Exercises with weapons by Adam van Breen (c. 1585 - c. 1645) (81 works)

2 January 2013

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Category: Art and hand-drawn graphics, 0+

In 1618, a treatise on drill with illustrations by Adam van Breen was written in the Netherlands, which was republished later in 1625 under the title “Mars His Field” or “Weapon Exercise, where the rules of use and perfect methods of possession are reliably shown buckler, sword and pike..." Writing about the art of war in Spain in the late Middle Ages, Wilbur Prescott suggested that the reasons for such professional use of the sword and buckler by the Spanish infantry in the early 16th century was, oddly enough, their considerable experience in waging siege warfare in the late 15th century, in which everything depended heavily on close combat and shield skills. Machiavelli even suggested that it would be nice for armies to actually arm their soldiers with swords and bucklers. Their advantage in fighting with pikes lies in the undeniable ability of such agile fighters to squeeze through the long weapons of tightly packed enemy ranks.