Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everyone!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
It's been a productive year for the Art of Arms team. We’ve added the invaluable Eric Lowe to our roster, produced some cutting edge research, collaborated with some of the best minds in the business, and put out some wildly popular articles. That is of course thanks in large part to our awesome subscriber base, and especially our paid subscribers; who have helped us gain access the more and more restricted source documents. We can't thank you enough for supporting, and engaging with this incredibly nerdy endeavor of ours.
Top Articles of 2024:
In reflection, 2024 was a year of tremendous discovery. From Viggiani, to dall’Agocchie, Marozzo’s student Jakob Krafter, the arms of the fencing masters families, into the depths of incredible duels, and wild Bolognese feuds. Of course, the long awaited release of Sandro Francesco Altoni’s Monomachia! We’ve covered some tremendous ground, and we’re just hitting our stride.
2025 is already shaping up to be an incredible year, with the release of Death before Dishonor; which will see a new installment every Monday, an article that is probably going to be the most comprehensive biography of dall’Agocchie's patron Fabio Pepoli in any language, and some incredibly poignant articles on the history of Bologna and fencing tactics.
Perhaps the most exciting news will be a number of releases from the Art of Arms Press, with translations of dall’Agocchie, all three books of Viggiani, and Pagano on the horizon. Accompanying these releases, we’ll be holding form competitions with great prizes from across the HEMAverse, so prepare yourselves!
The Road Ahead:
Death Before Dishonor
Part I: The Flash of the Blade
Part II: Two Boys in Bologna
Part III: Devil at the Gates
Theory of Attack
Conte d’Castiglione: Fabio Pepoli
From Rags to Riches: Sante Bentivoglio
The Historiography of Bolognese Fencing
The Malvezzi Story
Italy's Greatest Badass: Ascanio della Corgna
Theory of Defense
Marozzo's Counter Guards
We can't wait to share more amazing stories with you. Historical European Martial arts comes to life through the exploits of the colorful characters who lived the experience. We hope that in some small way our contribution to the recreation of these arts by retelling these stories and bringing the sources of these narratives to light will enrich your experience, and bring insight into your journey.
As a special thank you for your ongoing support, we’re going to be selecting 5 random free subscribers and unlocking the vault for them by upgrading their membership to a free paid subscription for a year. For our paid subscribers, we’re selecting 3 members and sending them a shirt of their choice from our webstore. We will reach out through email to let you know you’ve been selected. Ho Ho Ho!
We’re not done! We’ve changed the name of the founding plan to Master of Arms, and we’ve set the yearly contribution at $50. For anyone who signs up for a Master of Arms subscription (from now until January 25th), or currently contributes at that level, we will be sending you a free Death before Dishonor t-shirt ($30 value). We will send out emails at the end of the promotion, and get everyone's shirt size and address.
With Love and Humility, we wish you all a Merry Christmas, a Happy Holidays, and a incredible New Year!
—Joshua, Eric, and Stephen,
