From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice: The Longsword Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi

This is the book I had been hoping for when Guy Windsor published 'Advanced Longsword' in his Mastering the Art of Arms series. As to the date of this review, 'From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice' is the most substantive, single interpretive work on Fiore's longsword material. This is an indispensable text and required reading for serious students of Fiore, including those who disagree with all or parts of Windsor's approach.

This is as research is supposed to be, you find a nice piece of information from the past that is almost forgotten and with modern research techniques you make it relevant and alive.Dr. Windsor uses not only the tried and true tools, like using the original sources in the original language but goes into the cutting edge (pun intended) employing video, podcasts, etc.This is a niche pursuit and not everyone loves a sword (How is that possible?) but for those who love everything related to swords I very highly recommend the book. Disclaimer: I DON'T DO THIS TYPE OF FENCING and I still find the books extremely worthwhile.PeterA Sword Nerd

The book is minly OK without anything more. The worst part of it is when the author tries to explaine the contects of creation of the original and about Fiore himself....Well it appears that he has no idea who knights were, nor nobles for that matter. This book will be the most valiable for individuals that has already some experience in HEMA or Buhurt for simple reason that the author is far from being phisicaly fit, which is neccessary in correct represantation of the art. Even after all these harsh things i have wrote here, the content is still good, if you know how to use it

A really nice book for those who know Guy‘s other books and/or videos. While you learn in the later „how to Fiore“ this is more about „Guy explains why he thinks you should do stuff in the way he shows ist to you and how he came to his conclusions.“ As always, I really enjoyed reading the book and it really helps one to get a deeper understanding of Fiore’s art (if you rely on Mr. Windsor‘s interpretation (what I definitely do)). Thanks for sharing your thoughts and thinking about this fencing stuff and that we readers do not have to think everything through ourselves, saving a bunch of years we can spend on hitting each other with sword, rather than thinking about how to.

I'm stating in HEMA, Historical European Martial Arts, it's a good place to start.