On the advice of Mr Hand, I ordered his book on medieval swordsmanship, a tomb on the I.33 fettbuch from the publisher's website. While I was on the Chivalry Bookshelf site, I found they were offering "cosmetically challenged" copies of Spada II for a significant discount. I ordered from the publisher bacause more profit goes to the folks who did the work, and it's cheaper for me as well.

After an overly long wait (four weeks!) I was a bit miffed at the whole topic. Once I began to peruse the books, however, all misgivings have been laid aside. They look to be fabulous, well worth the wait. :D

First of all, the "damaged" Spada copy was in very good condition, just a bit of lamination on one corner was peeling. This was a bargain for such a small flaw. Of course the ailman always shows up right before I go to work, so I only had a chance to scan both books, I can't wait to get home and dive in!

Both are full of great photos and illustrations which, although in black and white, are clear and very helpful. I hope the next iterations will be in color, budget constraints allowing. On thing that struck me during my brief perusal was the huge amount of attention paid to bibliography and the depth of references. I am new to WMA in general, and these references should prove invaluable to future research. Now I'm totally stoked, I even brought Spada II to work with me to read on my lunch. The section on the medical effects of various weapons is calling to me even now.

Aw, man, I didn't realize they had that sale! My copy's been on pre-order for some time, so I'm hoping this means the regular copies will be out soon! The people who put it together are really top notch researchers and teachers, some of the best in the community.

Hi Bill,

Spada II was sitting at Customs for an unconscionable amount of time, and only arrived at Brian's a couple of days ago. Last time I heard from Brian he was furiously sending out all the orders, presumably including yours. So expect your copy real soon now. Sorry for the delays, but they were outside our control.

I'm pretty happy with Spada II. It's a nice mix of papers on practical and academic matters and on a range of periods and weapons. There should be something for everyone.

Cheers
Stephen

I just read the historical realities of historical wounds, chapter 1 in Spada II. Fabulous stuff, well worth the wait.

Stephen, is Spada ( I ) the same format, a collection of articles? If it's of the same calibur, methinks my wallet's going to get lighter and my bookshelf heavier in short order.

On the shipping issue, I was under the impression that Chivalry Bookshelf was a fairly small company, are they simply getting a bigger response than anticipated (which is good news all around) because I live in the states, so Customs shouldn't be an issue. They are based in TX, right?

Kudos again on the books!

Dear Gavin,

Spada I is the same format. There are papers on sword and shield, rapier, polearms, parrying, grappling, counterattacks etc.

The Customs issue was with books printed outside the US coming into the country.

CB is indeed a small company which isn't exactly financially secure, which is why we ask that people buy direct. Direct sales give a lot more back to the publisher and the author, i.e. the people keeping these books coming, so we very much appreciate your custom.

The wounds paper is rather good isn't it? That's why I gave it top billing.

Cheers
Stephen

Everybody can be jealous as I got my copies of Spada I and Spada II quite a while ago: I think I got lucky getting one of a few early test sample or proof copies before the main printing run. Ordered very early when these were still shown on the coming soon pages of the Chivalry Bookshelf site. I guess this small run was exhausted very early.

In any case not favouritism, just really good luck. I think that those waiting for their copy of either or both will be very pleased.

I'm still at the bottom of the learning curve when it comes to sword and shield, sword and buckler or longsword training books and understanding of how all of these actually were performed, but these books and training DVDs I purchased from Chivalry bookshelf are helping a lot.

HMMMMMMM: Stephen a sword and buckler DVD or sword and shield? Any projects in the works ? I can guaranty that I would buy one you made. :D

Dear Jean,

At present I'm focussing on getting English Swordsmanship: The True Fight of George Silver to press. A DVD is certainly among the things that I'm looking at doing, but it's a medium that I have little experience with. I know how to write books. Writing DVD scripts is harder.

As they say in the classics, it won't happen overnight, but it will happen.

Cheers
Steve

Stephen:

Aaron got it just right IMHO, the book(s) are the script or the basis for the script then one has to sort of think in terms of a story board to figure out in advance what shots will show the action in the clearest way possible: And those are just showing in motion what is shown in picture sequences in the books.

Not that there wouldn't be a lot of prep work to do an efficient shoot.

Think in terms of wide shot showing both swordsmen, close-ups of important details, shots of demonstrating the action alone slowly breaking it up as needed to explain what is important: The trick is then to take this footage and intercut it in editing in the best way to make things clear.

Budget !??? With modern computer editing programs a decent digital camera one can put this together without going broke if one know how to cut corners without it showing up as a low quality production. ( In the past you would have needed to rent expensive off-line and on-line editing time in a professional studio. $$$$$$$$ )

What you need, minimum: One good camera operator who can double as the lighting guy, a director familiar with the material at least minimally with you as the main actor and content expert who will keep track of making sure that all the shots are usable with maybe just a script assistant for continuity and to log the shots so that nothing goes missing at editing time. The Director can also be the software specialist and Video editor and responsible for taking the raw content and making a shooting script. If you have someone capable of doing graphics also it can be a plus. ( A small A/V company one man operation might be able to be your main resource that would get the extra personnel at the time of shoot. )

In theory all the above functions could be done by just one person but one man band type video shoots can be very difficult to say the least !

Everything could be shot in one long session or broken up into shooting each technique as time and funds permit.
One good thing of modern digital edition is that inserting new content does not have to be done linearly, so one can make it a work in progress and add or delete, insert material easily at any time until the project is judged finished.

Oh, I worked 25 years in corporate video doing everything from set design construction to graphics to editing, camera and lighting etc..... No writing but I did at time do the planning of shots and occasionally direct a live 4 camera shoot.

So, I might not be competent to take over a project like this but I have worked in a varied way in this medium to at least give some general advice about how to approach doing a DVD. If I can give you ( Stephen ) any help or advice I will be glad to do so and will tell you up front if I don't know something.

Oh, I might be able to pick the brain of a close friend who produced and directed feature films. ( He had his own film production company before he sold it a few years ago. )

Thanks for the advice gents. Very useful.

Cheers
Stephen

I definately need to order both Spada 1 and Spada 2, in fact these are my next priority! I have both of Mr. Tobler's works and they are invaluable to me.

Thanks,

Bob