June 14, 2003

En Garde!

There follow some images from Francesco Alfieri's 1653 treatise L'Arte Di Ben Manegiarre La Spada (‘The Art of Good Swordsmanship’, I suppose), selected randomly from a set of over forty such, presented by the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts (ARMA for short) on their ‘Online Historical Fencing Manuals & Texts’ page.

First of six engravings from Alfieri's 'L'Arte...'

Second of six engravings from Alfieri's 'L'Arte...'

I had been looking for some engravings from Girard Thibault d’Anvers’ very splendid book Academie de’ l’Espèe (1628): apparently the most lavishly-illustrated of all Renaissance fencing texts, but couldn’t dredge up the images I wanted (although I did eventually find them here).

Third of six engravings from Alfieri's 'L'Arte...'

Fourth of six engravings from Alfieri's 'L'Arte...'

In the course of my search, I found such distractions as: an historical gallery of women in fencing; lists of the top 10 swashbucking films; and discussion of the mysteries of the Spanish style of rapier fencing: la verdadera destreza.

Fifth of six engravings from Alfieri's 'L'Arte...'

Last of six engravings from Alfieri's 'L'Arte...'

As usual, clicking on the images will open larger pop-up versions of the same.

Posted by misteraitch at June 14, 2003 08:03 AM | TrackBack