Author Archives: Arik Mendelevitz

In our modern way of teaching Italian rapier, the default is generally to teach the passing step with the left foot remaining turned out.  This allows for the maximum amount of reach in a single step as it allows you to continue forwards while staying profiled and not having to do much to turn theContinue reading “To Turn or Not to Turn? That is the Question”

Sometimes you have a question, but you don’t yet have the tools to answer it.  That’s where I found myself this week when after a discussion with Guy Windsor, I found myself trying to find out when the period Italian masters moved from the idea of gioco (play) to the idea of mesura (measure).  TheContinue reading “How to Search the Manuals: A Scholar’s Journey”

Back in February I had the pleasure of attending Academie Duello’s level I instructor intensive and I can’t recommend it highly enough.  Over the course of five days, we spent 50 hours not only learning the fundamentals of rapier and longsword from the school’s founder, Devon Boorman, but also how to teach it all toContinue reading “Thoughts from Vancouver Part I”

Today I relearned how to hold a sword, again. You’d think that after twelve years of rapier fencing, dozens of tournament wins, and having had the pleasure of studying under several of the world’s greatest instructors, I would have something so basic as “how to hold a sword” down at this point.  And here weContinue reading “The Fundamentals Are Everything”

Here is the video of and my own personal outline for the class I just taught through RUM (Royal University of the Midrealm). They pull largely from Tom Leoni’s chapter on dueling in “In the Service of Mars Part I” and Ann Tlusty’s book “The Martial Ethic in Early Modern Germany”. I highly recommend checkingContinue reading “Dueling Class Notes”

As a note, this was my final thesis for my undergraduate degree. It was written almost six years ago and my study of swordplay, period combat, and writing as a whole has evolved since then. That said, I still find this to be a useful resource to look back on. As such, it seems theContinue reading “The Duel In Sixteenth-Century Italy”

The Anonimo Bolognese is a handwritten manuscript written around 1510 in Bologna that serves as a how to for a variety of weapon forms.  As of the time of me writing this, we are currently only aware of the one handwritten copy of this text which unfortunately does not list an author or exact date. Continue reading “The Spada Due Mani of the Anonimo Bolognese Part I: Words”