Renaissance Martial Arts Activities - 2017 to 2018

The previous twelve months has seen another period of growth and increased awareness for the martial arts of Renaissance Europe (a subject we prefer to identify as “Marē”). Historical European fighting arts continues to be recovered and revived from authentic source teachings by dozens of different organizations and hundreds of small clubs worldwide. Throughout North America and Europe assorted “guilds" of students, both informal and regulated, along with thousands of individual practitioners pursue reclaiming of these forgotten self-defense methods.

Over the last year, ARMA - the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts, in particular engaged in a wide variety of activities to promote the craft and educate the public about our subject. Members of ARMA from through the southern and central USA presented a multi-day series of lessons and demonstrations at the large ComicPalooza convention in Houston, Texas. This major pop-culture event is attended by more than 30,000 attendees from around the region. A lecture on knightly chivalric combat was given by the ARMA Director for Savanah College in Georgia, as well as presentations on traditional Italian fighting methods of the 15th and 16th centuries given to two Atlanta international schools. An exhibition on ancient gladiatorial combat was given at the Museum Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, Georgia, while an exhibition of swordsmanship was conducted on behalf of the noted arms and armor manufacturer, Museum Replicas Limited. The ARMA Director also delivered a lecture to the Georgia Medievalist Association and to a private school in Tennessee. A workshop on unarmed combat techniques from Renaissance treatises was also held at Iron Door school of arms by the director as well as a full-day instructional seminar held in Dallas-Fort-Worth, Texas. Thanks to WoMAU hosting annual meetings and festivals, ARMA was able to provide examples of Renaissance weapon techniques and fencing theory to many visitors at the 2017 World Martial Arts Festival in Chungju. ARMA Director Clements was able to also give both a public seminar in Seoul for novices and a private instructional workshop. The Seoul, South Korea, study group of the ARMA was featured by the newspaper, JoonAng Daily, while ARMA Mexico was featured on Mexican televising for their work at public events teaching on the reality of historical close combat. Research was conducted by ARMA visiting private collection of rare swords from Europe and Asia, some dating back to the Bronze Age 3500 years ago. Such hands-on “living archaeology” combined with experimental archaeology in testing replica arms and armor is a major component of the ARMA’s efforts. 

Every year, a large number of research and editorial articles are produced by dozens of websites covering the exploration and rebuilding of Renaissance self-defense teachings developed for the close-combat need of duels, the battlefield, and street-fighting. As would be expected, over the past 12 months this grew at an even faster rate through social media. Tens of events were held across the USA, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and elsewhere. Scholarship and research into the authentic Western European fighting arts, such as with the recently published academic anthology, “Late Medieval and Early Modern Fight Books” grew again over the past year as it has for the past decade. Publication of translations and interpretations of the vast Renaissance martial arts source literature continued with the release of works on the writings of the 15th masters, Fiore Dei Liberi and Hans Lekuechner, along with those of other fight masters from the historical period. Other books included the teachings 16th century masters of defense by the Swiss-German master, Joachim Meyer, and the Hispano-Italian master, Pietro Monte, a colleague of Leonardo Da Vinci. The depth of activities for our subject is substantial with instructional events and classes occurring monthly by tens of different organizations around the world devoted to recovery of these martial teachings. Additionally, increasingly popular competitive sporting versions conducted as recreational tournaments continue to experience remarkable growth, for better or worse. Several television programs are also currently in the works from various US and UK producers covering the topic of genuine Medieval and Renaissance era combat arts. As always, practitioners and enthusiasts of Renaissance martial arts continued into to refine our skills while working further the establish validity and competence of our knowledge. We continued to act as an authoritative public resource in the face of myth and misconception about historical fighting methods.