A recently discovered manuscript by the Friulian fencing master Fiore dei Liberi (fl. c. 1383–1410), Bibliothèque Nationale MS Lat. 11269 is discussed and compared with other known copies. Authorial intent, the style of arms, armour, and other military equipment depicted, and the dating and style of the manuscript are also discussed.

Royal Armouries MS I.33 is the oldest known surviving manual of swordplay, dating to around 1320. The manuscript is in generally good condition considering it has made its way through raided monasteries, ducal libraries, and likely a soldier’s kit bag over its 700-year life. But has it survived this journey completely intact? A closer look reveals compelling evidence to suggest that portions of this important manuscript may, in fact, be missing.

In an earlier issue, Dr. Timothy Dawson suggested that the fighting techniques found in Royal Armouries MS I.33 may have been influenced by earlier Byzantine sword and shield combat. For evidence, he cites a series of 9th-century ivory carvings depicting similar positions found in I.33. This article is a response to Dr. Dawson’s, in which it is argued that there is ample evidence for similar combat positions being found in Western Europe that both pre-date and are contemporary with I.33.

The earliest extant European fencing manual, Royal Armouries MS I.33 c. 12701300, is an unusual work, portraying a tonsured priest teaching a system of sword-and-buckler combat to two students, the second of whom is a woman named Walpurgis. The purpose of the manual has not as yet been established. This article first considers depictions of fencing schirmen in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Middle High German literary texts including Kudrun and the Trojanerkrieg, and the links between sword-and-buckler combat and the judicial combat. It also investigates the degree to which clergy and women took part in the practice of the judicial combat in France, England and Germany during the Middle Ages, and the role of individual German churches, monasteries and cathedrals as organisers and judges of the process. The article draws on both literary and historical material, including the numerous later medieval German fencing manuals, to support the argument that MS I.33 was designed as a teaching manual for a clerical fencing master to assist in providing training to defendants facing trial by combat.

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