Captain of the Guild: Master Peter Falkner's Art of Knightly Defense

[Sword Chick]

A fantastic new release from the gentlemen at Freelance Academy Press!  Yippee!

Captain of the Guild:  Master Peter Falkner's Art of Knightly Defense by Christian Henry Tobler

My book arrived Monday and even though I have only had the chance to give it a quick perusal and I'm just now starting to read it thoroughly, I thought I would give some quick first impressions. (I intend to do a full review when I have finished reading it.)

I have been looking forward to this for some time, so I had rather high expectations and so far they have all been met.

I am entranced by the complete design of the book. The size, shape and cover layout captures the feel of the cartoon like illustrations in the manuscript. It sort of resembles a heroic novel, an Ivanhoe kind of impression.

I am just now starting to make my way through the introduction and I think Mr. Tobler did a very good job presenting the background information that is needed to fully appreciate the manuscript. For example, he talks about how Peter Falkner's treatise relates to other treatises in the Liechtenauer tradition.

I like the photo reproduction of the manuscript itself a great deal. It even includes the cover and the blank pages. It makes it that much closer to getting a feel for the original. Obviously it is wonderful to have the transcription and Mr. Tobler's translation, however, in addition, it is also noted when something was in a different hand or in Latin. A few of the techniques have additional footnotes.

Another nice plus is the inclusion of a glossary for the German terms.

In short, this looks to be a beautiful book, beautifully done.

[Sir Edward]

I've only had a chance to glance through mine, but my initial impressions are the same. It's a great way to have a reproduction of a period manuscript's contents without breaking the bank. I look forward to looking at it in more detail.

[Joshua Santana]

I got a partial glance of the book that my teacher at SIGMA had and it is beautiful!

The best part of the book is the color pages of the fechtbuch in amazing detail just as if you are looking at the actual book!

I have read other reviews praising this book and I cannot wait to own it!