The Renaissance Sword Club

« En addition de la formation aux arts de l’épée de la Renaissance [The Renaissance Sword Club] propose des traductions de traités originaux. »

Avec la participation de De Taille et D’Estoc (Thibault Guesquière) pour l’ouvrage présent.

• The Sword of Combat
  or The Use of Fighting with Weapons
  Auteur : François Dancie, 1623
  Traduit vers l’Anglais par Rob Runacres et Thibault Guesquière

In the 17th century Italy was the place to learn the art of the sword. Travellers visited training salles and across Europe Italian works on fencing were translated and Italian schools sprang up. France was no exception. Francois Dancie’s 1623 treatise L’Espee de Combat (The Sword of Combat) is therefore an anomaly.
Dancie’s views are blunt and acidic. He says that many who teach fencing are a ‘bunch of libertines’. He has no truck with the geometry that had crept into fencing since Agrippa’s work of 1553 and had contempt for that author’s use of illustration.
Dancie’s style follows an Italian form, but rather than following other authors by providing an explanation of tempo and measure, Dancie prefers to concentrate on what temperament is required in a confrontation. His is a direct, fighter’s treatise, dedicated to a military man of similar temperament, his methods and descriptions speak more of the street than the salle.