As stated in our constitution, the Dawn Duellists 'study and practice the methods of European swordplay from the 13th to the 20th century', so all the fencing we do comes from fencing treatises and manuals, most of which are translations of period originals and some of which are modern interpretations. For that reason we classify publications by the age to which they pertain even if they are written much later by modern masters and academics.
Please remember that with online sources of treatises, translations are the property of the author(s) and are a labour of love not a professional publication.
Distributors
Lulu - www.lulu.com American distribution and print company with reasonable shipping rates who sell and reprint books (copyright allowing). Many treatises can be found here, including the hard-to-get Sword and Buckler recommendation.
Online sources
Bibliography of treatises Not so much a source ot treatises but a very comprehensive treatise bibliography from the American HEMA group, Association for Renaissance Martial Arts. This should help you find titles by masters or in eras you are interested in.
German longsword tradition English translations in part or in whole of various treatises, concentrating on the German longsword tradition, by members of the German HEMA group, Ochs Historiche Kampfkünste.
Renaissance treatise collection Facsimile, therefore untranslated, copies in pdf format of original Renaissance treatises, provided by the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies. Treatises in English, such as Di Grassi's, are obviously instantly usable but this is a good place to see the illustration plates in foreign language treatises.
Tower Manuscript I.33 English translation with interpretation of the Tower Manuscript I.33 for sword and buckler by Swiss re-enactment group, Freywild.
Please note that whilst these suppliers have in the past proved to be satisfactory to DDS members, the DDS are not able to guarantee your experience will be as good.
Treatises and translations
We recommend the following treatises and translations for our current set of classes. It's best to shop around the websites selling those which are published books to see who has the lowest price.
Longsword Goliath Fechtbuch By Johannes Lichtenauer (English translation / online source) Fechtbuch des Sigmund Ringeck By Sigmund Ringek (English translation / online source)
Rapier / sidesword Fencing: A Renaissance Treatise By Camillo Agrippa (English translation / book)
Sabre Cold Steel: The Art of Fencing with the Sabre By Alfred Hutton (English language / book)
Sword and Buckler The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship: A Facsimile & Translation of the World's Oldest Personal Combat Treatise by Dr Jeffrey L Forgeng (English translation / book)
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DDS on Amazon
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