The Art of Fencing, or, The Use of the Small Sword (Illustrated Edition) (Dodo Press) (Paperback)

~ Monsieur L'Abbat (Author), Andrew Mahon (Translator)

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Product Description

Monsieur L'Abbat was a French author and a Fencing Master at the Academy of Toulouse in France in the late seventeenth century. He was the author of the first comprehensive study of the art of fencing entitled Questions Sur L'Art En Fait D'Armes, which was first translated into English by Andrew Mahon in 1734 and called, The Art of Fencing, or, The Use of the Small Sword.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Dodo Press (May 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1406525529
• ISBN-13: 978-1406525526
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #153,268 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Historically important, generally sound, November 18, 2008

By	E. M. Van Court "Van, emvc (at) lycos.com" (Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This is one on the earlier texts on the use of the small sword, with techniques that are generally recognizable as foil or epee techniques. Yes, there are references to parrying with the empty hand, but the guard, parries, footwork, and attacks are clearly dominant antecedents of the point arms of modern sport fencing.

The illustrations are generally clear and helpful, the text was translated from French in the early Eighteenth Century, but is very readable despite this. Not as comprehensive as Domenico Angelo's The School of Fencing: With a General Explanation of the Principal Attitudes and Positions Peculiar to the Art (published about thirty years after L'Abbat, in 1763), this book still lays down a basic and sound framework for the management of the small sword. The discipline of fencing had a ways to go at that point. With scholarship like this as a foundation, it is easy to see how it matured fairly rapidly in that period.

By itself it is a mildly interesting but basic text on smallsword fencing, but in the context of the development of fencing, this is a priceless addition to a student's understanding of the sequence of developments and innovations in fencing.

Don't get it as a first book on fencing, don't get it as a "how to" but it is an essential piece of the development of the art of fencing.

E. M. Van Court