The Academy of the Sword

In the early years of the seventeenth century, Gerard Thibault--poet, physician, architect, painter, occultist, and master swordsman--astonished the courts of Europe with a new system of swordsmanship based on the principles of sacred geometry and Renaissance occult philosophy. [Thibault] set out to put everything he knew about the way of the sword into a single comprehensive textbook of rapier fencing that could be used by students who had no access to a teacher of his system. Originally published in 1630, The Academy of the Sword is that textbook--the most elaborate manual of swordsmanship ever published in any language, packed with hundreds of clearly described and illustrated techniques.--