Martial arts manuals are instructions, with or without illustrations, specifically designed to be learnt from a book. Many books detailing specific techniques of martial arts are often erroneously called manuals but were written as treatises.

Prose descriptions of martial arts techniques appear late within the history of literature, due to the inherent difficulties of describing a technique rather than just demonstrating it.

The earliest extant manuscript on armed combat (as opposed to unarmed wrestling) is Royal Armouries Ms. I.33 ("I.33"), written in Franconia around 1300.

Not within the scope of this article are books on military strategy such as Sun Tzu's The Art of War (before 100 BCE) or Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus' De Re Militari (4th century), or military technology, such as De rebus bellicis (4th to 5th century).

Predecessors

thumb|300px|Detail of the wrestling scenes at Beni Hasan.

Some early testimonies of historical martial arts consist of series of images only. The earliest example is a fresco in tomb 15 at Beni Hasan, showing illustrations of wrestling techniques dating to the 20th century BCE. Similar depictions of wrestling techniques are found on Attic vases dating to Classical Greece.

The only known instance of a book from classical antiquity is Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 466 from the 2nd century CE, detailing Greek wrestling techniques.

There are some examples in the Chinese classics that may predate the turn of the Common Era: the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian (c. 100 BCE) documents wrestling, referring to earlier how-to manuals of the Western Han (2nd century BCE), which have however not survived. An extant Chinese text on wrestling is "Six Chapters of Hand Fighting" included in the 1st-century CE Book of Han.

All other extant manuals date to the Middle Ages or later.

The "combat stele" at the Shaolin Monastery dates to 728 CE.

The earliest text detailing Indian martial arts is the Agni Purana (c. 8th century), which contains several chapters giving descriptions and instructions on fighting techniques. It described how to improve a warrior's individual prowess and kill enemies using various methods in warfare whether they went to war in chariots, horses, elephants or on foot. Foot methods were subdivided into armed combat and unarmed combat. The former included the bow and arrow, the sword, spear, noose, armour, iron dart, club, battle axe, chakram and trident. The latter included wrestling, knee strikes, punching and kicking methods.

  • Cod. Guelf. 78.2, Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel (late 15th century)
  • Peter Falkner P 5012, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
  • Hans Folz Q566 (c. 1480), Weimar
  • Hans von Speyer (MS M I 29) (1491)
  • Cluny Fechtbuch, c. 1500, influenced by Kal and Falkner, drawn upon by Wilhalm.
  • Glasgow Fechtbuch (1505)
  • Hans Wurm, grappling, (c. 1505)
  • "Goliath (manuscript)" (1510s)
  • Albrecht Dürer's fechtbuch HS. 26-232 (1512), Michigan State University
  • Andre Pauernfeindt, , Vienna, 1516
  • Cologne Fechtbuch, anonymous (early 16th century)
  • by Jörg Wilhalm (1520s)
  • Egenolph: , anonymous, printed by Christian Egenolff, 1529, Frankfurt. This is largely derived from Pauernfeindt's 1516 manual.
  • Hans Czynner MS. 963 (1538), Graz
  • the compendia of Paulus Hector Mair (1540s).
  • Johannes Lecküchner (1558) (this is a reprint from the , printed by Egenolph).
  • Joachim Meyer "" (1570)
  • Gunterrodt: "" (1579), Wittenberg
  • Codex Guelf. 83.4 (c. 1591)
  • Jakob Sutor von Baden (1612)

Italian treatises

The Italian school is attested in an early manual of 1410, at which time it is not yet clearly separable from the German school. Indeed, the author Fiore dei Liberi states that he has learned much of his art from one "Master Johannes of Swabia". The heyday of the Italian school comes in the 16th century, with the Dardi school.

