James Hester on Mondschein, Fencing: A Renaissance Treatise

We’re happy to report that Ken Mondschein’s translation and edition of Camillo Agrippa’s Fencing: A Renaissance Treatise has just received an outstanding review. James Hester of the Royal Armouries Museum writes, “Fencing historian Ken Mondschein has done the Western martial arts community a great service by translating into English the fencing treatise of the iconic ‘Renaissance man’ turned fencing master, Camillo Agrippa.... This text is a valuable resource for historians, art historians, science historians, and scholars of masculine identity in 16th-century Italy....
“Mondschein succeeds in producing a translation that is modern and accessible without sacrificing the literary flavour of the period in which it was written. It is also heartening to see this text contribute to the growing trend of treating fencing manuals not just as resources for today’s aspiring swordsmen, but also as a useful primary source for in-depth research within the wider academic community.”  
For the full review see De Re Militari.

What’s New at Italica Press

The big news at Italica Press is that we’ve changed our What’s New at Italica page to a blog format. This newer format will allow us to more easily and quickly inform you of forthcoming and new titles and of the status of our ongoing projects. In addition, you’ll also be able to comment, send us suggestions, and subscribe to notices via RSS feeds and other subscriber models.
We hope that you’ll enjoy the new format and will take advantage of its features to help us communicate with you better.
As always, our thanks and appreciation for your continued interest and support.

Eileen Gardiner Publisher	Ronald G. Musto Publisher

Gardiner’s Pilgrim’s Way Now Online

The first edition of Eileen Gardiner’s The Pilgrim’s Way to St. Patrick’s Purgatory is now available online. This traces the medieval pilgrim’s route that began in Dublin and ended at Lough Derg in County Donegal. Today the Pilgrim’s Way stretches across the boundaries of the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland and brings the modern traveller on a journey through the medieval past and the fragmentary riches that remain today. It provides a cultural itinerary that can be travelled by car or bike, on foot, and even partly by boat, through one of the loveliest landscapes of Ireland and Europe.
This online edition is enhanced with descriptive text; analysis of the textual, visual and archaeological evidence; photos, plans and elevations; an interactive map of the route; bibliography and discussion of the European pilgrimage phenomenon, including a “Taxonomy of Medieval Pilgrimage.”
A new print edition will soon be available in both hardcover and paperback. Please subscribe to our Status postings for updates. This site is one part of Eileen Gardiner’s ongoing Hell-on-Line project.

Medieval Renaissance Baroque Published

An important addition to our Studies in Art and History was published earlier this year. Medieval Renaissance Baroque: A Cat’s Cradle in Honor of Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, edited by David A. Levine and Jack Freiberg, celebrates this renowned scholar’s breakthrough achievements in both the print and digital realms of art and cultural history. Fifteen friends and colleagues present tributes and essays that reflect every facet of Lavin’s brilliant career.
The volume is available in hardcover and paperback, as a complete, downloadable e-book and as individual, downloadable essays.

Fierabras and Floripas now Available

We are pleased to announce the publication of Michael A.H. Newth’s first modern English translation of Fierabras and Floripas: A French Epic Allegory. This was the most successful French epic tale — or chanson de geste — among audiences in medieval England, not excluding the great Song of Roland, and it continued to resonate through the work of Rabelais, Cervantes, and into the 20th century. This translation continues Italica’s successful collaboration begun with Newth’s Aymeri of Narbonne: A French Epic Romance.
We will soon also be publishing the first English edition of the medieval French epic romance, Elye de Saint Gille. This dual-language text has been edited and translated by A. Richard Hartman and Sandra C. Malicote.

Agrippa’s Fencing: An Auspicious Start

We are happy to report the great success of the first English edition of Fencing: A Renaissance Treatise by Camillo Agrippa, translated and edited by Ken Mondschein. Agrippa’s work is one of the most important texts in the history of European martial arts — and a milestone of Renaissance intellectual history — and Mondschein’s translation and edition set an equally high standard.