The Art That Was Lost
For centuries, the fighting arts of Europe were passed down through guilds, academies, and direct instruction from master to student. The great fencing schools of Germany, Italy, and Spain produced practitioners who trained systematically, competed publicly, and wrote extensively about what they were doing and why.
As firearms changed warfare and dueling culture gradually faded, the practical need for these systems disappeared. The lineages broke. The academies closed. By the late 19th century, what remained was largely sport fencing — a modern athletic pursuit descended from the old art but stripped of the majority of its tactical complexity, its weapons variety, and its connection to the original source material.
The old systems appeared lost. But they weren't gone — they were in libraries.
The Manuscripts
Beginning in the 14th century and continuing through the 17th, masters across Europe committed their fighting systems to writing. They produced illustrated manuals — called fechtbücher in the German tradition — describing techniques, principles, footwork, guards, and tactical concepts in extraordinary detail. These weren't abstract descriptions: they were instruction manuals, written by people who were actively teaching and whose reputations depended on the effectiveness of their systems.
These manuscripts survived. Many were preserved in museum collections and university libraries across Germany, Italy, England, and Austria. For centuries they sat largely unstudied — interesting historical artifacts, but unread by anyone with the martial context to interpret them.
That changed in the late 20th century, when a growing community of scholars, martial artists, and historians began the painstaking work of transcribing, translating, and interpreting these texts. The results were astonishing: the manuals were not vague or fragmentary. Many were precise, comprehensive, and internally consistent systems that could be reconstructed and trained.
The Revival
Modern HEMA is the product of this scholarly and athletic project. Practitioners work directly from the primary sources — the original manuals, in their original languages, with their original illustrations — and test their interpretations through sparring and competition. When an interpretation works against a resisting opponent, it gains credibility. When it doesn't, it gets revised.
This is what separates HEMA from re-enactment or stage combat. We're not performing historical fencing — we're trying to reconstruct it as a functional martial art and test it rigorously. The process is ongoing, collaborative, and deeply intellectually serious.
The Masters We Study
Girard Thibault d'Anvers (c. 1574–1627)
A Flemish fencing master whose Academie de l'Espée (1628) is one of the most extraordinary fencing manuals ever produced. Published posthumously, it contains 46 full-page engraved plates illustrating every aspect of the Spanish rapier system in meticulous detail. Thibault's system is built on geometric principles derived from the proportions of the human body — a deeply systematic approach to distance, timing, and line control.
Nicoletto Giganti (1570–1620)
A Venetian fencing master whose Scola overo Teatro (1606) is one of the clearest and most practical rapier manuals of the period. Giganti's system emphasizes simplicity, precision, and economy of motion — taking what works and removing everything that doesn't. His second book, discovered only in the 21st century, adds further depth to his teaching.
Salvator Fabris (1544–1618)
An Italian master who served at the Danish court and produced De lo schermo overo scienza d'arme (1606), a comprehensive rapier system notable for its attention to measure and its extensive treatment of the off-hand dagger. Fabris is considered one of the most systematically complete of the Italian masters.
Johannes Liechtenauer (c. 14th–15th century)
The founder or consolidator of the primary German longsword tradition, whose teachings were preserved in a series of coded verses (Zettel) and interpreted by a lineage of subsequent masters. Liechtenauer's system is the foundation of most modern longsword practice. His teachings were transmitted and expanded by masters including Joachim Meÿer, Hans Talhoffer, and Sigmund ain Ringeck.
Fiore dei Liberi (c. 1350–1420)
An Italian master who produced Flos Duellatorum (c. 1409), one of the most comprehensive medieval fighting manuals in existence. Fiore's system covers longsword, spear, pollaxe, dagger, and unarmed grappling — an integrated martial curriculum that reveals how these weapons were understood in relationship to each other.