A Brief list of just some of Original SSI’s select Advisors
in Alphabetical Order

Scholars and Researchers

Dr. Sydney Anglo – Brighton, England (UK)
Dr. Anglo is the leading scholar of the surviving historical fighting manuscripts, particularly those of the late Medieval and Renaissance periods. Doctor Anglo is the translator of Le Jeu de la Hache ("Axe-Play", an anonymous 15^th Century treatise) and the Collecteana of Pietro Monte (1509). Doctor Anglo has written extensively on Medieval and Renaissance fighting texts and martial culture, and is the author of the forthcoming Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe.

Claude Blair – (UK)
Mr. Claude Blair is a distinguished author and researcher recognized as the leading expert on European armor. Author of numerous books and papers on armor and weapons, he has been studying, collecting and researching the subject for over four decades.

David Edge - Wallace Collection curator and sword researcher, (UK)
Mr. Edge is a respected curator of arms and a living-history re-enactor since the early 1980’s. He is the co-author of the popular Arms & Armor of the Medieval Knight.

S. Matthew Galas, Esq. – USA/Belgium
S. Matthew Galas, Esq. is an American attorney working at the NATO Headquarters in Mons, Belgium. An avid fencer since 1977, Mr. Galas is proficient in foil, epee, and sabre. In addition, he studied the Japanese sword arts of kendo and iaido for five years. Mr. Galas has been studying the fencing manuals of medieval Germany, sword in hand, since 1982. He is currently writing a book about Johannes Liechtenauer and the fighting arts of medieval Germany.

Ewart Oakeshott, UK
Mr. Oakeshott has spent more than six decades collecting, studying, and researching his favorite subject and life’s work: European swords. He is one of the very few who approached the subject as something more than just an archaeological or anthropological curiosity for art museums. Mr. Oakeshott’s reference works have been a great inspiration and major resource for students of Western swords.

Dr. Jeffery Singman, Worcester, MA (USA)
Dr. Singman is the curator of the Higgins Armor Museum, the translator of "Manuscript I.33" the oldest known fencing manuscript (c.1295), and an avid supporter of living history in America, particularly through his involvement with the Traynd Bands of London. Dr. Singman described his analysis of the I.33 text in the Royal Armories Yearbook 2, 1997, and a book containing the full translation and commentary will be published by the Royal Armouries in 2000.

Practitioners/Researchers

Jörg Bellinghausen - Bonn, Germany
Mr. Bellinghausen is a long-time researcher and hands-on student of German Medieval fighting systems. He has recently helped complete a translation into modern English of Master Sigmund Ringeck’s Fechtbuch (fencing manual) of c.1440, and is also a living historian, involved with the Company of Saynte George, and 1476 Staetdisches Aufgebot.

John Clements - Director of the Historical Armed Combat Association, Houston, TX (USA)
Mr. Clements is a martial-artist, Medieval swordsman, and Renaissance fencer who has been studying for twenty years. He teaches classes on Historical Fencing in Houston and lectures and writes on European swords. He has researched weapons in Europe and has authored numerous articles on swords and weapon sparring for several magazines including: Karate International, Tactical Knives, Renaissance Magazine, and Hammerterz Forum. John has presented sword seminars and workshops in Orlando, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Maryland, and Calgary, and has exhibited at Oxford University. He is the author of Medieval Swordsmanship: Illustrated Methods & Techniques and Renaissance Swordsmanship: The Illustrated Use of Rapiers and Cut-and-Thrust Swords. Through HACA, Mr. Clements is one of the leading promoters of European martial culture and the study of historical swordsmanship as true a martial art.

David Cvet – President & Founder, Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts, Toronto (Canada)
Mr. Cvet is the founder and President of the Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts (AEMMA), an organization dedicated to the resurrection and formalization of medieval martial arts training systems across all weapons disciplines. He has studeid Asian combat arts as well as participated in various medieval organizations including historical longsword training using steel weapons in Italy. This combination of background experience fired his desire to pursue a formal medieval martial arts training program. To satisfy this desire, he founded AEMMA in mid-1998.

Stephen Hand – Sydney (Australia)
A 20 year veteran of the Australian living history community, Mr. Hand has brought the serious re-enactors dedication for authenticity to the study of late Elizabethan swordplay. As a result of the growing interest in historical swordplay amongst people both within and without the re-enactment community, the Stoccata School of Defense was formed, and the first term of teaching began in August 1998.

Steve Hick – Falls Church, VA (USA)
Mr. Hick is a long-time hoplologist, practitioner of traditional European and Japanese weapon arts, and a researcher into Medieval combat manuals and hoplogical analysis. Japanese Swords. He has been a respected member of several living-history organizations and his numerous transcriptions and analyses of historical manuals are found through the Internet.

Christoph Kaindel – Veinna (Austria)
Mr. Kaindel is a re-enactor, researcher, plate armor fighter, and student of the Fechtbücher.

Paul Macdonald - Director of the Dawn Duelists Society, Edinburgh, Scotland (UK)
Mr. Macdonald is a professional swordmaker and proprietor of MacDonald Armouries. He is a founding member of the Dawn Duelists Society whose mission is to revive and teach forms of historical swordsmanship, from the late medieval period through the nineteenth century. He is also a founding member of  several historical swordplay federations in Europe.

