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Miscellaneous The School of Fencing  by Domenico Angelo $29.95 / Greenhill Books/ 2005 Though the 18th century is outside of the Renaissance, it did produce a high point in the history of swordsmanship—the development and flowering of the art of the small-sword, whose precepts remain to this day the foundation of the French school of fencing. First popularized in the late-17th century by the “Sun King” Louis XIV, knowing how to manage this light but deadly weapon was a prerequisite for the 18th-century gentleman. And for fencing master Domenico Angelo, teaching this art provided an entrée into 18th-century British high society. The publication of Angelo’s great work, The School of Fencing, was financed by some of the most famous and high-born men in Britain. Among his students were Edward, Duke of York and his brother George, Prince of Wales and the future George III. Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, also appears as Angelo’s opponent in some of the plates. Editor Jared Kirby has created a handsome reproduction of The School of Fencing here, complete with its original engravings. The text is notated with technical glosses by fencing master Jeannette Acosta-Martinez, a modern authority on the small-sword. And this book’s introduction to the history and terminology of the small-sword—and by discussing the link between 17th-century rapier fencing to its more modern iterations—makes this an essential tome for for anyone interested in the history of fencing or to re-enactors and roleplayers who use foils and épées, swords that are derived from the the 18th-century small-sword. — Ken Mondschein

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