Cecil Longino. Photo courtesy of Academia della Spada.
The International Swordfighting and Martial Arts Convention
Biography Page for

Cecil Longino
Academia della Spada



From an early age Cecil has held an interest in martial arts, beginning with his study of Tae Kwon Do from Master Tiger Cho. After exploring various Eastern arts he became captivated with the notion of historical fencing while living in Germany.

In 1994, from the University of North Florida, he received his Bachelor of Arts in Drama with a focus on Elizabethan stagecraft. Founder of the Elizabethan reenactment troupe, Blood, Love & Rhetoric, Cecil has spent many years researching various aspects of Elizabethan society and Culture: literature, philosophy, dance and fence.

He started the Academia della Spada in 1998 to focus on the rapier play of Vincentio Saviolo. Currently he is a board member of the Association for Historical Fencing and is studying Spanish rapier under the tutelage of Maestro Ramón Martínez and Maestro Jeannette Acosta-Martínez.

In his teaching he strives to connect the art of fencing back to the greater mindset from which it was developed, because it is crucial to keep in mind that every martial art is a child of the specific culture that gave it birth, and therefore should adhere to a particular ideal esthetic in its form, movement, and manner inherited from its parent culture.