Bibliographical Note
This Dover edition, published in 2003, is an unabridged reprint of Schools and Masters of Fence: From the Middle ages to the Eighteenth Century , originally published by George Bell and Sons, London, 1885. For this edition, the bibliography has been moved from the front of the volume and now follows the main text.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Castle, Egerton, 1858-1920.
[Schools and masters of fence]
Schools and masters of fencing : from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century / Egerton Castle.
p. cm.
Originally published: Schools and masters of fence / Egerton Castle. London: G. Bell, 1885.
Includes bibliographical references.
9780486138756
1. Fencing. 2. Swords. I. Title.
U860.C35 2003
796.86dc21
2002041609
Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation
42826503
www.doverpublications.com
INSCRIBED TO BARON DE COSSON AND CAPTAIN A. HUTTON,
IN RECOLLECTION OF MANY PLEASANT HOURS SPENT,
WITH THE FORMER AMONG OLD BOOKS AND
OLD ARMS, WITH THE LATTER
IN THE FENCING ROOM,
FOIL IN HAND.
PREFACE.
A WORK of this kind must necessarily contain a great deal of mere compilation, but considering that so little has been written on the subject, and that the early books of Fence are so difficult to find and really such tiresome reading to anyone who seeks intelligible information, in their pages, I venture to hope thathowever sketchy and superficialthis book may prove of some interest to lovers of ancient arms as well as to the votaries of the fencing school.
Some time ago, my friend Captain Alfred Huttona well-known swordsman, who now, however, seems inclined to neglect the sabre and the foil for the brush and maulstickleft under my care a magnificent collection of books treating of the sword and its use, ranging in date from the early sixteenth century to the present day.
Out of these I took sundry notes, at first with a view to future magazine articles, the idea of which was suggested by a clever but unfortunately incomplete notice on early fencing-masters by the late Mr. Lathamwhose name is so familiar to all connoisseurs of a good bladewhich I discovered in a back number of Time. Very shortly, however, my plan embraced a wider scope. In a lecture remarkable for its terseness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness, on the Forms and History of the Sword, delivered at the Royal Institution last year, Mr. Frederick Pollock observed that an account of the development of the fencing art would require, not a discourse, but a book, and that such a book had not yet been written.
Within modest limits I fancied I would make a work of this description out of my notes, when the announcement of the approaching publication of Captain Burtons treatise under the felicitous title of The Book of the Sword made me for a time completely abandon the idea. I well knew that Captain Burton never undertakes a subject without exhausting it, and felt sure that the Book of the Sword would comprise in itself all that could be said on the topic. When the first part of this immense work appeared, I was struck however by a passage in the preface which announced the authors intention to neglect all questions of carte and tiercenotwithstanding his authority as a professed matre darmesand to deal with the history of the sword itself rather than with that of the many theories concerning its use. Perceiving from this that there was still room for a small work on subjects interesting to all frequenters of schools of arms, I forthwith began to arrange my notes into a coherent shape, in which I now present them to the public.
There is little doubt that the French system of fencing can be traced, at its origin, to the ancient Italian swordsmanship ; the modern Italian school of course being derived in an uninterrupted manner from the same source. Either one or the other is followed by all nations in Europe, at least for small-sword or puncturing play; the French, however, having undoubtedly more followers, although it may well be considered an undecided question, from a practical point of view, i.e. sword, not foil in hand, which of the two systems is the more perfect.
Sabre, spadroon, or rapier-play-all cut-and-thrust play, in factderives its leading principles from the more elaborate small-sword fencing, so that a consideration of the development of the latter will be sufficient in the main for the purpose of this sketch.
As Spain produced a school which only flourished in the Peninsula, being even there all but forgotten now, and as Germany and England adopted first the Italian and then the French system, the plan followed in analyzing the most celebrated authors and elucidating their leading principles has been to pay especial attention to the earlier Italian and the later French masters. On the way many points of interest in the history of well-known schools, and the manners and habits of devotees of the Noble Science of Defence in bygone days, have also been noticed.
The investigation has only been carried to the last years of the eighteenth century, when most of the old traditions of the fencing art were for ever abandoned ; for at that time the fashion of wearing the sword as part of a gentlemans dress was universally discarded, and swordsmanship became consequently no longer an indispensable accomplishment. At the same period, also, the old Compagnie des Maitres en fait dArmes in Paris was dissolved by the Revolution, whilst in Germany at nearly all the universitiesthe great fencing centres of that countrythe deadly Rapier was relinquished in favour of the comparatively harmless Schlaeger.
It is true that some improvementin the theory at leasthas been introduced into the art of fencing during this century, but the minute points it deals with cannot be interesting to the general reader, besides which, much has been already written on the subject. On the other hand, the literature of the early history of fencing and fencing schools seems to be very small.
The only authorities that I have been able to find, besides some articles in cyclopdiasall very incomplete and more or less copies of each otherare thirty-eight pages in Posseliers Thorie de lEscrime, by Josef Ott, containing a fair amount of useful matter concerning fencing schools; and, lastly, a few notes in Strutts Sports and Pastimes on the justs and tournaments and on the Corporation of Maisters of Defence.
I owe to the kindness and courtesy of Baron de Cosson, well known as a high authority on the subject of ancient arms and armour, and also to that of Mr. Wareing Faulder, one of the most experienced connoisseurs of such object, the unhoped-for advantage of having been allowed to arrange for my purpose, in a chronological series, the pick of their magnificent collections of swords, and to have it photographed for publication.
