The Pen and the Sword: Medieval Martial Arts in Cultural Context

A session to be presented at the 41st International Congress in Medieval Studies, May 4 - 7, 2006, Kalamazoo, Michigan

The textual tradition of fencing treatises forms the earliest and longest tradition of illustrated technical works in Western history. Surviving in the hundreds from all European countries from a time-span that extends from the fourteenth century until today, these works, little-studied until the past few years, have the potential to speak volumes about conceptions of masculinity, violence and conflict-resolution, the book as an article of consumption, and the written word as the mimesis of reality. Past Congress sessions on “The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe” (as Sydney Anglo has dubbed them) have proven popular; we hope to show the additional worth of these sources by inviting scholars of literature, art, intellectual history, gender, violence, and science, as well as historical fencing experts, to submit papers on medieval and early modern fencing treatises, as well as papers utilizing these sources as they pertain to their own fields of interest.

For more information visit the International Congress on Medieval Studies.

Call for Papers

The call for papers is now closed.