Some early testimonies of historical martial arts consist of series of images only. The earliest example is a fresco in tomb 15 at Beni Hasan, showing illustrations of wrestling techniques dating to the 20th century BCE. Similar depictions of wrestling techniques are found on Attic vases dating to Classical Greece.
The only known instance of a book from classical antiquity is Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 466 from the 2nd century CE, detailing Greek wrestling techniques.
There are some examples in the Chinese classics that may predate the turn of the Common Era: the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian (c. 100 BCE) documents wrestling, referring to earlier how-to manuals of the Western Han (2nd century BCE), which have however not survived. An extant Chinese text on wrestling is "Six Chapters of Hand Fighting" included in the 1st-century CE Book of Han.1
All other extant manuals date to the Middle Ages or later.
The "combat stele" at the Shaolin Monastery dates to 728 CE.
The earliest text detailing Indian martial arts is the Agni Purana (c. 8th century), which contains several chapters giving descriptions and instructions on fighting techniques.23 It described how to improve a warrior's individual prowess and kill enemies using various methods in warfare whether they went to war in chariots, horses, elephants or on foot. Foot methods were subdivided into armed combat and unarmed combat.4 The former included the bow and arrow, the sword, spear, noose, armour, iron dart, club, battle axe, chakram and trident.5 The latter included wrestling, knee strikes, punching and kicking methods.6
The oldest extant European martial arts manual is Royal Armouries Ms. I.33 (c. 1300).
"Illustrations only" manuals do not become extinct with the appearance of prose instructions, but rather exist alongside these, e.g. in the form of the Late Medieval German illuminated manuscripts.
Further information: German school of fencing
Fechtbuch (plural Fechtbücher) is Early New High German for 'combat manual',7 one of the manuscripts or printed books of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance containing descriptions of a martial art. The term is usually taken to include 15th- and 16th-century German manuals, but the nature of the subject matter does not allow a clear separation of these from treatises from other parts of Europe on one hand (particularly from the Italian and French schools), and from manuals of later centuries on the other hand.
Notable Fechtbücher include:
The Italian school is attested in an early manual of 1410, at which time it is not yet clearly separable from the German school. Indeed, the author Fiore dei Liberi states that he has learned much of his art from one "Master Johannes of Swabia". The heyday of the Italian school comes in the 16th century, with the Dardi school.
Similar to the situation in Italy, there is one early manual (c. 1400, dealing with the pollaxe exclusively), and later treatises appear only after a gap of more than a century.
Apart from three rather opaque texts of the later 15th century,13 the native English tradition of fencing manuals begins with George Silver's Paradoxes of Defense (1599).
Main article: Historical fencing in Scotland
Scottish manuals detailing the use of the basket-hilted Scottish broadsword, besides other disciplines such as the smallsword and spadroon, were published throughout the 18th century, with early and late examples dating to the late 17th and early 19th centuries, respectively:
There are some manuals containing training advice for the medieval tournament and jousting, such as the early Portuguese work A ensinança de bem cavalgar em toda a sela by Edward of Portugal (1391–1438), a riding instruction manual that also included martial information.
In 1599, the swordmaster Domingo Luis Godinho wrote the Arte de Esgrima, the only fencing manual that preserved the older "Common" or "Vulgar" system of Spanish fencing, which has its traditions in the Middle Ages.
17th-century Spanish destreza is steeped in the Spanish Baroque noblemen mindset, so it does not contain graphical explanations of the fencing techniques so much as explanations based on mathematics and philosophical sciences in general. The subsequent difficulty in interpreting the theory and practice of destreza correctly has frequently led to this school of fencing being misunderstood.[editorializing]
Further information: History of martial arts § Asia
Some texts on unarmed combat survive from Han China (c. 1st century). A list of wrestling techniques is contained in the Malla Purana of 13th-century Gujarat, India. The Chinese Jixiao Xinshu dates to the 1560s. The Korean Muyejebo dates to 1598, the Muyedobotongji dates to 1790. The Japanese The Book of Five Rings dates to 1645.
