Academie de l'Espée (Girard Thibault d'Anvers)

Academie de l'Espée
Academy of the Sword
Title page of the first edition
Author(s)	Girard Thibault d'Anvers
Place of origin	Leiden, Netherlands
Language	French
Genre(s)	Fencing manual
Publication date	1630, 1668
Pages	488 pages
Treatise scans	Digital scans (1630) Digital scans (1630) Digital scans (1630) Digital scans (1630) Digital scans (1630) B&W photocopy (1630) B&W photocopy (1630)

The title of this article contains the character é. Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Academie de l'Espee (Girard Thibault d'Anvers).

Academie de l'Espée ("Academy of the Sword") is a Dutch fencing manual written by Girard Thibault d'Anvers and initially printed in 1630. Arguably the most elaborate fencing manual ever written, it was the work of several years and its lavish illustrations were prepared by a team of sixteen master engravers. Thibault's work treats the use of the rapier after the Spanish style La Verdadera Destreza ("the True Skill") and is well-known for its use of intricate geometrical figures (especially the cercle mysterieux, or "mysterious circle").

Publication History

Academie de l'Espée was printed in Leiden in the Elzevier workshop. Its title page was initially dated 1626, but most copies were later changed to 1628 (by hand); printing seems to have continued through at least 1630, when a note announcing Thibault's death in 1629 began to be appended to the book. A second edition was printed in Brussels in 1668.

Gallery

Title Pages

1626 Title

1628 Title

Portrait (blank)

Portrait (text)

Dedication

Louis ​ⅩⅢ

Georg Wilhelm

Johann Sigismund

Christian der Ältere

Maurits van Oranje

Frederik Hendrik van Oranje

Ernst Casimir van Nassau-Dietz

Simon VII & Otto zur Lippe

Stephan Gans zu Putlitz

Book 1 Tables

Table 1

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Table 31

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Table 32

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Table 33

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Book 2 Tables

Table 1

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Table 2

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Table 3

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Table 4

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Table 5

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Table 6

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Table 7

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Table 13

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Additional Resources

The following is a list of publications containing scans, transcriptions, and translations relevant to this article, as well as published peer-reviewed research.

• Fontaine Verwey, Herman de la (1978). "Gerard Thibault and his Academie de l'Espée." Quaerendo 8(4): 283-319. doi:10.1163/157006978X00188.
• Majár, János; Zoltán Várhelyi (2014). "Thibault and Science I. Measure, Distances and Proportions in the Circle." Acta Periodica Duellatorum 2(1): 67-104. doi:10.1515/apd-2015-0014.
• Saviello, Julia (2018). "Girard Thibault: Bewegung in Harmonie mit dem Körper (1630)." Schönheit ― Der Körper als Kunstprodukt: Kommentierte Quellentexte von Cicero bis Goya: 287-300. Ed. by Romana Sammern; Julia Saviello. Heidelberg: Arthistoricum.net. doi:10.11588/arthistoricum.425.c5753.
• Thibault, Gérard (2006). Academy of the Sword. Trans. by John Michael Greer. Highland Village: Chivalry Bookshelf. ISBN 978-1-891448-40-9.
• Thibault, Gérard (2017). Academy of the Sword. Trans. by John Michael Greer. London: Aeon Books. ISBN 978-1-190465-884-9.
• Thomas, Rémy (2022). Pratiques et apprentissage de l'escrime dans l'Academie de l'espée de Girard Thibault d'Anvers (1630) [Unpublished thesis]. Liège: Université de Liège. http://hdl.handle.net/2268.2/15440

Copyright and License Summary

For further information, including transcription and translation notes, see the discussion page.

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Transcription		Index:Academie de l'Espée (Girard Thibault d'Anvers)