George Silver was oneof the most significant writers on the history of Western swordsmanship. Best known for his distrust of Italian rapier fencing, this suspicion led him to document the system of swordsmanship practiced by the English gentry and nobility before the advent of the rapier. Looking back to earlier times, Silver described a system that in many fundmentals was still medieval, but he did so with an early Modern precision. Fearful that his countrymen were forgetting the basics of swordsmanship, Silver described the system in great detail. What emerges is a simple and powerful, yet deep and subtle style, heavily based on natural body movements and designed to work under the stress of real combat. In this book, Stephen Hand presents Silver's system with outstanding text and in more than four hundred clear photographs. This book is a must for anyone interested in swordsmanship, it stands to become a classic!
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Brilliant study of Silver:
"English Swordsmanship" is a brilliant, practical, interpretation of George Silver's works on fencing. It is pretty specific to the use of the broad- or back-sword, but somewhat applicable to classical sabre. The techniques described may seem insanely risky to a sport fencer, but a modern foil, epee, or sabre is a child's toy next to the English swords of Silver's era. This is about the sword as a weapon, not as a sport. Although Stephen Hand had to interpret much of Silver's work, he did his reseach... more info
A Great Work:
I have a number of Western Martial Arts books and manuals manuals and this is really one of the best. You can tell the author is very knowlegable in what he teaches and he is also good teacher. The pictures and descriptions are very well written. I have over 20 years in the asian martial arts and have been studying western martial arts for about 8 years now and I would like to see more books written like this one. I would recomend this book to anyone who is serious about swordsmanship.
in progress:
I have not read the entire book as yet, but I am impressed with what I have. The book appears to be very compleet and a good reference as well.
Excellent book for study of English Swordplay:
Although I have not yet finished studying through this book,(and it may be quite some time before I am), I have found the way that Stephen Hand had lain out his own interpretation and explanation of George Silvers material on swordplay to be both insightful and clearly explained. Having read other books on renaissance rapier that were translations from Italian, I have found the additional explanations of why Mr. Hand interprets certain actions a particular way to be extremely helpful. I would suggest this... more info
