About the Author

Ken Mondschein, a lifelong student of history and the martial arts, received his Ph.D. in medieval history from Fordham University. He is certified as a Prévôt d'Escrime by the International Academy of Arms and holds a second-degree black belt in traditional Japanese karate. He is a historical fencing instructor and Research Fellow at the Higgins Armory Museum, a Visiting Fellow at University of Massachusetts- Amherst Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, and a fencing coach at Pioneer Valley Fencing Center. He was a Fulbright grantee to France in 2007-2008 and a visiting fellow at Harvard in 2009-2010. Ken is the translator of Camillo Agrippa's seminal 1553 rapier treatise (Italica Press, 2009), and The Knightly Art of Battle, a study of Fiore dei Liberi's medieval martial arts (Getty Publications, 2011), among other works. In all, Ken has almost two decades of martial arts experience, with fourteen years of experience in traditional Western swordsmanship and stick fighting. He is also an experienced equestrian.