Bibliography

Don Danulf has a useful list of Recommended Reading from the Library of Congress on-line card catalog.

See Primary Sources for links to historic fencing manuals.

The following are brief reviews of books on the history of fencing and its social context.

The History of Fencing and Fencing Schools

Berry, Herbert. The noble science : a study and transcription of Sloane Ms. 2530, papers of the Masters of Defence of London, Temp. Henry VIII to 1590 / Newark, Del. : University of Delaware Press,1991.

See Don Dylan's paper on this subject.

Castle, Egerton, Schools and masters of fence: from the middle ages to the eighteenth century; London, 1892. (Available in photocopy form from Patri J. Pugliese).

Turner, Craig. Methods and practice of Elizabethan swordplay. Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, 1990.

Dueling

Baldick, Robert, The Duel -- A history of dueling. London: Spring Books, 1970 (out of print).

This is a decent overview of the history of dueling, from its origins in the medieval judicial duel to the more-or-less present day. About a third of the book is devoted to duelling with the sword in our time period. It recounts various of the famous duels and duellists, and the social context of the duelling culture.

Billacois, François, The Duel -- Its Rise and Fall in Early Modern France. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.

This is in the modern French historiographic mode of this "history of mentalities." As such, it is packed with wonderful insights into the culture of dueling, what it meant to the participants, and the society that produced it.

Moustier, Martin, Duels -- Les combats singuliers des origines à nos jours. Paris: Editions Sand, 1991.

If you can read French, this is a much more extensive and detailed history than Baldick, with more depth and social context.

Society and Culture

Bitton, Davis. The French Nobility in Crisis: 1560-1640. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1969. This book and Wiley, below, are almost bookends of each other. Wiley covers the halcyon days of the first half of the century, and this one the second half, when the fabric of life in France was ripped to shreds.

Castiglione, Baldesar, trans. Charles S. Singleton, The Book of the Courtier, NY: Doubleday, 1959. There are many modern editions of this book, as there were many editions in many languages throughout the sixteenth century. It had a profound effect on the self-image of the upper classes and the aspiring middle classes.

Kamen, Henry. The Iron Century: Social Change in Europe 1550-1660. NY: Praeger Publishers, 1971.

Neuschel, Kristen B. Word of Honor: Interpreting Noble Culture in 16th century France, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989.

Wiley, William Leon. The Gentleman of Renaissance France. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1954. This covers the life of the gentleman during the "beau seizieme siecle" -- under François I and Henri II, and forms an interesting complement to Bitton, above.

For a more extensive bibliography on the 16th century, see the Poulet Gauche Bibliography.

Warfare

Fencing and the rapier isn't particularly a combat art, but for anyone interested in martial matters, the following are some excellent books on the subject.

Delbruck, Hans. The Dawn of Modern Warfare (History of the Art of War, Vol 4). Univ of Nebraska Press, 1990.

Hale, J. R. War and Society in Renaissance Europe, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ Press, 1985.

This is one of the best books on warfare as a part of society, and the lives and conditions of men at arms and the world in which they lived.

Oman, Sir Charles. The Art of Warfare in the Sixteenth Century. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1937.

A greatly sought-after classic for anyone interested in military history. It analyzes in detail ever major military engagement in Europe in the century, which was one of tremendous upheaval in the technology and conduct of war.