The Martial Arts of Johann George Pascha

The weapons used in historical fencing treatises can roughly be divided into three classes based on weapon length, and thus distance at which the enemy is engaged. Most commonly described is the use of weapons with intermediate reach, such as various kinds of swords, but in addition there are works dealing with fighting with a shorter reach, such as with knives or daggers, or unarmed combat, and those that deal with a longer reach, with various pole-weapons. This book presents translations of Pascha's works on fencing (both thrust-fencing and cut-fencing), grappling, and the use of the hunting staff and the partisan. All these translations are based on the later, most complete versions of the texts, which also included clearer and more numerous figures. These works of Pascha taken together present one of the few 17th century sources describing all three ranges of fighting.