The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe

Sydney Anglo's long-awaited book, The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe, is unquestionably a labor of love, a well-put together work of remarkable erudition. The command that the author, a research professor at the University of Wales, shows of his source material is encyclopedic. While certainly owing debts to previous writers, Dr. Anglo also attempts something quite unique: To examine the actual teaching and practice of arms as an artifact of culture. While Dr. Anglo does not do a perfect job of this, his work does bring much exciting material to light. More importantly, it gives the study of historical swordsmanship some much-needed academic cachet, introducing the art historian to the literature of fencing, and the historian of ideas to the geometrical conceptions of fencing put forth by such diverse personages as Agrippa, Carranza, and Thibault.

Dr. Anglo also introduces us to some new names whose works have been previously neglected. The significance of the impact these masters may have had (in part, due to poor distribution) may have been minimal, but their works are nonetheless fascinating. The Spanish master Pietro Monte, acquaintance of Castiglione and da Vinci, is already known to Anglo's readers through his monograph "The Man Who Taught Leonardo Darts" (Antiquities Journal LXIX, 1989). However others, such as the Italian Frederico Ghisliero, published in Parma in 1587, are new. Excerpts, rather than paraphrases, from the works of these men would have been welcome, both for the sake of the nuances of language, and because some of Ghisliero's illustrations and Anglo's treatment of his text provide titillating suggestions as to the origins of the equestrian art of dressage, a connection that, we are sure, the author was not aware of.

Proceeding from a broad discussion of the place of masters of arms and the teaching of arms in Medieval and Renaissance society (a topic also touched on by Wise), Dr. Anglo proceeds to a chapter on the "notation and illustration of movement in combat manuals." His answer to the problems posed therein seems to be much influenced by the methodological approaches of dance history-that each position illustrated in a manual captures a moment in time.

Though Dr. Anglo's view of fencing manuals and their relation to dance manuals is indeed a welcome and astute insight, being as both genres deal with social "graces" of different sorts, it is surprising that a scholar of his erudition did not further discuss art-historical topics as they relate to the subject at hand. What of the Mannerist concept of elegance, the contrapposto that is present in both the Michelangelo's Sistine Sybils and the twining combatants of Fabris? What of the Renaissance idea of "real" space and "ideal" space that are exhibited both in Thibault's elaborate engravings and Bellini's Madonnas? What is the relationship between the Medieval "memory palace" and its allegorical mnemonics and the wolves, dragons, and elephants of de'Liberi and Vadi? Such mention might have further enriched this chapter. Happily, though, Dr. Anglo has left this subject virgin ground for future writers and scholars.


	The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe by Sydney Anglo ISBN: 0-300-08352-1 384 pp. / Yale University Press, 2000 / $45 Sydney Anglo's long-awaited book, The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe, is unquestionably a labor of love, a well-put together work of remarkable erudition. The command that the author, a research professor at the University of Wales, shows of his source material is encyclopedic. While certainly owing debts to previous writers, Dr. Anglo also attempts something quite unique: To examine the actual teaching and practice of arms as an artifact of culture. While Dr. Anglo does not do a perfect job of this, his work does bring much exciting material to light. More importantly, it gives the study of historical swordsmanship some much-needed academic cachet, introducing the art historian to the literature of fencing, and the historian of ideas to the geometrical conceptions of fencing put forth by such diverse personages as Agrippa, Carranza, and Thibault. Dr. Anglo also introduces us to some new names whose works have been previously neglected. The significance of the impact these masters may have had (in part, due to poor distribution) may have been minimal, but their works are nonetheless fascinating. The Spanish master Pietro Monte, acquaintance of Castiglione and da Vinci, is already known to Anglo's readers through his monograph "The Man Who Taught Leonardo Darts" (Antiquities Journal LXIX, 1989). However others, such as the Italian Frederico Ghisliero, published in Parma in 1587, are new. Excerpts, rather than paraphrases, from the works of these men would have been welcome, both for the sake of the nuances of language, and because some of Ghisliero's illustrations and Anglo's treatment of his text provide titillating suggestions as to the origins of the equestrian art of dressage, a connection that, we are sure, the author was not aware of. Proceeding from a broad discussion of the place of masters of arms and the teaching of arms in Medieval and Renaissance society (a topic also touched on by Wise), Dr. Anglo proceeds to a chapter on the "notation and illustration of movement in combat manuals." His answer to the problems posed therein seems to be much influenced by the methodological approaches of dance history-that each position illustrated in a manual captures a moment in time. Though Dr. Anglo's view of fencing manuals and their relation to dance manuals is indeed a welcome and astute insight, being as both genres deal with social "graces" of different sorts, it is surprising that a scholar of his erudition did not further discuss art-historical topics as they relate to the subject at hand. What of the Mannerist concept of elegance, the contrapposto that is present in both the Michelangelo's Sistine Sybils and the twining combatants of Fabris? What of the Renaissance idea of "real" space and "ideal" space that are exhibited both in Thibault's elaborate engravings and Bellini's Madonnas? What is the relationship between the Medieval "memory palace" and its allegorical mnemonics and the wolves, dragons, and elephants of de'Liberi and Vadi? Such mention might have further enriched this chapter. Happily, though, Dr. Anglo has left this subject virgin ground for future writers and scholars.