Manuals & Literature

The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts (ARMA), is an international educational non-profit organization dedicated to the study and practice of Historical European martial arts of the 15th to 17th centuries. more...

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The ARMA focuses on increasing proficiency with Medieval and Renaissance weaponry, offering authoritative information via a catalog of historical manuals and articles, improving the relationship between practitioners and academics, and ultimately deepening the understanding of Medieval and Renaissance martial arts. It also focuses on promotion of information about the European martial heritage and fighting arts, arms and armor.

As of 2006, the ARMA had nearly 500 paying members. The ARMA is also advised by several academic consultants.

Name

The word arma in Latin as well as Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese means "weapon". The ARMA asserts that for 13th century French knights, arma also referred to 'the valor of a fighter'. The "Renaissance" in the name is described as "doubly appropriate", referring both to the European Renaissance as the period of most of the surviving historical fencing manuals, and to a current "rebirth" of of historical European martial arts.

History

The Historical Armed Combat Association

The ARMA began in 1992 as the Historical Armed Combat Association (HACA), a group lead principally by Hank Reinhardt, an avid sword enthusiast. Reinhardt's idea was to provide an umbrella organization for individuals interested in Western swords and historical weaponry. In 1993, John Clements took over the HACA 1993 saw the beginning of reforms within the organization and the foundation of its first Study Group. HACA began focusing more intently on the study and interpretation of the historical source literature of Renaissance Martial Arts, much of which was presented on the website along with example training methods.

Transition to ARMA

In 2001, the decision was made for the HACA to expand and evolve into what was believed would be a more effective educational organization for the study and practice of Medieval and Renaissance fencing. An efficient study curriculum for practice had also been developed at this time using the source literature.

Read more at Wikipedia.org