The School of Fencing with a General Explanation of the Principle Attitudes and Positions Pecular to the Art

by Domenico Angelo

Land's End Press [Published 1971]. Hard cover. Facsimiles of three works of fencing by the noted eighteenth century fencing masters Domenico and Henry Angelo, bound in one volume. Etchings and engravings by Thomas Rowlandson [From jacket flaps] Here, in one volume, are facsimiles of three rare and valuable works of fencing by the noted eighteenth century fencing masters Domenico and Henry Angelo. Domenico Angelo, the first instructor of modern fencing, founded the most famous school of fencing in Europe, a school which flourished for 150 years. It was established in the heart of London in the middle of the eighteenth century, when the pistol was replacing the sword in dueling. In Angelo's school modern scientific swordsmanship came into full flower; fencing became an art, a gentleman's game of skill. The School of Fencing was the first fencing manual to insist, emphatically, on the value of fencing as an exercise, as a sport of skill to be practiced for the improvement of health, poise, and grace. Today, despite the advance of modern knowledge, Domenico Angelo's teaching is still honored and practiced by the brethren of the foil, and The School of Fencing overshadows competing manuals on the art of fencing. Henry Angelo, who was the fencing and broad sword master to the Light Horse Volunteers of London and Westminster, was an authority on cavalry swordsmanship. The Rowlandson etchings in Henry Angelo's Hungarian and Highland Broad Sword and his The Angelo Cutlass Exercises depict the swordsman's art as a military skill.

148 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1971