sinclair, ''Anti-Pugilism – Anonymous'' (1790)Highland Broadsword:Five Manuals of Scottish Regimental Swordsmanship, by Paul Wagner (editor) and Mark Rector (editor), Published by The Chivalry Bookshelf (July 2004) * Captain G. Sinclair, ''Cudgel Playing Modernized and Improved; or, The Science of Defence, Exemplified in a Few Short and Easy Lessons, for the Practice of the Broad Sword or Single Stick, on Foot'' * Archibald MacGregor, ''Lecture on the Art of Defence'' (1791) * Thomas Rowlandson, ''The Guards of the Highland Broadsword'' (1799) * Henry Angelo and son, ''Hungarian & Highland Broadsword'' (1799) * John Taylor, ''The Art of Defence on Foot with Broadsword and Saber'' (1804) * Thomas Mathewson, ''Fencing Familiarized; or, a New Treatise on the Art of the Scotch Broad Sword'' (1805)

Iberian manuals

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, the swordmaster

Domingo Luis Godinho Domingo may refer to: People *Domingo (name), a Spanish name and list of people with that name *Domingo (producer) (born 1970), American hip-hop producer *Saint Dominic (1170–1221), Castilian Catholic priest, founder of the Friars popularly cal ...

wrote the ''

Arte de Esgrima Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plus ...

'', 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 The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

noblemen mindset, so it does not contain graphical explanations of the fencing techniques so much as hard-to-understand explanations based on mathematics and philosophical sciences in general. The subsequent difficulty on interpreting the theory and practice of correctly has frequently led to this school of fencing being misunderstood. * Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza, (1582) * Luis Pacheco de Narváez, ''

Libro de las grandezas de la espada (lit. ''Book of the Greatness of the Sword'') is a 16th-century Spanish treatise on fencing written by Don Luis Pacheco de Narváez, who is considered one of the founding fathers of Spanish fencing ('' destreza'') and the disciple of Jerónimo S ...

'' (1600) * Gerard Thibault, (1628) * Luis Pacheco de Narváez, (1632) * Luis Méndez de Carmona Tamariz, (1632) * Luis Diáz de Viedma, (1639) and (1639) * Cristóbal de Cala, (1642) * Diogo Gomes de Figueyredo, (1651) * Miguel Pérez de Mendoza y Quijada, (1675) * Francisco Antonio de Ettenhard y Abarca, (1675) * Álvaro Guerra de la Vega, (1681) * Thomas Luis, (1685) * Nicolás Tamariz, (1696) * Manuel Cruzado y Peralta, (1702) * Francisco Lórenz de Rada, (1705) * Nicolás Rodrigo Noveli, (1731) * Manuel Antonio de Brea, (1805) * Jaime Mereló y Casademunt, (1862)

Historical Asian martial arts

Some texts on unarmed combat survive from Han China (c. 1st century). A list of wrestling techniques is contained in the ''Malla Purana'' of 13th-century Gujarat, India. The Chinese '' Jixiao Xinshu'' dates to the 1560s. The Korean '' Muyejebo'' dates to 1598, the '' Muyedobotongji'' dates to 1790. The Japanese '' The Book of Five Rings'' dates to 1645.

References

External links

Wiktenauer: A Wiki database dedicated to the masters, manuals, and techniques of Historical European Martial Arts
hosted by the HEMA Alliance
THE ARMARIUM: Online Historical Fencing Manuals & Texts of the Doctrina Armorum
by The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts (ARMA)
Online Library of Historical Fencing Treatises
hosted by th
Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts
(AEMMA)

hosted by th
Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts
(AEMMA)
Destreza Translation & Research Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martial Arts Manual *