Welcome to Swordschool!

For students of Medieval and Renaissance Italian martial arts.

Where historical accuracy meets practical training.

Books, facsimiles, audiobooks, online courses and t-shirts from world-renowned instructor and pioneering researcher of medieval and renaissance martial arts Dr Guy Windsor.

What's new in store:

  • Do you like the theory?

    Want to know how to research, how to train, or how to write about historical martial arts?

    Theory and Practice 
  • Do you want step-by-step instructions?

    Choose to learn rapier or longsword from a workbook with video links. Make notes as you learn with these specially designed books.

    Workbooks 
  • Interested in the original treatises?

    See facsimiles of original sources, translations and Guy's interpretations.

    Treatises, translations, and academic interpretations 
  • Medieval Longsword

    Are you madly medieval? Check out the medieval combat collection!

    Longsword 
  • Renaissance Rapier

    Do you rave about the rapier? Learn Renaissance Italian martial arts, including the rapier fencing of Ridolfo Capoferro.

    Rapier 
  • Video Courses

    Do you learn best from video? Check out Swordschool's extensive selection of online courses.

    Online courses 
  • Master the Art of Arms

    Access to everything!

    Find out more 
  • Introduction to Historical Martial Arts

    The perfect place to discover the historical martial art that's right for you.

    Coming soon 
  • Medieval Italian Martial Arts

    Everything Fiore and Vadi

    Find out more 
  • Medieval German Martial Arts

    Medieval German wrestling, longsword and sword and buckler

    Find out more 
  • Renaissance Italian Martial Arts

    Bolognese swordsmanship and the rapier.

    Find out more 
  • Solo Training

    Train body and mind in historical martial arts when all alone.

    Find out more 

Bundles and Box Sets

T-Shirts

From medieval sword and buckler to the elegant smallsword, and most weapons in between: showcasing famous women in the historical martial arts. Walpurgis? Lady Agnes? La Maupin? absolutely. And now including La Chevalière d'Eon.

And The Sword Guy podcast and Sword People community shirts too!

Latest News: 13th February '26

Hi!

I have been beavering away, with more or less success, on rebuilding my blog into a more useful resource. The only reason I haven’t pulled all my hair out is because I don’t have any left. But it will be worth it in the end (he tells himself) because it will make the 500+ posts into a manageable, easy-to-navigate, library. I’m creating a “Start Here” page with the highlights, and specific hub pages for the key topics (Fiore, Capoferro, etc.). I’ve also rationalised the 550+ tags down to about 80, and am sorting out the categories too.

The Wiki development is still on pause while the installation of the MediaWiki content management system is incrementally done. Turns out you can’t just skip 5 years of upgrades in one go. So that’s on the backburner for now.

When it comes to actually producing useful sword work, well, my Smallsword Obsession is still in full swing. I’m about 80% of the way through editing the audiobook of Angelo’s 1787 The School of the Sword, and producing a modernised, cleaned up, machine-readable (so easily searched), version of the text. This is not fun, but a necessary step in creating a useful resource for historical fencers.

Read more