The Art of Arms

Richard Cullinan

In this episode of l'Arte Dell Armi, Stephen and Joshua talk to Richard Cullinan of Stocatta School of Defense in Australia. 

St. Petronius Day Special

Hey! Happy St. Petronius day!
 
In honor of the patron saint of Bologna, we decided to do a special episode featuring the history of the city from antiquity to the death of Sante Bentivoglio (which takes right up to the timeline we cover in Maestro Wars), along with some intresting facts spanning into the modern era. Then, we wrap it up with an interesting discussion on the attributes of the city that made Bologna unique in the Medieval and Renaissance world, namely its gates, and it's canals. 

Maestro Wars, Episode 1: The Papal Menace

On New Years Eve 1516 Count Guido Rangoni fought Count Ugo Pepoli in a duel on a field prepared for them by the Marquis of Mantua, Francesco Gonzaga. The duel was fought with sword and bronze guantlet. 
These two men feature prominantly throughout the fencing treatises of the Bolognese tradition. Both Ugo Pepoli and Guido Rangoni are hailed by Angelo Viggiani as paragons of the the art in his treatise Lo Schermo, Achille Marozzo dedicated his work, Opera Nova, to Guido Rangoni in 1536, and Giovanni dall'Aggochie dedicated his corpus, Dell'Arte di Scrima Libri Tre, to a later relative of Ugo Peopli, Fabio Pepoli in 1572. 
Part one of this seven part series initiates the exploration of these two men's lives, and the rivalry that inspired them to stake their lives in the barriers. 
 
After Episode Discussion:
Mancino da Bologna
Debate on the legacy of Pope Julius II
Sword and Small Buckler: Anonimo and Manciolino
 

Dr. Dori Coblentz: A Critical Analysis of Fencing Treatises

Dr. Dori Coblentz brings her perspective as a scholar of the history of technical communication, and applies her knowledge to the fencing manuals we all know and love. 

Greg Mele: Pedagogy, Pasta, Interpretation, Translation, and Condottieri

In this episode of l'Arte Dell Armi, Stephen and Joshua press Greg Mele on what it takes to structure a school, what constitutes a good interpretation, validating interpretations, how to deal with the challenges of interpretation, the value of history in WMA/HEMA and how that affects interpretation...
*Take a breath*
...What constitutes a good translation, the perils of translation,  how we should approach exisiting translations, creating new translations, and then we end it with our favorite Condottieri. *Whew* Boy, if this isn't the most informative two hours of your life!
Stay suacy my friends!

David Biggs: Stringere of Space and Manciolino

David Biggs is back! Following-up on our previous discussion, David and Josh dive deep into tactics, and suss out the secret sauce of Antonio Manciolino's Opera Nova. 

Episode 0: Maestro Wars

In this episode of l'Arte Dell Armi, we begin our monthly installment of Maestro Wars, a histroical deep-dive on this history of the city of Bologna, featuring two larger than life figures, Guido Rangoni and Ugo Pepoli. This months installment features a narrative teaser, a look at Marozzo and Viggiani's text where they mention our noble characters, and a discussion about the founding of il Casino. 
Stay saucy my friends!

Arik Mendelevitz

In this episode I talk to Arik Mendelevitz, Arik (are-rick) has been doing martial arts since 2001 and historical fencing since 2008. Although his initial focus was in the rapier of Nicoletto Giganti, in the past few years he has moved more and more into the Bolognese school, focusing equally on sidesword and the sword in two hands. He has used his study of the Bolognese texts to help him win numerous SCA cut & thrust tournaments. During lockdown he spent an entire year teaching live, online, Bolognese longsword classes. He is currently slated as a guest instructor for the upcoming Bolognese-focused VISS and is excited to expand his horizons and cross-pollinate with folks from the HEMA world. In addition to his fencing, Arik is also a professional circus performer focusing on juggling and fire performing.
 
Check out his Blog: https://foolofswords.home.blog/

Ian Davis

This week's guest is Ian Davis, Ian studies Italian fencing from the 14th to 16th centuries, including Fiore, Pietro Monte, and later Bolognese and Paduan sidesword methods. He teaches dagger and wrestling at Boston Amrmazare, he transitioned to HEMA from Filipino Martial arts from Jeet Kune Do, and focuses on bringing Fiore into the modern combative/self-defense context. He's published translated the works of Philippo Vadi, and the Anonimo Riccardiano. 
 
https://www.lulu.com/shop/philippo-vadi-and-connor-kemp-cowell-and-ian-davis/wielding-the-light-of-mars/hardcover/product-mv6k87.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Connor Kemp-Cowell

This week's guest is the Vadi master himself, the Steve Zissou of Hipster Longsword, Mr. Connor Kemp-Cowell. Connor is by far one of my favorite fencers in HEMA, his dedication to, and utilization of canonical techniques doesn't only look amazing, it's helped him make it to the finals in scores of tournaments across the US. He's a dedicated scholar that doesn't take himself too seriously, keeping kindness, equity, and courtesey in the forefront of his affront on the HEMA Community, where he's helped bring Vadi from the fringes of the collective conscious into the imaginations of practitioners of every discipline. Connor is a truly special human being, a bonafide hero that's worked on the front lines of the pandemic in a busy emergency room in Philly, on top of being an incredibly accomplished fencer. He's started to dive into the Bolognese texts, so I thought it would be a good time to pull him away from saving lives and kicking ass to ask him how that was going.
 
https://www.lulu.com/shop/philippo-vadi-and-connor-kemp-cowell-and-ian-davis/wielding-the-light-of-mars/hardcover/product-mv6k87.html?page=1&pageSize=4