Edinburgh, Scotland: Maestro Paul Macdonald, Macdonald Academy of Arms

http://www.historicalfencing.org/Macdonaldacademy

Paul Macdonald was born in 1972, and raised in the West Highland village of Glenuig, Moidart, Scotland. He began his study of fencing in the 1992 at Napier University, in Edinburgh. With a keen interest in historical swordsmanship, he founded the Dawn Duellists Society in 1994. During this same period he became a fencing instructor at Napier University.

Since 1994, Maestro Macdonald has traveled all around Europe, performing demonstrations and doing historical research. During this time, Maestro Macdonald met Maestro Andrea Lupo Sinclair, an Italian master-at-arms whose lineage can be traced back definitively to the 1720s, and who is the founder and head of the Italian Ancient and Historical Fencing Federation (FISAS).

In 1995, Maestro Macdonald definitively ceased his pursuit of sport fencing, dedicating himself solely to the study and practice of traditional fencing. He has studied most styles of European fencing from the fourteenth through the nineteenth centuries, including having revived the arms techniques of several lost systems, such as the late medieval dueling shield, the spada in arme, and the sixteenth-century Dusack.

In 1999, after more than four years of intensive study, Maestro Macdonald received his Master-at-Arms certification from FISAS. Also in the same year, he helped to found the British Federation for Historical Swordplay (BFHS) becoming its president.

Maestro Macdonald is one of the founders of the International Masters at Arms Federation and a member of the Advisory Council for the Swordplay Symposium International. He is also a member of the Association for Historical Fencing and has given instruction at the Martínez Academy of Arms and the Italian Ancient and Historical Fencing Federation. He is also the proprietor of Macdonald Armouries.

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