In From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice, renowned historical swordsman Guy Windsor demystifies one of the greatest martial arts books of all time, Fiore dei Liberi's Il Fior di Battaglia (The Flower of Battle). In the late 14th century dei Liberi, an Italian knightly combat master, wrote Il Fior di Battaglia (The Flower of Battle). This magnificent, illustrated manuscript described how to fight on foot and on horseback, in armour and without, with sword, spear, pollax, dagger, or with no weapon at all. Dr. Windsor has spent the last twenty years studying Fiore's work and creating a modern practice of historical swordsmanship from it. In this book, he takes you through all of Fiore's wrestling techniques. Each technique (or “play”) is shown with the drawing from the treatise, his transcription and translation of the text, his commentary on how it fits into the system and works in practice, and a link to a video of the technique in action. The book also contains a detailed introduction describing Fiore's life and times, and extensive discussion of the contexts in which Fiore's art belongs. From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice: The Wrestling Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi is essential reading for all martial artists, and historians of the medieval and early Renaissance.

The Flower of Battle is Colin Hatcher's translation of Fiore dei Liberi's art of combat from the early 15th century. The work included high-resolution images and English text laid out in the manner of the original.

Armizare ("the Art of Arms") was the name the warriors of medieval Italy gave to their martial art, which included the wielding of sword, axe and spear with wrestling, knife-fighting and mounted combat. In the waning years of the 14th century, Fiore dei Liberi was a famed master of this art, whose students included some of the most renowned and dangerous fighting men of his day. Toward the end of his life, Master Fiore preserved his teachings in a series of illustrated manuscripts, four of which have survived to the present day, and have become the basis of a world-wide effort to reconstruct this lost martial art. However, because medieval books were written for an audience with different expectations than the modern readers "how-to" manuals, today's students often have trouble understanding the old swordsman's choices in including, omitting or organizing information as he did. They may see that fighting art was a system, but lack the background to see the systematic instruction of the book itself. In Armizare: The Chivalric Martial Arts System of il Fior di Battaglia, Robert Charrette brings together his experiences as a martial artist and respected 14th century living historian with his skills as a professional author graphic artist to not only take readers on a walking tour of Master Fiore's manuscripts, but into the mindset behind its creation. More than just an interpretation of an old book's contents, this is a tool-kit that reveals Fiore dei Liberi's brilliance as not just a fighter, but as martial arts teacher. Whether a long-time student, a newcomer to the art or a more academic devote of the medieval warrior and his craft, readers will find themselves educated and entertained as a door is opened into another time and place - the training hall of the medieval knight.

Vinogradoff, Sir Paul. English Society in the Eleventh Century: Essays in English Mediaeval History. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1908. xii, 599 pp. Reprint available February, 2005 by the Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-476-2. Cloth. $95. * One of the principal studies by the eminent legal scholar, it is commended by Holdsworth in The Historians of English Law as "a most valuable historical analysis of the forces which were creating mediaeval society in England" (86-87). Vinogradoff [1854-1925] considers the Old English, Danish and Norman elements that shaped English society during one of its most dynamic phases. Careful attention is paid to the influence of political factors and public law on social life and how innovations in husbandry and other economic factors influenced the development of private law.

"Being the Yorke prize essay of the University of Cambridge for the year 1886."--T.p.