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Zarrilli, Phillip B. (1992). "To Heal and/or To Harm: The Vital Spots (Marmmam/Varmam) in Two South Indian Martial Traditions Part I: Focus on Kerala's Kalarippayattu". Journal of Asian Martial Arts. 1 (1). https://spa.exeter.ac.uk/drama/staff/kalari/healharm.html ↩
P. C. Chakravarti (1972). The art of warfare in ancient India. Delhi. ↩
Svinth, Joseph R. (2002). "Kronos: A Chronological History of the Martial Arts and Combative Sports". Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2024-02-10. https://ejmas.com/kronos/ ↩
Zarrilli, Phillip B. (1994). "Actualizing Power and Crafting a Self in Kalarippayattu". University of Exeter. Retrieved 2015-11-06. https://spa.exeter.ac.uk/drama/staff/kalari/power.html ↩
fechten is cognate to English fight and still meant "fight, combat" in general in Early Modern times; in contemporary Standard German, fechten translates to "fencing", while the noun Gefecht retains the generic meaning of "fight, battle". https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fechten ↩
"Transkription der Fechthandschrift cgm582, Johann Lecküchner, Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek". Pragmatische-schriftlichkeit.de. Retrieved 2015-11-06. http://www.pragmatische-schriftlichkeit.de/cgm582.html ↩
"The Fight-Lore of Mertin Siber, 1491 AD". Thearma.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06. http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Mertin_Siber/MS-Web.htm ↩
"Goliath". Thearma.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06. http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Goliath/Goliath.htm ↩
"Codex Guelf". Thearma.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06. http://www.thearma.org/essays/guelf.htm ↩
"Di Accia Armato di Tutt'Arme" (in Italian). Archived from the original on June 21, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20060621230211/http://www.achillemarozzo.it/it/trattati/anonimo_bolognese.htm ↩
"Discover your martial heritage with the English Martial Arts Academy". Mymartialheritage.org. Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2015-11-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20110727104736/http://www.mymartialheritage.org/manuals.html ↩
"Harleian". Thearma.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06. http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Harleian.htm ↩
"Additional Manuscript 39564 - 15th century English sword text". Thearma.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06. http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/MS39564/MS39564.htm ↩
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"Vade Mecum: Hope: Library: The Linacre School of Defence". Sirwilliamhope.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06. http://sirwilliamhope.org/Library/Hope/VadeMecum/ ↩
Rector, Mark; Wagner, Paul, eds. (2001-11-15). Highland Swordsmanship: Techniques of the Scottish Sword Masters. The Chivalry Bookshelf. ISBN 9781891448157. 9781891448157 ↩
Jonathan Miller, The Linacre School of Defence. "Hope: Library: The Linacre School of Defence". sirwilliamhope.org. http://www.sirwilliamhope.org/Library/Hope/NewMethod/ ↩
"Observations: Hope: Library: The Linacre School of Defence". Sirwilliamhope.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06. http://www.sirwilliamhope.org/Library/Hope/Observations/Observations.php ↩
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Wagner, Paul; Rector, Mark, eds. (2003). Highland Broadsword:Five Manuals of Scottish Regimental Swordsmanship. The Chivalry Bookshelf. ISBN 9781891448218. 9781891448218 ↩
Anti-Pugilism, or The Science of Defense Exemplified In Short and Easy Lessons for the Practice of the Broad Sword and Single Stick Illustrated with Copper Plates, By a Highland Officer, London, Printed for J Aitkin, NO 14, Castle-street, corner of Bear Street, Leicester Fields 1790, www.hroarr.com/manuals/boxing-pugilism/Anti-pugilism.doc ↩
"Cudgel Playing: Sinclair: Library: The Linacre School of Defence". Sirwilliamhope.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06. http://www.sirwilliamhope.org/Library/Sinclair/Sinclair.php ↩
"Thomas Rowlandson / The Guards of the Highland Broadsword / 1799". Davidrumsey.com. Retrieved 2015-11-06. http://www.davidrumsey.com/amica/amico820629-47674.html ↩
Peter Valentine. "Digital Historical Documents" (PDF). Thearma.org. Retrieved 2011-11-06. http://www.thearma.org/pdf/HungarianHighlandBroadsword.pdf ↩
John Taylor (1938-06-22). "Art of Defence on Foot, with the Broad Sword and Sabre: Adapted Also for the ..." Retrieved 2015-11-06. https://books.google.com/books?id=Y7kUAAAAYAAJ&q=John+Taylor+broadsword ↩