The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe

by Sydney Anglo

published

August 11th 2000 by Yale University Press

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binding

Hardcover, 396 pages

isbn

0300083521 (isbn13: 9780300083521)

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Jake rated it:

10/28/08

bookshelves: history, history-european, history-military, history-renaissance, hoplology, martial-arts-european, martial-arts-history

Read in October, 2008

One of the few benefits to being stuck in an airport is that it lets you catch up on your reading. (I’m still working on what a second benefit would be…)

In any case, thanks to a recent trip experience with the airline industries fantastic scheduling skills, I was finally able to put a couple of books to rest. I will start with this one, because it’s been the longest in coming.

Like a lot of young boys, I went through a phase of thinking that the medieval European knight was the cool...more One of the few benefits to being stuck in an airport is that it lets you catch up on your reading. (I’m still working on what a second benefit would be…)

In any case, thanks to a recent trip experience with the airline industries fantastic scheduling skills, I was finally able to put a couple of books to rest. I will start with this one, because it’s been the longest in coming.

Like a lot of young boys, I went through a phase of thinking that the medieval European knight was the coolest thing ever. Unlike a lot of young boys, I don’t seem to have grown out of that phase. And, as all young boys know, one of the coolest things about knights is that they fight. With swords! And axes! And lances, maces, flails, and other various instruments of personal destruction. Net result? Knights are AWESOME. At the end of the the day, I love them more than Ninja (that statement may result in me being lynched by the intarweb, but there it is).

Being a practicing martial artist, I eventually came to the question of “how the heck did knights fight?” at which point I realized that a lot of my points of reference came mostly from Hollywood and other similarly lousy sources. So I decided to look into the matter, and by some means I’ve long since forgotten, came across Sydney Anglo’s extremely comprehensive work.

This is a great book, IF YOU ARE INTO THIS SORT OF THING. I highlight that fact because this is a fairly serious, scholarly text. It is about 400 pages long, and is much larger than the average hardcover novel. It has footnotes, citations, and all sorts of other things that you will not find in your average pop history book. If you do not have the stamina or patience for that sort of thing, this book will not be fun for you.

If you do have the patience for that sort of thing, however, you’ll find this to be a fun and interesting insight into the actual practices of medieval European warriors. Anglo works his way through a variety of topics and ideas, starting with broader problems such as historical methods of writing about martial arts practice, and then narrowing things down to look at specific methods on unarmed combat, sword fighting, jousting, and other topics pertinent to the medieval knight (and his modern fan base). Anglo’s writing is fairly scholarly, but not so dense as to make the reading difficult, and he has a very dry wit that pokes through at just the right moments.

Statistically, I suspect the audience for this one is rather limited—if you aren’t into martial arts, medieval history, or (probably ideally) both, this book won’t offer you much. If you’re a martial artist, this book will give you a great introduction to a variety of arts that are generally poorly understood. If you’re a medievalist, this book will give you some great insight into a different aspect of medieval European culture. If neither of those things interests you, leave this one on the shelf.

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Ben rated it:

03/25/07

bookshelves: historical_martial_arts

An amibtious book that covers a dauntingly broad scope of material, this work manages to be both entertaining and well-researched. Although there are few glaring missteps (such as the statement that medeival pollaxes were basically "knightly toys" incapable of real damage), but overall, this is a wonderful book. Anglo's easy British humor makes it a joy to read, while his credentials as a historian make it educational as well. This is a great book for beginning students of Western M...more

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Colin marked it as to-read

10/28/08

bookshelves: to-read

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