This version has searchable OCR text. The Academy of the Sword 
centers on an assemblage of rare illustrated books devoted to the 
subject of fencing and dueling, drawn (with one exception) from the 
library of the Arms and Armor Department of The Metropolitan Museum of 
Art. The title is taken from Girard Thibault's Académie de l'Éspée
 (Leiden, 1628), the most lavish fencing book ever produced, which was 
kindly lent by the Museum's Thomas J. Watson Library. Accompanying the 
books and giving vivid impact to their illustrations are a selection of 
swords, rapiers, parrying daggers, bucklers, and other accoutrements, 
which follow the chronology of, and changes in, fighting styles depicted
 in the books. These weapons were frequently treated not only as 
sidearms, but also as fashionable costume accessories. The decoration of
 hilts, scabbards, and belts often exemplifies the prevailing artistic 
styles of a given period, from Renaissance and Mannerism through Baroque
 and Rococo to Neoclassical. Hilts were designed by well-known engravers
 such as Hans Sebald Beham and Virgil Solis, leading goldsmiths 
including Wenzel Jamnitzer and Luigi Valadier, and major artists from 
Hans Holbein and Giulio Romano to Jacques Louis David.

The Academy of the Sword: Illustrated Fencing Books 1500-1800 PDF

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