Ramon Martinez – Martinez Academy of Arms, New York, NY (USA)
Maestro Martínez is a teacher of classical and historical fencing. He studied classical fencing with the late Maître d'Armes Frederick Rohdes, one of the last fencing masters to teach fencing as a martial art. In late 1982, shortly before his death, Maître Rohdes conferred the rank of Fencing Master on Mr. Martínez. Maestro Martínez has devoted over 26 years to the study and teaching of classical fencing. He has also done extensive research in historical swordplay. In addition to Maestro Martínez' background in the French and Italian schools, he has spent two decades reconstructing the Spanish school of rapier fence, La Verdadera Destreza. All of these ancient and historical forms are then taught as authentically as possible to those of his students who are interested. Maestro Martínez' goal is to teach, promote, and preserve this rare martial art.

Luca Porzio - Rome (Italy)
Mr. Porzio is a martial artist and collector of antique arms and armor, researching and studying historical European combat and weapons. His focus is training in longsword and polearms following the Italian traditions of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Patri Pugliesi (USA)
Dr. Pugliese is a long time fencer, student of historical swordplay, and researcher into surviving historical manuscripts. Through his efforts to provide copies of Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern manuals of swordplay, practitioners throughout the world have gained access to materials they might otherwise never have been able to study.

Giovanni Rapisardi – Padova (Italy)
Mr. Rapisardi practiced Olympic-style fencing for almost 20 years and has received training in several Asian martial arts. For the past five years, Rapisardi has conducted intensive study on the most important fencing treatises from the 1400's to the early 1900's, and has published modern facsimiles of Dei Liberi (1409) and Marozzo (1536). Rapisardi began La Compagnia della Spada to provide training in forms of historical swordmanship.

Hank Reinhardt – Conyers, GA (USA)
Mr. Reinhardt has practiced with Medieval and Renaissance arms and armor for well over 45 years and is recognized as the leading authority on historical European weapons in the United States. He is an expert on knife fighting and blade combat and is a collector of antique weapons. He is a consultant for Museum Replicas Limited and  He was director of the Museum Replicas Fight Demonstration Team and has traveled the World’s leading Arms museums consulting with curators, swordsmiths, armorers, and handling thousands of antique swords. Mr. Reinhardt has written assorted articles on swords and is the author of a major new work on swords and their use to be published in mid 2000.  Mr. Reinhardt is the founder of The Historical Armed Combat Association.

Lupo Sinclair - Director of Italian Federation for Ancient and Historical Fencing, Legnano, Milan (Italy)
Maestro Andrea Lupo Sinclair of Milan, Italy, is the founder and President of the Associazione Triskell, a group dedicated to reviving the true systems of ancient fencing, training and use. Maestro Sinclair is also the founder of the Italian Federation for Ancient and Historical Fencing (Federazione Italiana Scherma Antica e Storica). He is associated with the British Association for Historical Swordplay and is a founding member of the International Masters of Arms Federation. Mr. Sinclair is a leading voice in Italian historical fencing.

William Wilson –Flagstaff, AZ (USA)
A fencer, living historian, and researcher, Mr. Wilson runs a school of fence in Northern Arizona and teaches foil, epee and saber as well as rapier play.  He is the originator of the first on-line discussion forum for historical rapier play. Mr. Wilson runs the Tattershall School of Defense, in Tucson.

Master Craftsmen

Peter Fuller - Calgary, Alberta (Canada)
Mr. Fuller is the owner and master armorer of Medieval Reproductions, and produces carefully researched, historically accurate reproductions of medieval arms, armor, and artwork. In his seventeen years of experience he has produced arms and armor for private parties and public clients that include the Glenbow Museum (Calgary), the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), and the Higgins Armory Museum (Worcester, Mass.). Mr. Fuller is also a student of Medieval swordplay and is a co-founder of the Medieval Arms Society of Calgary (MASC).

Simon Fernham – Thaxted, Essex (UK)
Mr. Fernham is a highy regarded producer of authentic reproduction swords as well as a researcher and reenactor.  He runs Raven Armouries and has supplied replica weapons to museums throughout England.

Craig Johnson – Arms and Armor, Minneapolis, MN (USA)
Mr. Johnson is an ardent sword smith, armorer, reenactor and researcher, and is dedicated to debunking the myths about the quality and cpaability of Medieval and Renaissance swords. As the business manager of Arms and Armor, Mr. Johnson has helped pave the way for the production of accurate replica weapons that are true counterparts to their historical predecessors.

Brian Price – California (USA)
Mr. Price is highly regarded armorer and craftsman. He is a re-enactor, researcher, plate-armor fighter and an expert on medieval tournaments and chivalry. He is the author of the Book of the Tournament and editor and contributor to a forthcoming major book on Medieval armor.

Rob Valentine - Calgary, Alberta (Canada)
Mr. Valentine runs the highly respected Valentine Armories. He is a re-enactor, researcher, and master armorer. With over twenty years of experience, he has researched historically accurate replicas of arms, armour, weapons, swordfighting techniques, artwork and other renaissance methods and times.
With one of the largest armouries in the world, he has private clientele from all over the world as well as the entertainment and movie industries.   He had  produced a video on authentic armoring and is preparing a book on the subject.Mr. Valentine is also the president, founder and sponsor of The Musketeer Battle Club.

*SSI is also privileged to announce support of its efforts from John Waller and Keith Ducklin of the Royal Armouries fight Interpreters and the new EHCG (European Historical Combat Guild). While their contractual obligation currently prevents them from officially endorsing SSI, they have acknowledged their sincere support for its goals and objectives. They have our gratitude. Mr. Waller is the distinguished Head of Fight Interpretation at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, England. He has over three decades of experience in historical swordsmanship, fencing, plate-armored fighting, historical archery, horsemanship, jousting, and fight arranging. Senior Fight Interpreter Keith Ducklin is also co-author of the new book "Sword Fighting" (Robert Hale, UK, Nov 2000).

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