  • Fiore dei Liberi's Flos Duellatorum (1410)
  • Filippo Vadi's De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi (1485)
  • Pietro Monte (1509)
  • Anonimo Bolognese M-345/6 (c. 1510s)
  • Antonio Manciolino (1531)
  • Achille Marozzo (1536)
  • Camillo Agrippa, Trattato di Scienza d'Arme (1568)
  • Giacomo di Grassi, His True Art of Defense (1594)
  • Vincentio Saviolo, His Practice (1595)
  • Salvator Fabris (1606)
  • Ridolfo Capo Ferro (1610)
  • Francesco Alfieri, La Scherma (1640)
  • Giuseppe Colombani (1711)

French manuals

Similar to the situation in Italy, there is one early manual (c. 1400, dealing with the pollaxe exclusively), and later treatises appear only after a gap of more than a century.

  • Le jeu de la hache (c. 1400)
  • Andre Pauernfeindt, (1528)—This is a French translation of Pauernfeindt's 1516 work. One notable difference between it and the original is that the "noble science" print has colored images, unlike the German.
  • Henry de Sainct-Didier, (1573)
  • Gérard Thibault d'Anvers, (1623)
  • Monsieur L'Abbat, The Art of Fencing, or, the Use of the Small Sword (1734)

British manuals

England

Apart from three rather opaque texts of the later 15th century, the native English tradition of fencing manuals begins with George Silver's Paradoxes of Defense (1599).

  • Harley MS 3542 (The Man Who Wol), late 14th–early 15th century
  • Cotton Titus, 15th-century English greatsword and staff
  • Additional Manuscript 39564, 15th century
  • George Silver, Paradoxes of Defense (1599)
  • Joseph Swetnam, Schoole of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defence (1612)
  • Captain John Godfrey, A Treatise Upon the Useful Science of Defence, Connecting the Small and Back-Sword (1747)
  • John Musgrave Waite, Lessons in sabre, singlestick, sabre & bayonet, and sword feats (1880)
  • Alfred Hutton, Cold Steel, A Practical Treatise on the Sabre (1889), Old Sword-Play (1892)

Scotland

Scottish manuals detailing the use of the basket-hilted Scottish broadsword, besides other disciplines such as the smallsword and spadroon, were published throughout the 18th century, with early and late examples dating to the late 17th and early 19th centuries, respectively:

  • Sir William Hope, The Scots Fencing Master (the Complete Smallswordsman) (1687)
  • Sir William Hope, Advice to his Scholar from the Fencing Master (1692)
  • Sir William Hope, Complete Fencing Master (1691–1692)
  • Sir William Hope, The Swordsman's Vade-Mecum (1692)
  • Sir William Hope, New Short and Easy Method of Fencing (1st edition, 1707)
  • Sir William Hope, New Short and Easy Method of Fencing (2nd edition, 1714)
  • Sir William Hope, A Few Observations upon the Fighting for Prizes in the Bear Gardens (1715)
  • Sir William Hope, A Vindication of the True Art of Self-Defence (1724)
  • Donald McBane, Expert Swords-man's Companion (1728)
  • Thomas Page, The Use of the Broad Sword (1746)
  • Captain G. Sinclair, Anti-Pugilism – Anonymous (1790)
  • Captain G. Sinclair, Cudgel Playing Modernized and Improved; or, The Science of Defence, Exemplified in a Few Short and Easy Lessons, for the Practice of the Broad Sword or Single Stick, on Foot
  • Archibald MacGregor, Lecture on the Art of Defence (1791)
  • Henry Angelo and son, Hungarian & Highland Broadsword (1799)
  • John Taylor, The Art of Defence on Foot with Broadsword and Saber (1804)
  • Thomas Mathewson, Fencing Familiarized; or, a New Treatise on the Art of the Scotch Broad Sword (1805)

References

  • Wiktenauer: A Wiki database dedicated to the masters, manuals, and techniques of Historical European Martial Arts hosted by the HEMA Alliance
  • THE ARMARIUM: Online Historical Fencing Manuals & Texts of the Doctrina Armorum by The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts (ARMA)
  • Online Library of Historical Fencing Treatises hosted by the Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts (AEMMA)
  • Genealogy of the German "Fechtbücher" hosted by the Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts (AEMMA)
  • Destreza Translation & Research Project