Sadly, no. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t say how much description there is, or how well the description matches the techniques (and besides, I’m a sabre guy), but the film is pure (though very well done) stage-fighting.

Well, yes and no. Referring to all two-weapon styles as “Florentine” is a modern invention, that came about in the SCA in the 1970s. Historically, one refers to the weapons used (“messer and buckler”, “sword and cloak” “rapier and dagger”, et.c.)

The reason why dual-wielding is referred to as “florentine” is that the…

Two swords and period attire? Sounds like an SCA event to me.

How this relates to Olympic fencing depends on the weapon. Smallsword is pretty closely related to épée (which is pretty understandable, seeing as the progenitors of the modern épée were training tools for smallsword), but even moving up to rapier is a big step. HEMA sabre is very different from the Olympic weapon of…

http://www.pcgamer.com/how-melee-comb…

Guy Windsor (founder of the Helsinki Historic Fencing School and one of the Grand Old Men of HEMA) did a quite interesting interview in PC Gamer about accurate swordfighting in games, and why it’s not going to happen. It may tickle your fancy.

Probably. However, it’s also highly probable none of them lived long enough to write a book.

That said, there are some preserved treatises (Leküchner’s Das Kunst Des Messerfechtens, I think it was), brings up specific techniques for showing off in competitions, but also specifically states that these are for…

Depends a lot on the situation. In competition, when you outclass your opponent, definitely. That’s even brought up in some treatises (Leküchner springs to mind).

However, with a sharp blade, your opponent doesn’t need to be good, only lucky, and a single cut could kill. Given the standards of hygiene and medicine at…

In that case, I recommend you brush up on Bonetti, Capoferro, Thibault and Agrippa.

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At the most basic level, you can train HEMA with an internet connection and a stick. Granted, there’s a lot you can’t do at that level, but you can download texts, watch videos on YouTube, and do solo drills and low-speed paired drills.

N…