[Christian Henry Tobler]

Hello all,

I wouldn't start axe work with 'La Jeu', but with Kal, Talhoffer, and Falkner for the German school, and Fiore, Vadi, and the Anonymous Bolognese treatise for those working with the Italian tradition.

La Jeu has some ambiguities in the technical terminology that we don't fully understand yet - for one, some question whether the 'queue' is really the extreme tail end of the weapon, or the haft in general. La Jeu is a great text, and has some really interesting and unique things, such as dealing with left-handers, but it's better approached from a more seasoned vantage point. I'd learn some poleaxe basics before playing with it.

Kal & Talhoffer on the other hand show opposing guards, basic parries, and sundry follow-on actions with both the blade/hammer and the points. Falkner, who I hope to bring to print sooner than later, shows some neat plays, including one that drives up the butt from lower right to parry a high attack. Finally, there's a little-known anonymous German text on the axe that appears in the addenda of the Vienna copy of Kal - this will appear in my next book, along with photographic interpretations. The Selohaar Fechtschule's poleaxe curriculum draws from all of the above sources.

As I said above, the Italian sources include Fiore, Vadi, and the 'Anonymous Bolognese' treatise. Fiore gets a bad rap regarding the poleaxe, with some citing that includes only a handful of plays and therefore "Fiore doesn't like the axe." That's misleading, as he has already laid out the principles you need for most weapons by this point in his highly self-referential treatise - all he's doing, or needs to do, in the axe section is give you those things that are specific concerns for that weapon...the rest you already should know. Vadi, I believe, largely follows those plays shown by Fiore - but we have the blessing of a high-quality facsimile and translation already available in English.

The Anonymous Bolognese text is apparently a fantastic source for the axe and the Chicago Swordplay Guild's Greg Mele draws much of his axe instruction from it. If you're interested in that, I'd suggest dropping him a line.

As for Waldman...he's probably drawing from Anglo's opinion, which is nothing short of bizarre to me. Anglo says that that the poleaxe seems relatively harmless to armoured opponents. It's really the complete opposite, and so much so that making a 'safe' poleaxe simulator for bouting is all but impossible; anything shaped like a poleaxe generally performs like one: dangerously! Control, and respect for the weapon, are a must, even in substantial harness. That's likely why it was the province of real hard-case tourniers like Jacques de Lailang. And Dr. Anglo must clearly be ignoring the gazillion manuscript illustrations showing these weapons wielded in battle, some of which have been posted here.

It's too bad, because most of Waldman's book is outstanding. I wish there was more, and more accurate, stuff on the poleaxe. I would however call his study of the halberd 'definitive'.

All the best,

Christian

[Sean Flynt]

Anglo! I knew I'd seen this idea somewhere before but couldn't recall where. I'll put in yet another plug for Waldman, though. Get his book while you can, folks! You might think it's expensive now, but just wait a few years.

[Shawn Henthorn]

[Greg Mele]

I think the main thing to remember with the axe is that you'll need to survey a few sources to really round out your curriculum, as only Le Jeu treats the poleaxe a principle weapon.

Christian already hit all of the basic axe sources. Pietro Monte also includes a bit here and there on the axe, but it isn't really a system he is presenting.

The Anonymous Bolognese author's axe treatise is really an ideal starting point for the Italian tradition, as it reduces the system to two guards - each with a right or left lead variant - and basically divides it's corpus into several short sequences on how to strike first with the head, and then how to counter that, how to right with the axe head forward and use the hooks of the weapon, and finally, how to use feints and the like. You learn a couple of cool, fundamental throws and disarms, and a unique counter to the collar throw. All in all a very concise system, and easy to then pick up dei Liberi's instructions.

Speaking of Fiore, here is a fun fact. The "Lord Galeot" mentioned presiding over the duel between Richard Beauchamp and Pandolfo Malatesta is Galeazzo da Mantova - one of dei Liberi's students, and himself known for his spear duel with Marshal Bouccicault. Small world, eh?

[Felix R.]

Thank you so far.
Is there alink or other source for the Bolognese manuscript?

[Greg Mele]

[David E. Farrell]

[Fabrice Cognot]

[David E. Farrell]

[Christian Henry Tobler]

Hi Fab!

[Sean Hayes]

[Sean Hayes]

[Fabrice Cognot]

[Fabrice Cognot]

[Christian Henry Tobler]

Thanks Fab - perhaps we'll get to talk more about this after Dijon. Have fun at the event!

All the best,

Christian

[Sean Hayes]