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Wrestling; Germany, 1898
Alpine wrestling in Germany… Schwingen today is considered the national pastime of Switzerland. This postcard shows that it was not unknown in southern Germany at the end of the 19th century.
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Schwingen; Switzerland, c. 1910
Male amusement in a barren landscape… Boys and young men have congregated on a windswept mountaintop in Switzerland. The reverse of this early 20th-century postcard identifies an Edition Wagner as...
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Cumberland wrestling; England, 1906
Wearing your underwear on the outside… so this is where Superman got his look… Grasmere is located in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. This postcard was mailed from its...
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New Feature: Books of the Sword
we're introducing a new feature: Books of the Sword. This is a current listing of antiquarian books for sale by collectors to collectors. It is open to all. Listing your titles and descriptions is...
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Books of the Sword: Talhoffer’s Königsegger Codex
For some reason, we missed the publication of this great resource two years ago. Which doesn't diminish the quality and relevance of this first-ever publication of Talhoffer's Königsegger Codex at...
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Free Resources: The Wrestling Arts of Medieval Germany
Today, we bring to you a title we'd have given our eye teeth for, had it been available as an antiquarian book just five years ago: Dr. Karl Wassmannsdorff's Die Ringkunst des deutschen Mittelalters......
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Preview: The Codex Amberger and its predecessors
Sheet 8r of the Codex Amberger, which may prove to be a key element in properly placing the fragment in its proper lineage of both Egenolff and Paulus Hector Mair. Continue reading →
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Gratuitous Violence: The Tough Guy’s Guide to getting things DONE!
World War II put a temporary dent into the popularity of Asian martial arts in America that “jiu jitsu” had briefly enjoyed in the 1920′s and 1930′s. It wasn’t until the aptly titled “chop sockey”...
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The Kriegsbuch of Ludwig von Eyb
We may not be up-to-date any more on what old fencing and wrestling manuals are available and accessible by now. But we just found a careful transcription of von Eyb’s fencing and wrestling sections...
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Trick Shot: A two-handed thrust backwards into the thigh from the 1630’s
Some modern martialists spend so much time arguing what the martially-minded duelist of yesteryear would have never done, it would seem that European Martial Arts, especially of the 17th and 18th...
View ArticleHot off the presses: Codex Amberger
Hidden among the stacks of a New York City book dealer, its existence unknown to even the most erudite scholars, the Codex Amberger was lost to history until its chance discovery in 2005. Originally...
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