HEMA MISFITS (I don't do longsword)

by Maxime Chouinard To most people, punching seems like one of the most natural ways of fighting when unarmed.

By Maxime Chouinard For years, the identity of the author of the 1790 broadsword manual “Anti-pugilism”, retitled “Cudgel-playing” in 1800, had puzzled researchers.

by Maxime Chouinard There are very few fencing manuals that have a Canadian link.

Pierre Vigny became known through his involvement in Bartitsu, a short lived attempt at bringing together various martial arts in Edwardian London, and which gained later fame by being practiced by none other than Sherlock Holmes.

By Maxime Chouinard 1830s London was a dangerous place, full of ruffians, bludgers, street gangs and… apparently fencers!

A few months ago, a discussion on Marey-Monge’s Memoir on swords got me into researching the man and his realizations a bit more actively.

I recently posted a translation of this text from Daniel Martin’s Acheminement de la langue allemande, published in 1635, on my Facebook page which gathered a lot of interest, and so I thought I would republish it here along with some more details on the…

By Maxime Chouinard Note: This article was first published in the Fondation Napoleon’s newsletter of March 2021.

Yesterday was the 205th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.

By Maxime Chouinard In the few years I spent as a medical museum curator, I was brought to read and examine many different period sources on the subject of health care.