Historical Pedagogy

The Meyer Square: Teaching Cuts Through Geometry

By HILT Official · Oct 15, 2025 · 10 min read

Joachim Meyer's cutting diagram is 450 years old and still one of the best tools for teaching edge alignment.

Geometry in Motion In 1570, Joachim Meyer published his Gründtliche Beschreibung der Kunst des Fechtens, a detailed fencing manual that included something no previous master had: detailed geometric diagrams showing the lines of attack. The most famous of these is the cutting diagram, often called "the Meyer Square." It's a simple geometric figure overlaid on the human body, showing the diagonal, horizontal, and vertical cutting lines. It looks like a teaching aid from a math class, and that's exactly the point. Meyer understood that fencing is spatial reasoning expressed through the body.…

Continue reading

Teaching History Through the Sword HEMA is as much a research discipline as an athletic one. How to make the historical sources central to your teaching.
Constraint-Led Training for HEMA Stop telling students what to do. Start designing drills that make the right technique the obvious choice.
Video Review as a Coaching Tool Your students don't know what they look like when they fence. Show them.

← All HILT Resources