Manuals on the Partizan, Poleaxe, and Halberd? -- myArmoury.com

Eric G.

I have found a group in my area that studies the Italian rapier and longsword. I have been studying with them for the last month or three and I have to say that I have loved it so much thus far. The guys that I'm studying with are pros with these two different kinds of fencing. However, I don't think that they have much study with the partizan, poleaxe, or halberd. I would like to find some manuals (preferably by someone Italian, since that's the theme of their studies) and study up.

Can anyone recommend and manuals on fighting with polearms? Something free and online would be favorite.

Thank you.

Craig Peters · Posted: Thu 13 Oct, 2011 5:51 am Post subject:

Paulus Hector Mair is a good source. You can find facsimiles of his work online, although they are untranslated: http://dfg-viewer.de/show/?set%5Bmets%5D=http...0_mets.xml. See, in particular, the section Hellebardenfechten.

If you want access to an English version of the text, the best thing to do is order the Paladin Press book on the Polearms of Paulus Hector Mair: http://www.paladin-press.com/product/Polearms...and_Combat

For the poleaxe, the 15th century French manual Le Jeu de la Hache is an excellent option. You can find a translation of it on the ARMA page: http://www.thearma.org/spotlight/NotesLEJEUDELAHACHE.htm

Lafayette C Curtis · Posted: Thu 13 Oct, 2011 6:54 am Post subject:

Which Italian rapier style? If it's Bolognese, and especially Marozzo, there's a decent section on spears and partisans (and maybe even halberds) in his Opera Nova. Not as extensive as the sword-oriented stuff and tucked somewhere near the end of the manual, but still it's there and potentially valuable.

Christian G. Cameron · Posted: Thu 13 Oct, 2011 7:25 am Post subject:

Fiore di Liberi's books have poleaxe, longsword, sword in one hand, dagger, wrestling....

and all in Italian. There's English translations newly available from the Getty and other sources as well. There's several current sword schools dedicated to his style. He has useful things to say about poleaxe and the spear stuff--I'm just getting into it, but it seems as neat as all the rest of his work.

about 1400

Alex Spreier · Posted: Thu 13 Oct, 2011 10:17 am Post subject:

I will second the recommendation for Fiore and Vadi - just remember that you can't just pull the pole-arms out of context, the whole system in interconnected.

Le Jeu de la Hache is, in my opinion, the best primer on the poleaxe. Many English translations can be found online.

The Anonimo Bolognese also has a "Poleaxe for Dummies" type of section in it. I believe that there are English translations out there, but you can also order the entire book in Italian.

For partisan, halberd, etc. I would advise looking to the "Bolognese" school - Marrozo and Manciolino immediately come to mind ( check out Freelance Academy Press for Tom Leoni's translation of Manciolino).

Keep in mind what you hope to accomplish with polearms study. I love the poleaxe, but it is really requires an almost full harness for the techniques to make sense. Halberd, partisan, ronca, etc. work better with less armor.

In the end, polearms are polearms and will behave very similar. This is why many of the authors would present one polearm (say the ronca) and say that it's rules cover the partisan, spiedo, halberd etc.

Greg Mele · Industry Professional

Eric G. · Posted: Thu 13 Oct, 2011 1:17 pm Post subject:

Craig Peters · Posted: Thu 13 Oct, 2011 9:06 pm Post subject:

The partizan is really just a glorified spear, so any spear techniques should work for it just fine. I don't believe there's any meaningful difference in the usage of the partizan versus the spear.

One thing that needs to be kept in mind is that modern people usually assume that each and every named weapon is differen and unique, and requires specialized training to fight with. While this certainly is true to some extent, judging from the fact that there are a wide variety of weapons covered in the manuals, it's not completely accurate. There is a large degree of crossover between weapons.

At the risk of oversimplification, someone who is skilled with wrestling, dagger, longsword, sword and buckler, spear and perhaps poleaxe could fight reasonably well with nearly any late medieval weapon handed to him, excluding of course bows and guns, since we're not concerned with them here. The masters themselves acknowledge that there's a lot of crossover between the long sword and other weapons, and the same goes for the spear and all other polearms. It's not as though you must be trained in each and every weapon to be able to handle them reasonably competently.

Jean Thibodeau · Posted: Thu 13 Oct, 2011 9:35 pm Post subject:

William P · Posted: Fri 14 Oct, 2011 2:48 am Post subject:

Craig Peters · Posted: Fri 14 Oct, 2011 10:33 am Post subject:

Fiore does have a very short section on being simply armed with a single handed sword and nothing in your off-hand. You can see it here: http://www.aemma.org/onlineResources/liberi/w...tion3.html. The basic principle seems to be lying in a low guard, from which you can displace an attack by winding into a form of Posta di Finestra, displacing the incoming cut. Essentially, it's the same as absetzen with the long sword in the Liechtenauer tradition. From the bind, you can either stab your opponent directly, grab his sword arm and attack, or engage in abrazare, which is wrestling.

Benjamin Floyd II · Posted: Fri 14 Oct, 2011 12:43 pm Post subject:

How has no one mentioned Meyer? He has a pretty good polearm section.

Alex Spreier · Posted: Fri 14 Oct, 2011 10:04 pm Post subject:

Jon Wolfe · Posted: Sat 15 Oct, 2011 11:22 am Post subject:

I have to echo what Benjamin said, Meyer has some of the most through instruction on polearms available. He covers the staff/half-pike/spear, the halberd, and the pike, in a manner that easily learned by those with no previous training in any polearm material, or much martial training at all for that matter. There maybe one or two guards that are a little difficult to grasp when first starting out, but nothing that is impossible to decipher. The only problem though, is that the Forgeng translation of Meyer's work is out of print, and apparently quite difficult to get a hold of at the moment, but if you could get a hold of a copy or a proprietary translation of the original work, I think you'd find yourself rewarded with a wealth of material that would last you for quite some time.

Alex Spreier · Posted: Sat 15 Oct, 2011 5:32 pm Post subject:

Greg Mele · Industry Professional

Jon Wolfe · Posted: Sun 16 Oct, 2011 10:35 am Post subject:

Alex Spreier · Posted: Sun 16 Oct, 2011 11:19 am Post subject:

Nicholas A. Gaese · Posted: Sun 16 Oct, 2011 11:36 am Post subject:

Jon Wolfe wrote:

Greg Mele · Industry Professional

There is a certain commonality to all polearm play, but I would not say that Meyer's polearm material is reminiscent of the Bolognese. The use of one-handed staff strikes the way that the forks are used with the halberd, and the long staff material is distinctly 16th c German (compare to the compendia my Paulus Hector Mair), and interestingly, if anything, has more in common with the bill and long-staff/pike material in Silver than that across the Alps.

Having said that, it's great stuff! Wink

(BTW, Meyer has been called a "condiscepolo) of Viggiani, not Marozzo. Certainly he shows and illustrates Viggiani's universal parry and over-hand lunge, and his teaching sequences throughout the manuscript, and the way he describes blow paths as guard transitions are reminiscent of the Bolognese. But the link is by people comparing the technical material, not because of any proven connection to a particular Italian master. (Meyer just says that he learned the rappir in foreign lands.) )