Fencing: a Renaissance Treatise

Camillo Agrippa's widely influential Treatise was a turning point in the history of fencing. The author - an engineer, not a professional master of arms - was able to radically re-imagine the art of fencing. His treatise is the fundamental text of Western swordsmanship and also a microcosm of 16th-century thought. It examines the art, reduces it to its very principles, and reconstructs it according to a way of thinking that incorporated new concepts of art, science and philosophy. Every other treatise had to deal explicitly or implicitly with Agrippa's startling transformation of the art and science of self-defense with the sword. All of the fundamental ideas used today - distance, time, line, blade opposition, counterattacks and countertime - are expressed in this paradigm-shifting treatise. This book should be on the shelf of anyone interested in the history, practice or teaching of fencing. 234 pages, 65 illustrations, introduction, bibliography, glossary, appendix, index.