"The pollaxe is a fearsome weapon, the chivalric weapon par excellence of the late Middle Ages. It provided the knight with a powerful armour-breaching weapon, delivering tremendous force with its blade or hammerhead, while doubling as a short spear with its sharpened ends. Wielded on foot in both friendly tournaments and lethal duels, it was also used on the battlefield. Not surprisingly, such an important weapon figures prominently in surviving medieval martial arts manuscripts from Germany and Italy, and was written about as late as the 1630s, well after the armoured knight's apogee. Written in the mid-15th century for the Burgundian court -- at the time the most extravagant in medieval Europe, but also trapped between France and England in the bloody, final phase of the Hundred Years War -- the manuscript Le Jeu de la Hache ('Axe-Play') is both the most complete study of this deadly weapon, and the oldest known martial arts text in the French language. In this new translation and interpretive guide, Francophone and martial artist Jason Smith presents a complete translation of Le Jeu, detailed, photographic reconstructions of its many techniques, and a short primer on the basics of axe-combat, creating a complete curriculum for actually training in this unique, medieval martial art. Combined with an historical overview of the manuscript's origins, authorship and patron, and a detailed biography of Jacques de Lalain, a famed Burgundian axe-fighter and contemporary member of the same knightly order for whom the work was commissioned, Burgundian Poleaxe: The Noble Art of Chivalric Axe Combat is a modern training manual, but also a window into knightly culture at the waning of the Middle Ages."--

While many new books on historical European martial arts are being produced regularly, this is the first series of books devoted entirely to armored combat, and this is the first book to teach the lost art of pollaxe combat that has been produced in over 550 years. Written by a well-known scholar and instructor of the German school of historical combat with more than 15 years of real armored combat experience, this book will teach you all you need to know to learn the knight art of the pollaxe. You will learn everything from fundamentals such as footwork, guards, simple strikes and displacements to more than sixty elegant techniques for using the axe to how to acquire the necessary equipment to practice to how to teach yourself the art. Lavishly illustrated with more than 380 photographs, this book is an amazing introduction to one of the least known but most important arts of combat in the knightly repertoire. NOTE: This is the perfect-bound edition of this book.

The Flower of Battle is Colin Hatcher's translation of Fiore dei Liberi's art of combat from the early 15th century. The work included high-resolution images and English text laid out in the manner of the original.

Originally published in Great Britain in 2000 by Greenhill Books; reprinted in this format in 2014 by Frontline Books.

English translation of one of the most significant medieval texts on fighting with swords.

The medieval knight was a well-trained fighting man, expert in the use of sword, lance, spear and dagger, and member of a warrior aristocracy whose values, virtues and vices helped shape European society for over 500 years. As a window into the knight and his craft, In Saint George's Name: An Anthology of Medieval German Fighting Arts brings readers a treasure trove of historic combat treatises, musings on the culture and context of the martial arts in the late Middle Ages, and hands-on training exercises for wrestling, dagger, falchion, and poleaxe. Join medieval combat expert Christian Henry Tobler on an expansive journey into the lost world of chivalric fighting arts, certain to thrill martial artists, arms and armour enthusiasts, and lovers of history alike.

This book is a simple, straight forward translation of Philippo di Vadi's "De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi" (1482), which covers a theoretical framework for the Italian longsword as well as plays of the sword, sword in armor, spear, poleaxe, and dagger.