The Dragon Preservation Society

Information on traditional Western Martial Arts

News and Events

• One of our members appears in the pictures to this article of "Dijon notre ville".
• Pictures of a 2006 outdoors practice session.
• Dragon Preservation Society in the news.
• longsword for kids
• Various images of recent events and training snapshots.
• Some images from the 2002 knife fighting birthday party.
• Some images from our presence at the 2001 midsummer festival.

Primary sources and translations

• A full English translation of the Vollstandiges Ring-Buch of Johann Georg Passchen (1659), with illustrations.
• Nicolaes Petter's Klare Onderrichtinge der Voortreffelijcke Worstel-Konst (1674), translated to English, with all 71 plates.
• Some dietary rules. Not combat but interesting anyway.
• Digital fascimile of Hendrick van Buren's Drilkonst, 2nd edition (1672) (pdf, 4Mb)
• Illustrated translation of chapter 3: handling of the pike, from the above.
• The Art of Fencing (1730). 23 plates. (pdf, 3Mb)

Articles on the reconstruction of traditional European combat techniques

• A classification of Hans Talhoffer's dagger techniques with interpretations, from a presentation at the 2007 HEMAC gathering in Dijon.
• Destroying the myth of "20 to 30 pound broadswords"
• A presentation at the 2005 HEMAC gathering in Dijon, with my interpretation on ALL dagger techniques from Talhoffer's Fechtbuch from 1467
• A presentation at the 2004 HEMAC gathering in Dijon, on a simplified method for instructing dagger techniques. (500kb pdf)
• A reconstruction of the controversial technique on Talhoffer's Tafel 172
• Medieval dagger techniques from Achille Marozzo, 1536
• Unarmed defence against a dagger from Fiore dei Liberi, 1410
• Our classic first attempts at recreating Talhoffer's dagger techniques.
• Making a buckler from an IKEA salad bowl.
• Some thoughts on sharing of research.
• Recommended Literature and book reviews
• Links

You may also be interested in my other sites, which include a photo gallery with lots of arms and armour pictures, and the Kampai Budokai, dedicated to Japanese martial arts.