The school of fencing : with a general explanation of the principal attitudes and positions peculiar to the art

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The text also attributed to the Chevalier d'Eon. Cf. DNB, XIX, p. 1110.
Edited by Henry Angelo.
Originally published London, 1763, under title: L'école des armes : avec l'explication générale des principales attitudes et positions concernant l'escrime. The original illustrations, from drawings by James Gwin, are slightly altered and reduced in size in the present edition.
Angelo is the principal figure depicted in all of the drawings. Also depicted are the Earl of Pembroke, the Chevalier d'Eon, and John Hamilton Mortimer. Cf. Wingfield, M.A. A dictionary of sporting artists, 1650-1990.
James Gwin's original drawings for this work are in the collections of the Yale Center for British Art (Department of Prints and Drawings: B1984.7).
Plates are etchings, unsigned, dated August 1783.
English short title catalogue, T143107
British Museum. General catalogue of printed books, V, col. 473.
Bibliothèque nationale (France). Catalogue général des livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque nationale: auteurs, III, column 280.
National union catalog, pre-1956 imprints, NA0324060.
Gelli, J. Bibliografia generale della scherma, p. 481
Thimm, C.A. Complete bibliography of fencing and duelling, p. 10
Includes index.
BAC: British Art Center copy 1 has hand-colored etchings. Bound in contemporary calf; rebacked. Includes profuse manuscript annotations throughout, in pen and black ink, by an anonymous fencing enthusiast. The annotator cites his sources in the margin of p. viii: "Les articles ecrits en français sont tirés principalement du Dictionnaire de l'Encyclopédie methodique publié en 1786, & du traité de Monsr. Girard [i.e. P.-J.-F. Girard. Traité des armes, 1740]. The dialogue, fo. 76/79, is extracted from Howard's Cyclopedia, but originally from Olivier's treatise [i.e. J. Olivier. Fencing familiarized, 1771]. Most of the notes in English are from J. McArthur's treatise on the theory & practice of fencing [1780], some marked +++ are from Olivier's." Added to the annotations are occasional diagrams showing an epee in various angles of attack. The annotations fill many of the margins of the letterpress pages along with a number of the blank versos of the engraved plates. The annotator has also added a three-leaf "Index connecting the written notes with the printed original", bound in before the printed index. These added leaves are watermarked "J. Larkin 1796", giving an approximate date for the annotations.
BAC: British Art Center copy 2 bound in contemporary brown calf, tooled in gilt on spine. Inscribed Edward John Everard, vicarage, Brighton; Jos. Salle (?).
Autograph of F.H. Lambert, New College, Oxford, 1808. 22629514780008651